Friday, January 22nd, 2010...12:38 pm
Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs. Houston Rockets
Chuck Hayes, in case you haven’t hear, is one hell of a defensive player. Standing at 6-6 he’d with little to no offensive skills, he’d have to be to remain a starter in this league, and word of his talents are finally spreading, as evident by a fairly recent New York Times article.
Somehow and quite skillfully, Hayes, who has started each of the Rockets’ 38 games this season, performs his duties despite the inherent disadvantages before tip-off. He is one of the better defenders against the league’s best post players — including Orlando’s Dwight Howard and the Lakers’ Andrew Bynum — who are all taller and more athletic than Hayes.
“On paper, it looks like guys that have great length should dominate against Chuck, but they continually struggle against him,” his teammate Shane Battier said. “If you watch him in a game, you’re like, ‘Gosh, this guy is giving away six inches and a foot in wingspan,’ yet nobody is scoring on him.”
But as good as he’s been, chances are he’s not going to stop Tim Duncan from the single point he needs to reach 20,000 for his career. If you can be there, make sure to get there early. It shouldn’t take too long.
Beyond Duncan reaching his milestone, there is little else that can be certain about tonights game. Both the Rockets and Spurs come into the game leaving fans not sure what team will show up, going 5-5 each over their last 10 games. The difference? Rockets fans knew coming into the season this team would be an unknown while Spurs fans were expecting contenders.
15 Comments
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Chuck Hayes. The guy that Blair should spend 1/2 the summer watching video of… The other 1/2 of Blair’s summer video watching should be Charles Barkley.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:23 pm
After watching the Jazz game, I have come to the limit of my patience with this underachieving spurs team. And for the first time ever, I am blamming it on horendous coaching.
First problem, the line ups and grouping of players. RJ has never been a spot up shooter, he drives to the basket and hits the open shots. During the Jazz game when parker and duncan were pulled, I saw my dream mix of players together, RJ Manu and Hill. All three are deadly as they penetrate and can hit the open jump shot (usually).
In my opinion, the spurs starters should be Parker, Bogans, Mason Jr, Duncan, and Mcdyess. This spreads the floor for duncan to work inside and for parker to drive or take his jump shots and leaves Mason outside to challeneg people with his 3s along wit mcdyess to take his jump shots.
The second team subs should be Hill, Manu, RJ, Blair, and Ratliff/Mahimi. This gives the spurs the abillity to clear out and have 3 players (hill, Manu, and RJ) who can kill on fastbreaks or driving to the hoop.
The Utah Jazz game showed how deadily the 3 working together can be, now just the starters need to be fixed by adding Mason Jr.
Lastly, the spurs should put bonner and finely on the market and see if anyone is willing to surrender a defensive stopper or athletic big man to challenge Dirk and players like kobe. If not, find one in the draft next year.
Please Pop, Start these 5 players, use the other 5 for reserves!
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Spurs waived Haislip today, possible trade coming?
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:06 pm
A previous post about RJ got me thinking. Although he is not an expiring contract this season, he only has 1.5 years remaining on his contract. I wonder if a team would consider taking him if the Spurs would be willing to take on a 3-4 year contract in return. Although RJ has been a bust so far, there’s no real reason to believe his game has greatly diminished since last season. I think he’s simply on the wrong team attempting to implement a system that’s not suited to his strengths.
If we could trade him plus a draft pick to sweeten things up, that would keep our core intact and we wouldn’t lose another player (Tony or Manu) who was familiar with Pops system. The other team in the trade would get a SF who could still get 18-20 ppg if in the right system plus a draft pick. I really think the Spurs are still one big gun away from doing some real damage and so far RJ has not been that.
Maybe I’m crazy but what do you guys think? Has his stock fallen too far to be tradeable?
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
hate to hear the news about haislip, was courtside in memphis he had energy and looked like a freak of nature out running the little guys.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
yes, i agree, blair should watch tapes of chuck hayes defending in the post. just b/c you give up several inches doesn’t make you weak. you have a lower center of gravity which gives you more leverage to uproot and hold your ground against taller guys. this is why for the most part, football players are not that tall (compared to basketball players).
