In our loss against the Heat in December, we were able to keep the game pretty close. D Wade's 45 points hurt us badly, but we were able to able to keep LeBron in check, holding him to only 20 points. With Courtney Lee now playing more minutes, I expect our defense against D Wade to improve significantly. Lee only played 15 mins against the Heat last time, and while he only scored 2 points, he still had a +/- of +4. Lee is now playing with much more confidence and a clearer vision of his role with the team, so I expect him to have a much larger impact on the game this time around. Additionally, Courtney is a much better defender than K-Mart, and has a slight height advantage over Wade(although Wade is about 20 pounds heavier). Having said that, assuming D Wade will not be shouldering the majority of the scoring load, the Heat will likely look to LeBron for help, especially considering the fact that we no longer have Shane to defend him. I know Chase's defense has improved as of late, but, assuming he even is able to play(he says he is going to try to), a 100% healthy Chase would still have a lot of trouble trying to defend LeBron. So, who else should get a shot at defending LeBron? I know many of you are upset with T-Will, and like you, I am also disappointed with the way he is handling his current situation. BUT, there is a reason he is upset. The guy is an extremely gifted athlete, blessed with both athleticism and size, which is exactly why we need him. In order to contain LeBron, you need someone of roughly similar size and athleticism. I am in NO WAY trying to compare Terrence to LeBron as a pure basketball player, but their physical makeup is pretty similar. Both are very quick and athletic, and they are roughly the same size. I am hoping that in a big game against the Heat, Terrence would put his nonchalant manner aside and play with some heart. In his limited minutes, Terrence was obviously trying to "get his" on offense, but can you really blame him? He was trying to showcase his abilities in a very short period of time, and the only way he felt he could do that was with the ball in his hands. Hopefully, with increased minutes, he will let the game come to him and start playing team basketball. If he can get his mind right, Terrence could potentially play a very big role against the Heat. Very few people are blessed with the size and athleticism he possesses. If LeBron is having a field day against us, would it really hurt to give Terrence another chance?
We need Terrence to **** up our offense, turn the ball over, so that the Rockets can get blown out and sit the starters early to preserve their energy for future games.
With no indication yet that he's gotten his head right, why would you want to gamble on him suddenly coming around on a very important game? Even if he did play good defense on James, why wouldn't we expect him to press on offense to try to raise his stock at the expense of the team's offense? That's all we've seen from him so far. Not much point in tightening the defense, if we're giving it all away again on offense. I think the better alternative for giving us defense at SF is Mike Harris. He's got more size than Lee and Martin, and more speed than the power forwards. And, we know he's smart and knows his role. He won't grandstand, he won't try to do more than he's capable of, he'll play honest defense and stay on-point on offense. He's the anti-T-Will, and much more likely to get the call as a result. The other alternative I like is to put Hayes on James, and Scola and Patterson at PF and Center. Adelman's probably thinking Patterson will be more spry, but seriously there's no challenge Hayes will shrink from. Hayes would have my trust checking James. Patterson can follow Bosh around well enough and Scola is big enough to play center against the Heat.
what minutes is Twon't taking? Budinger is coming back,Lee plays 3. We can play patterson at the 3 too. Martin is our main 2 and dragic and lowry can play together at times. Twon't is a square peg in a round hole. His attitude sucks anyway and he is turnover prone. No thanks. signed, Rick
I like this idea a lot. The only downside I see to it is that we'll have Scola instead of Chuck down there when Wade blows into the lane. Even still, I'd love to see Rick try it out. I bet Chuck would drive Lebron crazy. Pugs
I'm not saying to give Terrence big minutes, I'm just saying that if LeBron starts taking over, I don't see the harm in seeing how Terrence matches up. If he starts messing up, so be it. Call a timeout and take him out.
My dear sir you must be mistaken, Squids are thrown into the playing field in hockey games not basketball.
They traded Shane Battier and Chase Budinger got hurt, yet Adelman is playing a shooting guard and a Chinese League returnee at the small forward spot over Terrence Williams. Unless T-Will earns a massive amount of trust in a couple of days, I don't see it happening.
good some people are still hopeful of Williams I don't think Adelman is the guy will not return, as Clutch said, Mike took his spot and that is a huge sign
I really don't mind the idea. If he drives in the lane, Scola will be the MVP for that night for drawing 5 charges. :grin:
I know this is unlikely, Terrence is in Adelman's doghouse for a reason. But at the end of the day, this team has shown it is succeptible to big scoring nights from stars(Monta Ellis, D Wade, Carmelo, etc). That has not been the case lately, and I hope that trend continues. We shut down Monta last night and held the Celtics to the lowest scoring night of their season. All I'm saying is that if the fecal matter hits the fan, I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world to give Terrence a shot at defending Lebron. We were #4 in the league in scoring for the first half of the season with Battier playing at the 3 with a very limited offensive role. Theoretically, if Terrence was to get some playing time he wouldn't have to have a big role in our offense either. Whether or not he would accept that role is very questionable though so I can see why many of you are opposed to Terrence playing. I remember Patterson blocking Carmelo after Melo called for an isolation earlier in the season, so that gives me some hope, but I don't think Chuck and Patterson are quick enough to keep up with LeBron. Also Patterson has been playing great ball lately, and im sure that largely has to do with his confidence. LeBron going off on you can be catastrophic to your confidence, especially as a rookie. Anyways, Im not trying to predict that Terrence will come in and save the day or anything like that. I'm just throwing in my two cents in for the purpose of discussion. That's what this place is for anyways, right? Also sorry if this text shows up with weird spacing, I'm sending this from my phone.
As long as Adelman is coach, you will not see Terrence anywhere near the court, ever. Fair? Maybe, maybe not. There is an "internal" dispute over this one.
You keep forgetting the most important fact. T-Will is a crapshoot and an average one at that. He has no consistency and even when he is at his best he still hasn't made the team look better, just himself. A great pass to an unexpecting Jordan Hill who fumbles it out of bounds is a bad pass. An acrobatic drive to the basket that rolls off the front of the rim is still a missed shot. T-Will has not shown that he can consistently do anything to help this team win. ANd now he is in the doghouse. I haven't completely written him off but suffice it to say he got no chance of getting any minutes against Miami. Finally I would add people underestimate the importance of beating miami. If we lose that I think it is pretty much time to say goodbye to the playoffs.
