It's unclear if JVG may decide to mix up the rotation a bit after two inexcusable losses, but right now the following players look to be getting regular minutes: Ward, Lue McGrady, Nachbar Jackson Taylor, Howard Yao, Mutombo I wanted to see how various combinations performed on the court, and looked it up at 82games.com. Here's what it shows: http://www.82games.com/0405HOU2.HTM The following isn't an exhaustive look at every cominbation JVG has put on the floor, but its what we might see in the 1st or 2nd half of a typical game: Ward, McGrady, Jackson, Taylor, Yao ........ +40 over 140 minutes .... +13.7/48min Ward, McGrady, Jackson, Taylor, Mutombo . +2 over 15 minutes ....... +6.4/48min Lue, Nachbar, Jackson, Howard, Mutombo .. -11 over 25 minutes ...... -21.12/48min Lue, McGrady, Nachbar, Howard, Mutombo . +5 over 17 minutes ....... +14.12/48min Lue, McGrady, Nachbar, Howard, Yao .... -13 over 12 minutes ...... -52/48min Lue, Mcgrady, Jackson, Taylor, Yao ....... -5 over 11 minutes ........ -21.8/48min Ward, McGrady, Jackson, Taylor, Yao ........ +40 over 140 minutes .... +13.7/48min Of course, it is early there haven't been too many minutes too really accurately guage how well each unit is playing together. But I think this gives us an idea of which players need to play better together at this point. It's surprising to see how poorly the combination of Lue and Yao have done on the court so far. It'll be interesting to monitor how this changes over the course of the regular season.
Yeah, I'm really not liking the Lue and Yao teamup. Just like in the other thread, the two aren't fit for each other. Lue's a quick up tempo player while Yao is a post up player. Plus, the Lue pass to no one in the Lakers game still haunts me. I actually think Yao and Mcgrady are doing pretty well together, and Mcgrady actually turned out to be a pretty nice passer for Yao. He sees Yao and gets him the ball, but Yao just can't penetrate sometimes. Tracy's assists are surprisely higher than I thought they would be. Hopefully, Lue and Yao can either work out their problems or Bob Sura will come back and thrive on the floor with Yao since he's going to be taking up more guard minutes.
Can we see some numbers for when McGrady is the primary ball handler with Yao at C? A lineup such as: PG - McGrady SG - Jackson SF - x PF - x C - Yao
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Sniper:</div><div class="quote_post">Can we see some numbers for when McGrady is the primary ball handler with Yao at C? A lineup such as: PG - McGrady SG - Jackson SF - x PF - x C - Yao</div> I don't think Van Gundy has used that lineup. But McGrady does handle the ball a lot more when Ward is at the point than when Lue is at the point.
Yeah, I just checked on 82games.com and there are no stats available for such a lineup, if there even has been one. I was just looking for a way to measure Tracy's efficiency when running point, but it's impossible because Ward or Lue is always on the court as well. Anyway, one thing I noticed when I was looking around the site was that the Rockets starting lineup is the 4th most effective lineup (starting OR not) in the league. They go like this: #1 - Phoenix starters @ +68!!! #2 - San Antonio starters @ +45 #3 - Indiana starters @ +41 #4 - Houston starters @ +40 Unfortunately, our second highest lineup is just +8 which is HORRIBLE when compared to the rest of the league. Can you guess who is the cause of the drop in production??? Check it: Charlie/Tracy/Jimmy/Maurice/Yao yields +40 Tyronne/Tracy/Jimmy/Maurice/Yao yields -5 Charlie/Tracy/Jimmy/Juwan/Yao yeilds -15 It's easy to see who is bringing us down.
Unfortunately I had to go through every teams page, but it wasn't exceedingly tedious. I didn't pay as much attention to alternate lineups, so I might be wrong about the Rockets being 4th overall, but I'm sure they are in regards to starters.
Actually I just checked them all again and the Rockets starting lineup is indeed the 4th best combination league-wide. The fact that we have nothing past that, is the problem.
wow Sniper, that is a really nice find. When i watched the games, i always thought tyronn lue was playing better than Charlie Ward. Tyronn lue finds ways to score, pass, and he can shoot pretty well. But i guess that stats don't lie. Also, that 2nd stat makes me believe we should trade away Juwan Howard instead of Taylor.
