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Guy986's Team softness evaluation:

Aaron Brooks: Average toughness
Kevin Martin: Soft
Trevor Ariza: Tough
Shane Battie: Average as SF, Soft as PF
Luis Scola: Tough
Chuck Hayes: Very Tough
David Andersen: Very Soft
Chase Budinger: Average toughness

Kyle Lowry: Very tough


I counted 3 below average to soft players in our rotation. Lowry coming back should help a little but can't have 3 soft players. What to do... what to do.

fire morey?

I would cut Andersen entirely out of the rotation first and foremost. Have Jeffries or Armstrong replace him. His softness is contagious.


Also try to reduce Battier's minute at PF as much as possible. The poor guy is not a PowrForward.

yeah, andersen made me cringe on a handful of plays. but are jeffries and armstrong any better? never seen em play. or are u just going under the pretense that anyones better than andersen?

We should get Lowry back asap.

How about uhhh... Give Landry or Dorsey some PT... damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Got em Coach wrote:yeah, andersen made me cringe on a handful of plays. but are jeffries and armstrong any better? never seen em play. or are u just going under the pretense that anyones better than andersen?

Dont know about Armstrong but Jeffries is widely considered one of the best defender in the league. The guy can guard anyone from Chris Paul to Lebron James.

He's a 6'11 small forward. Only downside to Jeffries is that his offense is almost as bad as Andersen's defense. If only we can somehow find a way to infuse those 2.....

Guy986 wrote:

Got em Coach wrote:yeah, andersen made me cringe on a handful of plays. but are jeffries and armstrong any better? never seen em play. or are u just going under the pretense that anyones better than andersen?

Dont know about Armstrong but Jeffries is widely considered one of the best defender in the league. The guy can guard anyone from Chris Paul to Lebron James.

He's a 6'11 small forward. Only downside to Jeffries is that his offense is almost as bad as Andersen's defense. If only we can somehow find a way to infuse those 2.....

ah ok, thanks for the reply. thats really impressive to be able to guard from paul to james.
perhaps this could help?


yeah i used to be into the whole yugioh thing back in the day

shouldnt exist

In NY Coach Dan Tony use Jeffries to defend Point Guards. And Jeffries was the designated Lebron James Stopper when he was a Washington Wizard. Jeffries is arguably the league's most versatile perimeter defender. But he allegedly has difficulty making a layup.(if you believe Ny fans)

Got em Coach wrote:

Guy986 wrote:

Got em Coach wrote:yeah, andersen made me cringe on a handful of plays. but are jeffries and armstrong any better? never seen em play. or are u just going under the pretense that anyones better than andersen?

Dont know about Armstrong but Jeffries is widely considered one of the best defender in the league. The guy can guard anyone from Chris Paul to Lebron James.

He's a 6'11 small forward. Only downside to Jeffries is that his offense is almost as bad as Andersen's defense. If only we can somehow find a way to infuse those 2.....

ah ok, thanks for the reply. thats really impressive to be able to guard from paul to james.
perhaps this could help?


yeah i used to be into the whole yugioh thing back in the day

What if the opposing team use this?



Yea....

Guy986 wrote:

Got em Coach wrote:yeah, andersen made me cringe on a handful of plays. but are jeffries and armstrong any better? never seen em play. or are u just going under the pretense that anyones better than andersen?

Dont know about Armstrong but Jeffries is widely considered one of the best defender in the league. The guy can guard anyone from Chris Paul to Lebron James.

He's a 6'11 small forward. Only downside to Jeffries is that his offense is almost as bad as Andersen's defense. If only we can somehow find a way to infuse those 2.....

Jeffries is a hustle player with length. He's a definite upgrade over Andersen, but he's certainly not going to be a Lebron or Paul stopper. Just because he's a jack-of-all-trades doesn't mean he's going to do them all well.

We have the weakest and softest front court in the league right now. Andersen seeing 20+ minutes of playing time? God help us. Hayes is terrific, but some nights he just won't be effective. Scola is a soft defender and goes for the flop just a little too much. Big men are going to absolutely abuse us and slashers will have a red carpet to the rim since we have no shot blockers or bruisers in the paint. This is going to be a long end to the season.

