I shouldn't have said that Shane won't let Kobe post up effectively all the time. But he definitely stands a better chance of defending kobe in the post than a wiry guy like Prince. Also, I completely agree about making great scorers work on defense. If they have to play hard on that end of the court every possession it will wear them down offensively over time.
Exactly, a good scorer is just as good at Shane at defending Kobe, because they wear him out on the other side of the ball. A good scorer will affect Kobe offensively and defensively. Kobe can relax a little, when he defends Battier. He saves that energy for the offensive end.
Personally, I think Shane Battier is the best one on one defender in the league. That hand defense is alot harder than it looks......especially to do it without fouling.
I absolutely agree with this. You can make a guy work on offense all you want, but what use is it if he's taking a break on defense? I need to go back and finish what I started earlier and look at what Shane's defense did against Kobe in the Lakers series. I was going through every play in which Shane guarded Kobe in the first game and from just watching the first half of that game, it was obvious Shane played Kobe well and played him tight in that game. The end result was that it didn't matter. Kobe hit the shots anyway. Shane was in his face and playing as tight a D as possible on most of those plays. This is where I pray Ariza can be more effective (and I don't know if he can) : make the defender work on offense, but keep him honest on defense by putting up about 12-14 ppg. If I feel bored, I'll probably go back and finish watching the series and see if I can break it down play by play on Kobe vs. Shane possessions.
Shane/Rockets does a decent job of keeping him from driving to the basket, and they minimize the fouls on him as well. They concede the jumper to Kobe. With great players, you have to be willing to give up something...with Jordan you would rather he take a contested fadeaway instead of getting to th paint/line throughout the game and controlling the tempo of the game that way. With Dream, people would rather have him take a 20 ft jumper or a fadeaway instead of jump hook or dream shake down low. Great players get their #'s no matter what...but the defense's job is to make it as hard as possible to produce. They have to take that great player out of their comfort zone, make them work and contest every shot and change up the defense from time to time so a player won't be able to figure out and predict what the defense will do. With Kobe, he's still has a sense of arragonce in him...he feels he can hit every contested jumper...so by staying down on your feet, and with the help of your support defense, you keep him out of the pain as much as possible, you make him take contested jumpers. Now, there are some nights, such as Game 2 where he will hit every one of these jumpers, but you live with that. If he's hitting jumpers, he's not creating, he's not getting to the foul line, and as the game goes along, he will usually miss at some point due to fatigue. Also, you don't see Kobe taking many open 3's vs. the Rockets...they will run him off the 3, and use their help defense to make somebody else score on that possesssion. If he wants a 3, he'll have to shoot it contested. Leebigz did make a good point too...make him work on defense. Thats where Shane is not effective. Even Prince would make you play some defense...but Battier will just stick like glue in that corner at times...doesn't help you vs. the great ones. Jordan was allowed to do the same vs. Bryan Russell...and at age 35 that may have saved the title for Chicago, especially with Pippen hurt. Chasing Rip and Allen definetily wore out Kobe, since he doesn't have that mobile defender who could chase them around (Ariza and Payton weren't fast enough), so that made it that much harder for Kobe to score...but the Pistons in 04 and the Celtics in 08 did play some great defense on him too...the one problem with Kobe is he'll settle for the jumper a little easily. Part of it is arragonce but another part of it is age and lack of athleticism compared to others...Kobe in his prime was not as good an athlete as Lebron, Wade, and even Tmac or Carter in their primes. Pierce and Melo are much stronger than him and Broy is much more poised and patient than him. So defenses should know that, and take their chances with Kobe by simply contesting his jumper...I think Battier has figured this out pretty well...if only he knew how to make Kobe play defense...
but it's also why you should. shane is NEVER going to make kobe work on D. despite how hard shane might make kobe works to get his, he'll still get his. i mean, he still shot 45% against us for 27 points. he was relentless b/c shane doesn't do anything offensively. kobe just chillax on D everytime he plays us. that's not good. i would rather have a guy that may not play as good of a defense on kobe, but makes kobe work on D and wears him out defensively. by the 4th, he's gonna be out of gas. that's why kobe always has the energy to jack up 30+ shots v. us.
Paul Pierce guards Kobe better than Battier. Kobe has a lot of trouble driving on Pierce whereas he can drive on Battier at will. Battier just does a good job of directing Kobe into the strength of the defense once Kobe has made his initial move.
QFT. Also I've noticed D-Wade always does a decent job when he's on Kobe. His long arms and freakish quickness are lethal to Kobe's offensive game which relies on his jumper more and more due to the decline of athleticism through age. People tend to overlook those superstars when it comes down to defense just because well, they're not defensive-minded players while guys like Battier and Bowen got reputation. True Great players dominate both ends. Pierce does it, so do Wade, Kobe and Lebron.
True however if a trade that would land the Rockets arises then it might be time to part with Shane. Most trades happen when quality is given for quality.
Not to take anything away from Shane, but Kobe kind of strikes me as the type of ego who would give this kind of credit to only someone like Shane. What I mean is, Kobe might be guarded better by another star in the league or someone who gets at him, but he wont drop their name into that level of credit. Even if, hypothetically, Raja Bell guarded him better, he would probably never let the world know (and to even stretch it somewhat, I think he would not even let that belief manifest in his mind). Would he credit Lebron if Lebron guarded him better? I dunno, just seriously doubt it.
lol...any other nba star making that shot would be show-boating. But i do agree with you on that i can not stand cocky players. To me personally, I can't stand LBJ...his face deserves to be punched in.
Shane eliminates the need to double team opposing star caliber wing players, which significantly helps defensive schemes overall.
hey kobe we knew this already, i wonder if he would have said this if the fake show did not win the title this year?
this video proves that good offense will beat good defense. Shane did the best anyone could do against arguably the best scorer in the league.
The thing I think is most flattering about Shane's defense on Kobe is that he had Ariza and Farmar learn to put a hand in his face at practice like Shane does in order to learn how to shoot around it. When someone practices how to beat your defense, that means that you are in their head.
I like the idea of Shane being a Rocket for the remainder of his career, because he's a company man. I just don't think it's practical for a number of reasons. I'll always think "the trade" was a mistake, but I do recognize his value to the team both on and off the court.
