Mid -Season Player Grades

[Vietbrah]

Now that we're at the mid way point of the season, what grades would you give each player based on their play and give a description.

[Guy986]

Yao- A minus
Inconsistent in the beginning but recently has played great basketball. Improved field goal percentage.

Scola- B plus
Solid all around player. Underused in the post. Very efficient player when being utilized correctly. Appears to have improved that midrange shot.

Rafer- C plus
Inconsistent shooter. Played extremely well when Tmac and Artest went out. Still our best PG.

Tmac- D minus
Disappointing. Fat and slow.

Battier- C
Not moving as well as he would've liked. Still playing tough D but not hitting his shots.

Artest- C
Black hole on offense. Poor shot selection. But still play like a tru warrier. I like his grittiness.

Landry- B
Very efficient once again. Great deal for 3 M a year. Improved range on the J.

Brooks- C plus
Flashes of brilliance. Only flashes.... so far

Wafer- A minus
Surprise player of the year. Fearless attacker in transition. Good shooter.

Barry- B minus
Unselfish and hits the 3.

Chuck- C
Chuck is chuck.

Mutombo- ?

[MaxRider]

#0, Aaron Brooks - C, inconsistent
#1, Tracy McGrady - Incomplete, missed too many games, not enough to determine his grade
#2, Luther Head - D, he's bad, but he did help us win a big game against the Spurs
#3, Steve Francis - Incomplete, 0 GP
#4, Luis Scola - A, our most consistent guy and 0 DNP
#11, Yao Ming - A, become more and more like a leader
#12, Rafer Alston - B, isn't consistent, but he's been our 3rd best player on the floor
#13, Von Wafer - B, big surprise, didn't even expect him to get any DP behind T-Mac/Artest/Battier/Barry/Head
#14, Carl Landry - B-, little inconsistent but is improving his jump shot
#15, Joey Dorsey - Incomplete
#17, Brent Barry - C, he's getting a little old
#31, Shane Battier - C-minus, don't know how much is the injured, but he's not doing what he supposed to do on the floor
#44, Chuck Hayes - C-plus, no offensive game what-so-ever, that's the only reason why he's not getting a B
#55, Dikembe Mutombo - Incomplete
#96, Ron Artest - C-minus, career low in FG% and PPG, gamble too much on defense to even consider as a good defensive player

[moofs]

#0, Aaron Brooks - C+, Inconsistent, but improved from his first year
#1, Tracy McGrady - D+ - Missed a lot of games, shooting nightmarishly, too slow to even pass like he normally does, has still had a few decent games.
#2, Luther Head - F+ - Luther continues to fulfill expectations.
#3, Steve Francis - A+ - Cleared us some salary space for Muttsy
#4, Luis Scola - A+ - Dollar for dollar, the best player on the team. He's critical to our success.
#11, Yao Ming - A - Scoring, rebounds, and blocks are down, but so are his minutes (injury avoidance). Percentages are up. Probably his second-best year so far.
#12, Rafer Alston - B- - The guy everyone loves to hate
#13, Von Wafer - B+ - It's great how someone seems to step up year after year with us when someone else goes down. He doesn't provide much other than shooting and some hustle, but does those nicely
#14, Carl Landry - B+ - Better J than last year, but not finishing with quite as much authority or efficiency, hasn't learned to pass out of the post yet and seems to be getting blocked a little more
#15, Joey Dorsey - HI!!!!
#17, Brent Barry - C+ - Started VERY slow, but pulling around with shooting and passing
#31, Shane Battier - C- - Where are you? Don't think he's injured long-term, but hope he's healthy by playoffs or we're in trouble. Quite possibly more critical to the team than McGrady.
#44, Chuck Hayes - C+ - Doesn't seem as effective as he has been, but still a decent PF/C backup in spot minutes
#55, Dikembe Mutombo - B - Finger wagging from the bench, but helped win one game so far, mostly just happy he's here
#96, Ron Artest - F - Surprisingly not helping at ALL on defense (the one area he was expected to help), sucks at offense, hurting team's offensive flow, not helping amid injuries... So uh...? Only bright spot I'm aware of is his over-40 3p%.

[jdiaz1978]

Yao- A minus
Inconsistent in the beginning but recently has played great basketball. Improved field goal percentage.

Scola- B plus
Solid all around player. Underused in the post. Very efficient player when being utilized correctly. Appears to have improved that midrange shot.

Rafer- C plus
Inconsistent shooter. Played extremely well when Tmac and Artest went out. Still our best PG.

Tmac- D minus
Disappointing. Fat and slow.

Battier- C
Not moving as well as he would've liked. Still playing tough D but not hitting his shots.

Artest- C
Black hole on offense. Poor shot selection. But still play like a tru warrier. I like his grittiness.

Landry- B
Very efficient once again. Great deal for 3 M a year. Improved range on the J.

Brooks- C plus
Flashes of brilliance. Only flashes.... so far

Wafer- A minus
Surprise player of the year. Fearless attacker in transition. Good shooter.

Barry- B minus
Unselfish and hits the 3.

Chuck- C
Chuck is chuck.

Mutombo- ?

I agree with this guy. Right on Guy!

[T-Wack]

Yao- B
He's played fairly well, individually, but I feel like other players need to make big sacrifices to their games in order to accommodate him, and it hurts the team, overall. He's also always going to be a big, slow moron, but he can't help that, so I'll spare him for now.

