Its not like Mike is going to start in Dallas anyway. Atlanta would've started him, but they are out of the race by signing Claxton. James would best serve coming off the bench because he brings a scoring punch. If you had a starting lineup of Yao/Battier/T-Mac/James/Alston, you would have 3 players looking to put the ball into the basket and the team would be undersized in the backcourt. If the rockets have Yao/Howard/Battier/T-mac/Alston, Rockets would have more balance and their rebounding should see an increase because of the tall swingmen. With this lineup rockets could have immediate scoring off bench with James and Novak.
If he signs, I would think he wants to win here more than anything else. He won't make the All-star game anyway, so what does that have to do with anything? Last year was his career year in scoring and that didn't make him an All-star. Starting or not, MJ won't be scoring 20 pts/game with two other superstars on the team.
He's not coming here to come off the bench, it's as simple as that. Mike James just wants recognition. When your 30 years old and have played overseas and you finally make it to this point, you're not going to come off the bench. He just wants to be a starter on a good team. And I don't see why not. The first week after we got him, before Sura came back and James was starting, he was averaging like 17ppg and blistering from the field. I honestly have no idea when this "Mike James is selfish" crap even started. It's like ever since that alleged "wave off", revisionist history set in and he was this ballhog during his tenure with us.
Point well taken, but if Rafer is our best entry passer to Yao, he should start. Looking at last year's offense, Rafer didn't limit his assists to Yao, he spread it out. When he plays well, Rafer runs our 1/2 court offense to near perfection, better than MJ could ever dream of. He won't be "limited to feeding Yao", it's that his main responsibility will be getting Yao touches in the right places on the court. When the team is sluggish early or if Rafer is struggling, in comes MJ at PG to raise up the defensive intensity and to attack the other team on offense. Under better circumstances, MJ will rotate in at either PG or SG and play his normal compliment of ~30 minutes. NBA games are rarely won in the 1st quarter. From MJ's perspective, I hope he places more value on 1) Winning, 2) Minutes Played & 3) Finishing Games, than he does on starting.
In 2005-2006, his had a PER of 20, 21.9 points per 40 minutes, and a TS% of 58.3. That's pretty damn good. No, he would be a good player on a good team. See Jason Terry. Bosh, Villanueva, and Morris Peterson can't score? Once again, people equate sucking to crappy offense. Toronto had the 5th best offense in terms of points scored per possession this season. Why were they horrible, then? Because they also had the 2nd worst defense. Actually, going by his PER (16.6), Jalen Rose only looks like an above average player, nowhere near a star. The Raptors had Bosh, Peterson, Marshall, and for 20 games, Vince Carter (who played bad by his standards, but was still a good player) contributing to the offense. Once again, Toronto was a good offensive team (11th best) but sucked because they had a terrible offense (24th in the league). Ricky Davis's per game stats in 2002-2003 do look good, but it was all fool's gold. His FG% was a miserable 0.41, and he got a ton of shots off (signficantly more than James in 2005-2006) because he really didn't have others helping on offense. Davis's stats were also inflated from his team's fast pace (3rd in the league, compared to the average #14 pace of James's 2006 Raptors team) and from more minutes. Davis's 2002-2003 PER is merely an above-average 16.1. A closer look at the stats shows the other guys that you mentioned to be All-Star pretenders. However, James's stats hold up. He was that good in 2006. The Spurs start Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. The Mavs start Dirk, Terry, and Howard. Just because your top players start together does not mean they all sit down together. Just spread out the bench breaks. It's not like they all play the same number of minutes anyway. Look at Jerry Stackhouse playing 6th man for Dallas last year. You stick him on a crappy team like Toronto and he averages 20 a game easy, it's just the nature of the league.[/QUOTE]
James will start @ the 2 with Alston @ the 1, T-Mac @ the 3/4, Battier @ the 3/4, & Yao @ the 5. Juwan & Hayes will come off the bench along with Head and whatever we get to back up Yao (hopefully someone other than Mutumbo).
