I was wondering should Battier would get his starting spot back when he is fully healthy and ready to go or will Artest stay the the starting SF. If he does get to start as the team's SF will Ron be the starting PF, will he be the 6th man, or will it be the other way around having Battier start at PF and Ron staying at SF. What are yall's thoughts?
I think Ron is the better player, but I would like to see Shane start. Shane had his worst numbers per minute the one year of his career that he didn't start, and his 3pt% was way off. I think Ron will be productive as a starter or a bench player. If we start Ron at PF we are way too small. My vote is for Yao, Scola, Battier, McGrady, and Alston. Landry, Artest, Barry, and Brooks off the bench. All the other roster players get spot minutes or mop up time.
This has been discussed at length with varying opinions. I'd say there's no way Ron should start at PF. Why burden an outstanding wing defender by playing him in the post early? Combine that with Scola and Landry both being very capable at the PF spot. Battier has been off the bench before and (my opinion) is that he'll be off hte bench when he returns (and for the rest of the season!)
I'd like to see Ron come off the bench to give us an extra spark if the starters are slacking offensively, similar to the way the Spurs play Ginobili. I think it would be pretty effective.
I like our offensive power with Artest in the starting lineup. Battier will do just fine giving us some solid defense off the bench.
I say we should start Ron and have Shane come off the bench cause he gives us another option we can go to on the court if Tmac and Yao are doing so well.
I like the way our offense has picked up with Artest in the starting lineup. Having said that, I think that playing our starters from last year and then having Artest come off the bench will make for a much better rotation. Scoring punch off the bench in Artest (plus his toughness and defense) will make playing us seem like running a marathon with people slapping your head with paddles.
With AB coming off the bench we wont need Artest to create for us as much cause AB can do that by breakin the D down with his speed and all he needs is spot-up shooters to kick the ball to, which is what Battier does, spots up and shoots the three. But after seeing how well Artest and Brooks play together I dont know... Or better yet... start Aaron Brooks!
I don't know about starting Aaron. Putting your most talented five on the floor as starters doesn't automatically mean you get the best rotation. Aaron coming off the bench is great as a sparkplug, and putting Ron in after about 4-6 minutes means non-stop destruction. Brooks might not have the same impact as a starter, and we might lose the advantage our depth gives us by putting our most offensively gifted players on the floor at once. Rafer is a better defensive player and he's able to manage the game well. He's not going to be this horrible shooting wise over the course of the year because he's eventually going to hit his average. Right now I'm for starting Battier when he's healthy and bringing Ron off the bench.
Battier will come off the bench we need to come out of the gates firing from all cylinders, 7 minutes into the game, we can sub out tmac and sub in battier, we can start tmac with battier in the 2nd quarter..and so on and so forth
I say Start Artest and bring Shane of the bench. Shane can pick up the defense off the bench if we happen to slack of a bit. But get better really soon Shane
Shane AND Ron should start. I've repeated myself about this idea in many threads, though it seems to always relate to most thread topics. We should start both artest and battier and slide McGrady to the PG position where we know he can excel. this leaves Rafer as nice trade bait to fill our weakness at the backup C position.
If only basketball was that simple. Tmac can play facilitator at times but he is no PG. With his knee still not 100%, he's getting beat pretty bad on defense. You really think he can run up and down the court playing PG and defending the smaller guards? I believe Ron will still start but once Shane is competely healthy, I don't mind sliding Ron to come off the bench. Adelman used Ron with the second unit the last three games so maybe he's already considering it. Ron with the second unit including Brooks, Berry, Landry, Scola/Chuck can do some damage. Of course Ron will still have his time with Tmac and Yao especially in the 4th quarter. Ron's average game minutes will probably be more than Tmac and Yao this season.
I'd try a platoon system: Use the present starters, then bring AB, BB, Shane, Carl, and Chuck/Joey (or Deke?) in as a unit-- or vice versa! Until TMac gets in shape, that 2nd unit might be better vs. most teams. I'd like to see Von Wafer get a few chances, too, maybe even with the starters' rotation, in T-Mac's place. Rotate 'em frequently and tell those men to run like wild boys! Maybe we could eliminate these transition D lapses, and start scoring like the Denver Nuggets, back in the day.
I don't think Battier should or maybe even can start right away. Give the guy a few games to ease into the action, but I'd like to see him resume his starting spot eventually. Between him, Artest, McGrady, to a lesser extent Barry the 2 and 3 spots should be covered no matter how you throw them out.