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
btw, can you guys speak on the iguodala talks? i would love to see him on the spurs. and i would love it even more if we could trade jefferson for iggie.
plus, how do you think iggie would play in a spurs offense where he doesn’t get to handle the ball as much and the fact that his jump shot is as consistent as jefferson’s.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:40 pm
I am watching the Spurs once vaunted defense being shredded by a hard fighting but less talented team. Their defense is awful, no one is willing to foul hard on those lay ups by the Rockets guards. I never thought Bruce Bowen would be so sorely missed on such a talented team but he is! They will be one and done in the playoffs the way they are playing at this point. The only one playing with passion seems to be Ginobli. If the Spurs collectively had Manu;s heart or the Rockets fighting spirit they would be right up there with the Lakers.
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Can we bring Bruce Bowen back?
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:46 pm
RJ is an AVERAGE player playing on a team which does not suit his AVERAGE traits. I said this over and over during the offseason and got a lot of flack for it on this website.
I consistantly brought up his horrendous adjusted +- numbers. Last year, the team playing WITHOUT RJ on the floor did better than with him, and we are talking about the worst team in the league here.
RJ is a volume shooter. That means that he is an inefficient shooter that gets into what groove he can get into, while chucking up numerous attempts. This is a horrible fit for the spurs, who were looking for a role player. The Spurs needed a guy defensive wing man who was athletic and efficient with the ball. They got the exact opposite. I’m not sure what the FO was thinking.
And what team in their right minds would want RJ? He is NOT an expiring contract, in fact he has 2 years remaining. And the contract is a horrendous one. In fact, i highly doubt that any team would want RJ for FREE. That is, they wouldn’t want his contract for his skills.
The Spurs must make a move immedietly if they want to contend for a ring. They need an athletic big man like Anthony Wrandolph or a defensive minded wing player who is efficient with the ball.
It is not too late for the Spurs, but there is little doubt that this team is NOT a championship team as currently constructed. The Spurs have found gems in Blair and Hill, and luckily Pop has played Blair more often than the beginning of the season. But as constructed, this team is simply not talented enough to beat the Nuggets, nevermind the Lakers, in the playoffs. In fact, i doubt they could handle the Mavs at this point.
I figure a 1st or 2nd round playoff defeat this year, unless something changes.
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Kaveh,
Anthony Randolph is injured and the only way the Warriors part with him is if you take Cory Maggette. If I had to bet, I would say that RJ on many nights has asked the question, “why did the Spurs trade for me if they are only going to give me 8 shots per game?” During the average game, Hill, Duncan, Parker, Manu, and sometimes even RMJ take MORE shots than Jefferson and three of those names have no damned business doing so. As I said, RJ’s skills haven’t diminished THAT much in 6 months. Pop just doesn’t seem to know what to do with him. What compounds the problem is that Parker doesn’t set his teammates up for shots; including Jefferson. I am ranting at this point. I guess the bottom line is that the Spurs need to get serious in the regular season or they need a dramatic shake-up by summer at the latest.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:57 am
Hobson13, if RJ is worried about how many shots he takes compared to how many shots his teammates get, then he shouldn’t be in a Spurs uniform in the first place.
Our championship-level Spurs teams were about winning titles, not personal numbers/accomplishments.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:40 am
So, aren’t the Spurs supposed to be peaking when the rodeo comes? What do all the wait for the rodeo people have to say now? I said it before that sticking to the eternal wait for the rodeo mentality will cost you dearly because you’re ignoring all the signs that are right in front of your face but you just chalk up to the spurs being the spurs
January 23rd, 2010 at 7:43 am
people sure are quick to mash the panic button…..there are plenty of games to go and no one, including the Spurs themselves, can tell what is going to happen. Granted the Spurs are inconsistent and that is their weakness. Once they start getting into a rhythm the will improve greatly.
January 25th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
OFFENSE IS NOT THE PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS AND WE SUCK ON “D”!!!!!
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