I was thinking about what our rotation would be with Yao, Bud, and AB out, and it lead me to an extremely simple conclusion. I'm simply going to put into words a concept that has been floating around this board for a while. Morey's group of role players approach can work, and work very well. The reason most championships are won by teams with star players is because the star player in question puts up massive numbers in comparison to who he is matched-up against. For instance if we were to play Miami and Lebron played 48 minutes at SF, while dropping 40 on us. Meanwhile our SF position collectively put up 15 points. Thats a 25 point differential in favor of Miami, regardless of if we sucked on defense or if our offense wasn't "flowing." The job of the Houston rockets would be to collectively, at all 5 positions, make up for the point differential at the opposing star's position So say our teams stat line essentially looked like this pg: 20 sg:20 sf:10 pf:30 C:30 Our total collectively is 110. Say the opponents stat line looked like this pg:5 sg:10 sf:40 pf:35 C:10 Collective total is 100. Essentially our group of role players needs to have a collective differential in points that is greater then theirs. TLR - We need to score more points then them to win. It is possible to win entirely with role players, a la the Detroit pistons, but only if our groups strength can make up the point differential where the other teams positions are the weakest. If we make a trade for another player, it needs to be at the position of greatest average point differential, regardless of if that positions defense or offense is atrocious. If Lebron is owning Battier, but were playing the heat, we need to expect our current Center and point guard to make up those points, because they are playing against inferior competition. All of our players don't have to drop 25 a night, they only need to be capable of doing so, nights when the match-ups are favorable. That way, it won't matter how many points the other teams star players score, it'll matter how our roster collectively matches-up with theirs.
uhhh, the pistons had a DPOY (Wallace), a 20-10 guy (Sheed), a 20 PPG sg (Rip), and a All Star PG (Billups). They also had a stellar bench. Did I mention they played elite defense???
This is just rationalization for the delusional. Fans were raving about martins efficiency but where does that efficiency get you in the 4th quarter during clutch time? Nothing. We've seen him disappear time and time again. We need someone to put it in the hole when it counts and under pressure. No one but aaron can come close to doing that. Moreys done a great job of getting everything but a star player.... and in todays league, its not his fault that no one wants to come here
4-5 Role players are better than 1-2 star players, if there is a good, pass-first PG who can orchestrate the offense.
1. Billups was nicknamed Mr Big Shot for a reason, dude was crazy clutch plus provided the identity/leadership to steer the team to victory, we have no clear outright leader and nobody is especially clutch (Brooks has hit a handful... but yeah..) Billups > AB+Lowry+Ish 2. Rip, highly efficient scorer, Kmart is comparable. 3. Prince, highly effective on both ends of the court, good team player, made good basketball decisions, could hit the 3 or drive and dunk on you. Defensively was solid and good shot blocker/defender. Prince > Batter +CBud 4. Sheed, God given talent, great size, mobility, strength and shoot touch, dangerous offensively and defensively. Scola's offensive output is comparable but with Sheed's range it helped spread the defense a bit more. Defensively none of our guys could do what Sheed did in terms of shot-blocking + post defense (Hayes too short to handle big athletic types). 5. The BEAST, was beastly... we don't have a scary mofo inside presence on the defensive end, Hayes does a solid job, Yao alter's some shots, Jeffries takes some charges and Hill shows some promise but is still so raw.... defensively we can't compare to THE BEAST. Offensively rockets obviously have upper hand but would be really nice to have a prolific shot-blocker, maybe Hill can turn into one hehe. All in all... yes if as a whole team we can produce then we can win, just like any other team.... but whilst we have solid role players, the pistons had star role players, we don't really have any players that can play both ends of the floor well like the pistons could, Prince and Sheed were prime examples. Ish/Lowry/Jeffries/Hayes/Battier - Shooting/Offensive Liability AB/CBud (improving but still)/Miller/Kmart/Scola - Defensive Liability Lee/Hill - Balanced but still need growth. /end rant
