Dat2U wrote:I don't think Battier's necessarily slipped b/c of declining ability, I think he's just settled into not trying to do anything offensively other than spot up for that corner J. It's almost like he's patterned his game after Bruce Bowen. Bowen has been an awful offensive player for years if you look at just his PER numbers. It's because he does little else than spot up in the corner or make the extra pass.
Defensively Battier is as good as ever. Like Nate said, on a team with Arenas, Jamison, Butler, Foye and Young, you begin to see a declining return on all these offensive assets. You can only have so much offense. Battier IMO would contribute and impact us more on the defensive end than Miller can making 4 or 5 shots a night as part of an offensive juggernaut.
There's also the situation of Miller's impending FA. What are the chances we keep Miller AND Foye next season? As has been mentioned Battier gives us an extra year at an affordable price.
Battier's game is also not based on athleticism. He was never anything more than an average athlete at best. He's a successful defender based on smarts and guile and the dilligence in which he follows the scouting reports. Like Bowen, I suspect Battier to be a more than effective defender into his mid 30s.
Houston lost its 2 best scorers last season - Yao and McGrady. It made no sense for the betterment of the team for Battier to intentionally try to score less......................
I never bought the argument about Jamison's game not likely to decline due to his not relying on athleticism, so that argument about Battier not needing athleticism sounds equally week. Obviously, any decline in athleticism would cause a decline in the quality of play - no matter how much guile ands marts a player has. If that wasn't the case, Bill Laimbeer and Joe Dumars would be all-stars this season. If Jamison keeps a high level of play late in his career, it's because he outworks everyone to stay in shape (which he does on the Zards) and stays healthy (which he has).