Word on the Street: Dikembe Mutombo

I wish they could give him an honorary start for Friday’s game or something of the like. I’ll be there on Friday and I’m sure everyone else there will want to give that man the ovation he deserves.

The problem is that Deke was never much of an offensive threat. But we typically think of a lot of no-defense, all-offense players as hall-worthy, so we should probably think the same of all-defense, no-offense players, too. Provided, of course, that their defense was just that good.

And Deke was one of the best defenders in the league every year he played. Throughout his career, the value of his defense was pretty consistently underrated, so he hopped around from team to team, but he was one of the best centers of his era, certainly. Probably the 5th-best of a pretty stacked era for centers (Hakeem, Shaq, Robinson, Ewing, then probably Deke, distant 5th in either Alonzo Mourning or Chris Webber). Definitely a lot closer to Ewing than he was to the Hakeem-Shaq-Robinson group. It’s just hard to tell because virtually all of Deke’s contributions came in defense and rebounding.

Obviously, the first four of that group are either in or are going to the hall of fame. Webber and Mourning both have pretty good shots at the hall (neither are automatic locks, though). Deke should go as well.

thinking of making a donation to his organization. It wouldn’t kill me to spare a few bucks.

I wasn’t trying to get preachy or anything but I’ve been following the Biamba Marie Hospital since I found out about it (around when Deke came to Houston) and thought this would be a good time for us to pimp it. I’m a med school student in Galveston, and was even thinking about trying to do a rotation there.

Deke saw very limited action in the regular season. The vast majority of his PT came in games where Yao was out with injury or illness. He was not part of the regular rotation. The team knows how to play without him. Chuck, Scola, and Landry have been defending the big guys when Yao sits all year. They know the drill. The biggest loss will be emotionally. Hopefully they can turn that into motivation in a “win one for Deke” campaign.

In a nutshell, I am a little concerned, but not exactly suicidal.

The combinations at the 4/5 that we’re most likely to see when Yao sits now is: Scola/Landry, Scola/Hayes, and Scola/Battier/Artest (which would be more of a 1 big/3 wing/1 pg set). I really don’t see us playing Landry at the 5.

I’m not too worried about LA, as good a player as he is. I have faith in Hayes (and Scola) to play him one on one as well as anyone could. If he scores on jumpers over them, I’ll live.

My biggest worry is with Oden on the court with LA. LA forces our 4 to stretch, and thus, will have to come a long way to double if Oden gets good position. The only low post defender on our roster that I’d have faith to play Oden on the low post one on one is Hayes, and I have a feeling he’ll be sticking LA whenever they’re both on the court. I can see Oden just eating us up down low, which would force Yao to mimic Oden’s minutes on the floor more so than Pryz.

The Pryz/Oden lineup is another interesting wrinkle, but I’m not as worried about it because I see Yao being on the court whenever ya’ll put it up. Honestly, it gives you guys a better presence on the boards, but I don’t know if it gives you guys enough of an advantage to warrant LA sitting and not putting Outlaw at the 4 (If for nothing else, to spread the floor). If we have another capable defensive big (like Scola or Hayes) on the floor with Yao AND with Battier/Artest capable of crashing if necessary, I think RA has seen the Pryz/Oden line up enough in Game 2 to figure out how to solve it (but thats speculative).

What I think it comes down to is that we’ll be seeing a lot more of Hayes on the court from now on. The inside presence that Deke gave us defensively isn’t replacable, so it will come down to is if Hayes can do what HE does best (exceptional defensive positioning and great one on one big play) to the extent that his presence will be a net plus.