Taylor IMO has actually done pretty well. He is able to play on the perimeter as well, as that gives Yao more space to work down low. Taylor also has added a three-point shot to his game and that decreases the chances of Yao being double-teamed by two big men because whoever guarding Taylor would not dare to double Yao easily. Howard, meanwhile, is a low-post player who would actually clog up the lane and force Yao to try to move out to the perimeter more. Just out of curiosity, have we seen Yao and Mutombo on the court at the same time? Those two would help our rebounding tremendously and would also be a twin-towers tandem. Could we be seeing Van Gundy experiment with that later on in the season?
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Just out of curiosity, have we seen Yao and Mutombo on the court at the same time? Those two would help our rebounding tremendously and would also be a twin-towers tandem.</div> Just wondering, like you said before, wouldn't that clog up the lane like Howard does? I mean, if you do that, there would be two huge centers in the low post and just make it harder to penetrate. It would be great for defense, but not for offense. Well, actually, I've never actually seen the Twin Towers action so would someone please correct and explain it to me?
Well, if those two were on, there would most likely be less penetration and more low post play. If these two were actually on at the same time, I wouldn't mind moving Yao out to the perimeter and having him take 15-footers. Mutombo can jolly well rebound any miss anyways down low.
I don't think a Yao and Mutombo lineup would work very well. The two towers approach worked with Sampson/Olajuwon and Robinson/Duncan because they were all very mobile players with good lateral movement. Mutombo and, particularly, Yao lack that. One of them has to be matched up against a forward, and they wouldn't be able to handle it. For more rebounding punch, I think Van Gundy should experiment with Mutombo and Weatherspoon. I think Spoon is a decent offensive player, he's a good defender with long arms and strong body, and he's probably our best rebounder after Mutombo. He deserves more time on the floor.
Van Gundy doesn't seem to want to play Weatherspoon together. It seems that if Weatherspoon had gotten into a game, Mutombo won't. Van Gundy seems more interested in having Weatherspoon as a backup center than power forward.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Van Gundy doesn't seem to want to play Weatherspoon together. It seems that if Weatherspoon had gotten into a game, Mutombo won't. Van Gundy seems more interested in having Weatherspoon as a backup center than power forward.</div> JVG is forced to play Mo Taylor and Juwon Howard because they are more high-profile players and it would look bad to bench one of the. They're both good guys, competent offensive players, but they just don't rebound. If I had to make a choice, I'd sit Howard for a few games and slide Weatherspoon into the backup PF spot. Just to see how it works.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">JVG is forced to play Mo Taylor and Juwon Howard because they are more high-profile players and it would look bad to bench one of the. They're both good guys, competent offensive players, but they just don't rebound. If I had to make a choice, I'd sit Howard for a few games and slide Weatherspoon into the backup PF spot. Just to see how it works.</div> Well, egos aside, Weatherspoon should be the one backing up Taylor. However, he has played some small forward before in his career, and maybe we could use that to our advantage and play Mutombo/Howard/Weatherspoon together? Although Weatherspoon, might not really be able to guard small forwards, a zone defense could solve that problem.
What about Jim Jackson, he's been grabbing alot of rebounds as of late and has some pretty nice scoring some nights. He's a key role player of the team and deserves the starting spot over Weatherspoon because of his rounded offensive and defensive skills. However, Weatherspoon should have some minutes on this team, he's a great asset and isn't used effectively enough.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">What about Jim Jackson, he's been grabbing alot of rebounds as of late and has some pretty nice scoring some nights. He's a key role player of the team and deserves the starting spot over Weatherspoon because of his rounded offensive and defensive skills. However, Weatherspoon should have some minutes on this team, he's a great asset and isn't used effectively enough.</div> I'm not saying Weatherspoon would start. What I meant was that he'd come off the bench for Jackson instead of Bowen or Nachbar. Jackson has done too much for this team to be benched.
Weatherspoon should get more playing time and Juwon's should be decreased as a result of that. When Sura comes back, he can also take some of Lue's minutes away. this way our two statistical losers will have decreased playing time. It could work to our advantage.
