Dear Nick Van Exel...

[leemajors]

i would rather have barry run the offense. from what i saw in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, the offense was running a lot smoother with barry handling the ball.

[sprrs]

Exactly...this wasn't a couple of games ago....or three months ago...that was 3 YEARS AGO...

Age doesn't exactly remove one's "clutchness", ask Robert horry.

[sprrs]

You mean the series when he shot exactly 37.5% from the floor? , when he was coming off the bench in the first few games of that series he shot 32.5% on 49 shots. The guy is a bulk shooter. He has to get up a ton of shots to have one of those "on fire" moments. Otherwise they are very few and far between.

Horry doesn't exactly shoot that great of a % either

[FreshPrince22]

So you're gonna play a guy who shoots you out of games and can't defend because he MIGHT hit a big shot for you? I don't know if I see the same things you do, but Horry, in general, makes smart plays throughout the game. He may coast, but he won't do things that hurt the team like Van Exel. Which is why Horry is second to only Tony in overall +/- on the team, and Van Exel is only better than 2 scrubs (Oberto and Marks).

[sprrs]

I'm aware that Horry is a -much- more efficient player than Van Exel. My point is that shooting percentage doesn't necessarily affect one's ability to hit big shots.

Although yesterday's game was still winnable at the end, it only got that way because of some big shots Van Exel hit late.

[Dre_7]

So you're gonna play a guy who shoots you out of games and can't defend because he MIGHT hit a big shot for you? I don't know if I see the same things you do, but Horry, in general, makes smart plays throughout the game. He may coast, but he won't do things that hurt the team like Van Exel. Which is why Horry is second to only Tony in overall +/- on the team, and Van Exel is only better than 2 scrubs (Oberto and Marks).

Horry absolutely SUCKED in qtrs 1, 2, and 3 in Game 5 of the Finals last year. But he stayed in the game cuz you never know when he could catch fire. Which is what happened. Had Pop pulled him cuz of his bad play, we may be talking about Detroit chasing 70 wins AND a third straight le.