I would start James at PG, T-Mac at SG, Battier at SF, Hayes at PF, and Yao at C. This leaves the team less undersized (only Hayes is short, but if his stats hold up that wouldn't be so bad). There would be 5 good players on the floor at once, without any weakspots in the unit. T-Mac, Yao, and James would carry the offensive load together, while Battier and Hayes are low-volume players who don't shoot much (but are efficient when they do shoot) but contribute in other ways.
Hey jimraynor, that was a nice well thought out post. Better than a lot of the knee jerk reaction stuff that sees Mike James pile in the points and think he's a starter, however.... Just because you have a team that scores a lot doesn't mean you have a lot of scoring options. It means you take a lot of shots. It can mean you don't play defense. It can mean you take a lot of quick shots. It can mean a lot of things. Regardless, Toronto didn't have anyone that would be a number one option for a playoff team. Actually they didn't even have any number two options for a playoff team, with Bosh being the closest, and he's even marginal as of last year. Villanueva is not a good player. He, too, is in the boat of getting stats because someone has to play the minutes there. Mikes James is a bench player for us. He should not be starting. If he does, then it will be at shooting guard. Mike James, TMAC and Yao in the starting lineup together will be a bad, bad mistake. There will not be enough shots to go around. Mike will not share the ball enough OR he won't shoot enough which is really what he's brought here to do. It's a paradoxical situation if James starts. His skill is scoring the ball. We NEED a distributor with McGrady and Yao in the game. So, logica would dictate thatMike James will come off the bench where he can get more chances to shoot the ball. Stackhouse came off the bench for Dallas. Ginobli came off the bench a few times for SA this past year, because there aren't enough basketballs to go around in the starting five for all those guys. You don't take out Bowen from the starting lineup to put Van Exel in there to get more offense. It would mess up thge chemistry of the team. Dallas doesn't put Stackhouse in the starting lineup and move Dirk to center and take out Dampier cause it would mess up the chemistry of the team. SA has people like Van Exel and Finley to come in for sparks on offense. Dallas has the Stackhouse and Devin Harris. If James starts we have jack to come in for some instant offense. Mikes James is absolutely BUILT for the role of 6th man. His credentials and attributes couldn't possibly be any more perfect for that role.
James is our starting SG on most nights. He's a scorer. Don't ask him to be a PG, and then get ticked off when he scores the ball instead of pass. Against teams with bigger or more potent PF's, we will start Alston/James/Tmac/Howard/Yao. Against teams with average or small PF's, Battier gets the call over Howard. (I actually predict that Hayes will eat into Howard's minutes in a big way.) Against Kobe, JRich and other big/elite SG's, Tmac might slide over to the 2, Battier plays the 3 and Howard starts. James comes off the bench. In today's NBA, you need three legit scoring threats on the floor. If James starts off this season where he left off, it will be impossible for teams to sag off him, which creates a ton of room for Tmac and Yao to operate.
Mike James takes shots as fast as Sam Cassel and Tony Parker, the threesome takes one shot at about every 2.35 minutes. Cassel registers one assist every 5.4 minutes, Parker every 5.9 minutes and James every 6.4 minutes. If Mike James is a ball hog, then so is Cassel and Parker. Cassel is just a little better at involving teammates, while James is a better defender and more efficient player. The point is, a scoring point guard among 3 legit scorers in the starting lineup worked out well for the Clippers and Spurs, oh did I mention Jason Terry and the Mavericks? Mike James has every right to start on the Rockets. Adding James to the lineup greatly reduces Yao and T-Mac's scoring burden that makes 111 fresher and more dominant in the 4th qtr, enhances our perimeter defense(someone made a remark on Alston can't stop a 3 year old running to a candy store LOL) and James good three point shooting helps open up Yao's offense more than Alston.
