It's time to poke Coach Sleepy with a stick. Or a cattle prod.

for one kevin martin should start and not come off the bench.. either battier or ariza should come off the bench.. also jeffries should start instead of hayes he showed against the hornets he can make an impact by rebounding and playing defense… also once lowry comes back we should all start seeing how the whole rotation gels… line-up

brooks/lowry
martin/budinger/taylor
ariza/battier
scola/andersen/hill
jeffries/hayes/armstrong

felt like everytime a rocket hit the paint, they got a lot of contact and no call, but when a hornet lost a dribble in the paint, it was a foul, mainly touch fouls. I saw a play where Martin was hit and there was no call.

I think this game it was on the refs and poor 3pt shooting. Ariza reminded me of Artest, felt like he didnt get enough of his shots, so he just started bombing on 3s. He should take a step instead that 3point line and take shots, or drive to the basket and finish hard.

Bud and Scola were the offensive today, I don’t know why they didn’t go back to Bud. I also agree, for someone who doesnt know the offense yet and hasn’t practiced much, JJ is better against bigger centers.

Another practice or two-Rick is big on practicing before voluntarily making changes.
Prob two units of Brooks,Martin,Ariza,Scola,Hayes.(Hayes is still better defending Cs and Martin will quickly learn to use Chuck’s screens.)
Second unit of Lowry/Temple,Bud,Battier,Jeffries,Andersen.
Both units balanced w/wing and big scorer and defender.
Hill has to show something in practice before he gets some token minutes.

And that was taking out Budinger. He was playing ok defense, but was on fire. Hill and Armstrong won’t get a lot of playing time unless it’s garbage minutes. It’s not like Hill is an automatic guy in the rotation, nobody knows what he has. I think Jeffries will actually help this team, his defense was very good. If he hadn’t missed a few layups, it would have been a flawless game for him. Maybe Martin should get more minutes, but he hasn’t even practiced yet. Let’s give them a little time. Making the playoffs is unlikely, and getting to know these players is more important for next year.

the 4th quarter line-up was actually an experiment for RA. jeffries was a pleasant surprise when he showed some scoring on follow-ups and PNRs. he must have been surprised whey he was being given the ball because he missed a couple of lay-ups :-) but he worked hard on defense, even got a cut on his eye, and showed he could finish on the PNR.

yeah, he definitely gives us more muscle than andersen can give us. i hope he gets more PT.

my only beef with ariza was the two 3pointers he took in the endgame. if AB is getting beaten by his man, RA should do something about it through a substitution rather than complaining how poor our defensive intensity is.

our players don’t have any problem with desire and motivation; it’s the game plan and adjustments, coach! in the endgame, we actually have go-to guys and their names are not ariza!!!

even if he got his contract extension, RA can wear out his welcome very soon if this keeps up. His GM is very savvy about basketball.

we can still put together a solid run but Orlando, SA, and Utah are our next three games. Ugh! hopefully they’re a quick study

Is there any Lowry updatE?

still wearing a boot last night so Bullard said that’s still at least more than a week away

Lowery’s out, for all practical purposes look at it as though Landry’s out. We just acquired some guys that don’t know the system and it will take a while for them to learn it. I know for a fact they have not had any practice. Since being acquired they have only had two back to back games. (Home/Road back to backs mind you.) Give the new guys a little time, we shot the ball poorly over all last night and the officiating, well, lets just say it was horrible as usual when you play in New Orleans. There is never a time in the NBA when one team should shoot double the amount of free throws as another. But we lost, I’m not going to whine, but I watched the Hockey game most of the night after both Bill and Bull early on laughed about the officiating in the first half.

Brooks, Martin, Jeffries, Scola, Ariza — You got a passer, shooter, shot blocker, low-post guy and catch and shoot.

Brooks has speed and can split the D or shoot the 3. Martin is suppose to be the offense that we are missing and he can do the same and get to the line. Jeffries doesn’t have much of an offense, but he has the height and is VERY good on Defense. As shown, he can put back shots and has the ability to sneak in a few layups. Just to be sure, he should just dunk those layups to eliminate any chance of missing. Scola can shoot the short jumpers and post up to get the layups he is so good at. Ariza, I don’t know. He can shoot fairly well instead the arc, I think he like Brooks needs to attack the basket.

I think Bud, Battier, and Lowry should be the first to come off the bench, D from Battier and Lowry and Offensive from Lowry and Bud.

To go small, Rick should put Brooks, Martin, Lowry, Bud, Ariza – pure offensive, not much defensive, but definitely VERY fast.

that’s how we let out steam :-)

did DM really try to trade Scola, Battier for Amare and Budinger (w/ TMac) for Iggy/ Dalembert? I think DM is ruthless serious about building a winning team NOW. methinks this summer we will be surprised at a few more of his deals as he tries to build a competitive team around yao/martin. there will be no sacred cows. that’s why these 29 remaining games (if we don’t enter the play-offs) will be crucial for deciding who goes and who stays.

“Making matters worse, McGrady said he banged knees a couple of times and wasn’t sure he would play Tuesday in Boston. This was only his eighth game this season after returning from knee surgery.

‘’Hopefully it’s not sore tomorrow,‘’ he said. ’’I may lace them up and play tomorrow, but we’ll see.’’

McGrady scored 15 points, but shot only 5 of 14.

From tonight’s Knicks game, in which they scored a whopping 67 points. Will he play tomorrow or won’t he? Is he hurt or isn’t he? Is he happy or is he sad?

Welcome to the Tracy McGrady Experience, NYC.