Guy986 wrote:I would cut Andersen entirely out of the rotation first and foremost. Have Jeffries or Armstrong replace him. His softness is contagious.


Also try to reduce Battier's minute at PF as much as possible. The poor guy is not a PowrForward.

armstrong is lazy (according to devin brown)
jeffries aint tough
only hope is hill
or draft demarcus counsins

Serve them all a cup of concrete.

Notice I am not defending Andersen. He does need to harden up.

I will also point out that I stated from day 1 that he is not a bruiser. He needs to hit the weights more I think.

Jeffries should be playing Power Forward anyway, putting Battier there over him is a mistake. I hate the frontcourt depth though, I wish Houston could have held onto Dorsey. I think Dorsey is going to be a solid player. But they seem to be building with the mindset of how the team fits next year with Yao coming back. I hate the current big man rotation though. Hayes is a defensive stud, but Scola and Andersen are liabilities. Andersen I don't even like being in the rotation, but there's no depth.

AntiSuperstar wrote:Jeffries should be playing Power Forward anyway, putting Battier there over him is a mistake. I hate the frontcourt depth though, I wish Houston could have held onto Dorsey. I think Dorsey is going to be a solid player. But they seem to be building with the mindset of how the team fits next year with Yao coming back. I hate the current big man rotation though. Hayes is a defensive stud, but Scola and Andersen are liabilities. Andersen I don't even like being in the rotation, but there's no depth.

Agree with all your points except Scola being a liability. Scola is actually quite a decent defender. I've always felt he was a better defender than Landry.

Scola is a very good pick and roll defender for a big man. He is average to below average as a post defender. And he is even a very good help defender with his ability to flo.... errr take charge.

Guy986 wrote:Agree with all your points except Scola being a liability. Scola is actually quite a decent defender. I've always felt he was a better defender than Landry.

Scola is a very good pick and roll defender for a big man. He is average to below average as a post defender. And he is even a very good help defender with his ability to flo.... errr take charge.

Well, I feel like at Power Forward Scola's defense is ok. But at Center he sucks. He doesn't box out well enough and he struggles to defend athletic players. Lastly, Scola goes for some dumb flop attempts every once in a while. Hayes is good at picking his spots and timing drawing charges, but Scola will make some boneheaded flop that just irritates the official more than anything. I agree about Scola's pick and roll defense.

That i agree. We need another big man so bad.....

maybe some of you remember that I posted the SAC trade a couple months ago, which I knew because Nocioni was going to be involved in that trade. The trade eventually happened, only that without Nocioni, and quite frankly, I think it would have been way better for Houston to get him. Either way, IMHO, K Martin will get better and more involved, but there's simply no way to have Brooks and Martin playing together. It simply can't happen.

As for soft/no soft, every other team considers Houston extremely rough, so I'm kinda lost here, this team didn't get to this point because of its amazing offensive skills, so I feel like I'm missing something

Guy986 wrote:In NY Coach Dan Tony use Jeffries to defend Point Guards. And Jeffries was the designated Lebron James Stopper when he was a Washington Wizard. Jeffries is arguably the league's most versatile perimeter defender. But he allegedly has difficulty making a layup.(if you believe Ny fans)

No, you're about right (about Jeffries offense...basically the can't hit the side of the barn type). But that's not what Jeffries is out on the floor to do. He's there cause you want someone that is defensively strong and versatile that knows his role and who will go out and play extremely hard at it.

As much fun has been made of the Knicks defense, early this season when the Knicks were consistently holding teams in the high 80's Jeffries was widely considered to be the biggest reason. D'Antoni himself said that the defensive game plan at the time was to funnel everything towards Jeffries defensively where his height, length and aggressiveness can bother anyone from the ball handler, to jump shooters up to the opposing teams post guys (he's skinny but not weak by any means).

I think O-face will fit in well in Houston.