I think they should sign MJ and trade Rafer Alston. We really don't need two PG making 5-6 million per year. Either do a SnT for Bonzi Wells or go for a solid PF who can post up. With the exception of Yao, we really have no post-up players. Trading Rafer Alston with MLE or TE should be able to provide a solid SG,PF/C. Other than MJ or T-Mac, we have no one who can penetrate to the basket. What's going to happen when Yao's on the bench, who's going to post up for us. We're not a run and shoot team, we need a penetrator or post-up presence to create plays for us. Keep in mind, eventhough we need some depth, MJ, T-mac, and Yao should be eating up alot of the minutes at their position. So that means we have Battier, Novak/J. Howard/Bogans/Deke/Head/Hayes off the bench playing along side T-Mac, MJ, and Yao. That's 10 players not including R.Alston, trade him and get more of what we need.
No question about it. You bring James here, and if he doesn't start, we're going to get trouble we don't need. If we get him, he starts, unless he proves he shouldn't. I don't have a problem with getting him for the MLE. Start James at the 1 or the 2, and put Alston in with James, or as a substitution. Damn, I hope this isn't all we do.
You know Battier is really about 6-9 240. He is big enough to play the 4 he just doesn't rebound nearly well enough to play the 4.............. BUT Sura is a damn good rebounder, if he can get good minutes he can give you 5 to 6 rebounds or even more probably about 7 or 8 if he's healthy (unlike when he played 2 seasons ago) Man if Sura could come back It's probably a pipe dream that Sura can play this year and stay healthy but damn PG James/Alston SG Sura/Head SF T-Mac/Bogans/Novak PF Battier/Howard/Hayes c Yao/Mutombo Damn if Sura could just get healthy that's one hell of a team, just let Sura be the main help rebounder instead of Battier.
That is sooo true. How many times did the Rockets have trouble because the other team would front Yao and Rafer could not make the opposing point pay. Other times they would play off of Rafer to get closer to Yao because they were more worried about Yao getting the ball than Rafer knocking down the shot. Defensively Rafer was not strong, fast, or tenacious enough to stop his opposition consistently. The Rockets were also a notoriously slow starting team. Their 1st qtr scoring was usually their worst on most nights, so that whole "SPARK PLUG" role is overated. If a team comes out totally dominant there is no need for a "SPARK PLUG" to get the team fired up. On a team like the Rockets there is not that much of a need for a pg that can create, because our first 2 options can create for themselves with no problem, as long as the rest of the guys on the floor can keep the defense honest. THE ROX NEED A PG THAT MAKES PLAYS. For next year this is the lineup I would like to see starting: James TMac Battier Howard (hopefully we can pick up a FA to replace him) Yao I am all for Rafer and Mike to battle it out in training camp to see who will be the most qualified player to start, after that let the chips fall where they may. My biggest concern is whether Tracy is willing to slide over to the SG position. If he does want to move, then the move will solve two problems on the spot.
I think the whole Battier starting at the 4 thing is a lot of wishful thinking. Get over it everyone, Juwan will start, and JVG will praise him in the media even though he is our worst player. I've got a feeling Chuck will be finishing some games, though. With that said, I think MJ would start. He'll have his money, and he wants to win. Sure, he might take some bad shots, but I'd definately have him in there than not. It wouldn't surprise me if Yao's scoring dips with the return of Tmac and James, but if we win 55, Yao will get his recognition. The key to this team will be to get all the players to not worry about personal stats. Almost all the key players will be locked up for a long time, so we won't see much selfish stat padding, imo.
Because Rafer is a better passing guard that will set up shots for the other 4. Because James is the best scoring option when the bench is on the floor and he can be Mike James while he's out there. I can understand that he may not want to come in behind Rafer, but it would be the best thing for the team. Plus he won't have to worry about making the post pass to Deke or giving it up to Bogans, Bowen, etc. He can just be Mike and that is what we need off the bench - keep us in the game or increase the lead while the starters are taking a breather.