Tmac- D+
While it was really gutsy of him to play so soon after surgery, it's brought on waves of unfair criticism, and the constant lineup shuffling has messed up our chemistry. He's had his ups and downs, but he's just finally starting to look like he used to, so I feel the best is yet to come from him, and he'll only get better as the season goes along.

Scola- A-
Even though he's missed more layups than anybody, ever, he's been our most consistent player by far. Despite his shortcomings, he always plays hard, and has played well.

Rafer- C-
Sure, Skip's picked it up, lately, but he's still a huge part of our offense sucking. His inability to hit wide open shots kills us. Teams can still easily key in on Ming and Macdiddles, and he's the main reason why. He also pounds the ball into Yao way too much, which makes us ridiculously predictable.

Battier- C-
He hasn't really done much for us, this year. It's probably just his health, but still, he's been utterly mediocre.

Artest- C+
The injuries have been a problem, and he does have a tendency to chuck. He's also single handedly won several games for us this year. People can say what they want about him gambling on defense, but he makes things happen out there.

Landry- B+
Really glad we re-signed him. He's been absolutely solid, and gives us a lot of depth as far as big men go. I feel like he gets underrated a lot on this board, and won't really be appreciated until he's gone.

Brooks- B-
The kid is a tremendous talent. One that Rick Adelman has decided to ignore, but when he gets out there, and gets good minutes, he's produced. It's really too bad that we're stuck with Rafer instead, since he's just what this team needs in order to get to the next level.

Wafer- A-
At first, I thought he'd ride the bench all year, and only get spot minutes, but that Toronto game changed my mind. That was the first time I saw him really hungry, and after that, he's been a beast.
without Von, we don't have the record that we do. He's been invaluable with all of the injuries, and his scoring ability has really kept us in games.

Barry- C+
Started off really slow, and for a period looked like a scared little girl, who was too scared to shoot, but after coming back from that injury, he's started firing away, and he's playing his role well.

Chuck- C
He's done what he's supposed to do. Nothing too great, nothing too horrible. Except for his free throw form.

Head-F
It's an appropriate score, considering he's a complete and utter failure.

Mutombo-
he's too old to be getting graded.

[TMU]

Mid-season grades right? Well then T-Mac should get an F for his poor preparation coming into this season.

[Baller 24]

Yup, I agree with TMU, I don't understand how he's getting a D+ or even a D. For a player his expectations he's getting an F from me, no effort in some games, doesn't take responsibility, and has been injury prone to the max.

[BaYBaller]

Not going to do a breakdown, just going to say that a lot of people bring up how we are quite a few games over .500 even through all the injuries and that we are underrated because of it. At the same time it's hard to say what kind of shape Artest, T-Mac, and Battier will be come playoff time. In my mind our defense has been very lackluster because of what was once a strength (the size/length of our backcourt) is very hobbled right now.

[abcdef]

Starters:

Yao: Up and down season, but clearly the best player on the team. Showed leadership and played well when McGrady and Artest were injured to lead team to several wins over playoff teams, but then played an awful game in a bad loss to the Sixers, kind of indicative of how season has gone. Overall production has been mediocre to poor by his standards. Definitely a down season, but he's done some good things this year. Grade: B-, whatever happened already has happened, he needs to play well consistently for the Rockets to make noise. And no, T-Wack, you're still an idiot and refuse to recognize the fact that the Rockets are a net +11.2 points per 100 possessions better with Yao on the court, +4% eFG% on both offense and defense. Although Yao could play better, no rational person can argue that he is hurting the team on either end of the floor.

McGrady: Up and down season like Yao, but more down. Has 8 <10 point games. Has had injury and other issues. Had to do offseason conditioning in January due to his own lack of proper rehab and conditioning during the offseason. Looked "better" recently but that's relative to the 8 <10 point games and if we consider past seasons these "better performances would be mediocre games. Grade: C-

Battier: Now he has really disappointed me. His offense and defense have been way off, and he's been in and out of the lineup. He no longer looks like the valuable glue guy of previous years, he just looks like a scrub. He still can't really score, and now his defense is not nearly where it used to be. Grade: D-

Scola: Still very solid, looks like he can't finish in the paint but he manages to find the way to score in there, very solid secondary low post option, decent rebounder, passable defense, is flopping less than he did last year. Does well in his role. Grade: A-

Alston: Shooting comes and goes, that's how it's been the whole career. OK to decent defender, fairly good distributor. He has not been terrible but he hasn't been good either. Grade: C

Bench:

Brooks: Started hot and looked like the backup point and scorer off the bench we needed, but now looks like total crap. He's had several slumps this season, so definitely an alarming trend. Grade: B-

Landry: Shown improvement in his game, improved jump shot, improved free throws, and shown some post game. Still very high percentage scorer. Defense still not so good. Grade: A-

Wafer: Total surprise, shown the potential to be a dynamic scorer from the perimeter by shooting a high percentage from downtown or driving it in. He will be a very solid scorer off the bench for us and an OK starter in a pinch. Defense is poor and is fairly selfish, but he has exceeded expectations so much. Grade: A+

Barry: Started completely awfully, but is now hitting his jump shot, and is a very solid distributor of the ball. He will have a role for us. Grade: B+

Artest: He has disappointed me. I feel his defense is overrated; I expected a lockdown defender, and what we got was merely a good to very good defender. I feel Shane was better last year on defense than Artest is now. His offense has given us a spark at times but it has been mostly low percentage chucking. Plus he's been in and out of the lineup. Grade: C