JVG's finally learned that, when given more than 10 minutes, Hayes is a liability for us. Sure he'll get you six, seven rebounds in 30 minutes. But he'll miss 3 or 4 wide-open layups, get burned defensively because lack of size five or six times, and commit 4 stupid fouls. This is why I surely hope we go after a PF at the trade deadline. We don't need guards. Alston, Head and Snyder are all adequate, and Lucas is fine in moderated minutes, but we have NO depth on the interior, and trust that that will kill us come playoff time. I'm not satisfied with a C/PF rotation of Yao/Howard/Deke and Hayes. Two are offensive liabilities, and two are defensive liabilities. This is why we're forced to expect so much offense from the perimeter, because our bigs (with the exception of Howard) can't do squat offensively. If we add a legit PF-- a 6'10" guy who can score inside and rebound competitively on a consistent basis--we will be much closer to a contender than if we just added another PG.
the rockets are idiots for not shopping for a decent power forward in the offseason. the nuggets have one power forward too many. the rockets could have at least signed reggie evans for rebounding purposes. you see dallas, peonix, and the nuggets sh!tted on us because we have no power forward who rebounds and plays defense. every starting power forward (hell even some off the bench) in the nba > juwon howard.
Hayes still has some learning to do. He is undersized and he gets whistled hard on D, and gets no favors from the refs when going up for a putback or a layup. But one of his jobs earlier was to cover Yao's back and keep the big guy from getting cheap fouls - that I believe is one of his assigned jobs. And is anyone whining anymore about Yao being in foul trouble all the time? He has had a few streaks where he missed easy layups - but it does seem to be a Rockets viral infection. Rafer has it worse. Lately he seems to be making more and making the difficult ones. So lets look at some stats from 82games.com: FG% 55% good number eFG% 55% still a good number (rafer is .449, JHo is .468) His team on court eFG% for and against is a positive 5.4%, when he is off court it is a +2.4%. (When Juwan is on court this is only a +1.8%). He would appear to improve this for the team by 3%!!! His rebound rating is high. He has a +2 effect on the court vs off on turnovers. He is not getting any calls his way from refs on either O or D - at least on his offense I consider this to be a rooks lack of respect by the zebras. The defenders play him very hard on layups and putbacks and the zebras always swallow their whistles. He needs to improve his jumper which he sinks at only a 31% rate. This is why Juwan is playing - to provide O while Yao is down. Plus Hayes may be still working on his knee, and as mentioned last year, teams may have figured out how to play him better, which with the refs dissing him is made easier. He needs to keep working and improving. I don't think he is topped out. But hey lets trade and get that 6-10 PF with a PER of 18 and I will be happy.
I don't buy this. Chuck is a great screener, passes reasonably well, plays great defense on either forward position, and has better defensive anticipation than anyone not named Battier. He does need to finish better, but even if he doesn't, he's still a very effective player on both ends of the court. People get caught up with whether a player can put the ball in the basket by themselves and forget that it's only one part of offense.
