Okay first let me start off by saying I may have misjudged Van Gundy's coaching ability. I always considered him to be an above average defensive coach and a poor offensive coach. After watching the last couple of games it has become apparent to me that he can run a decent offense, albeit slow in coming. I loved the way the Rockets moved the ball around the horn and creating open looks for there 3 point shooters. What I found even more impressive is the way the Bucks effort to double team Yao caused so many open looks on the 3 point line. Surprisingly this occurrence was actually opposite of how I envisioned it. In the days of Hakeem the ball always went in first to him and then when the defenses collapsed Hakeem would pass out of the low post and the Rockets would move it around the horn to find the open 3 point shooter. The Rockets killed this way. But last night it wasn’t Yao’s inside game that opened up Houston’s outside game but rather the other way around. The Rockets lead by Novak and Padgett were killing the Bucks behind the arc and when they finally started coming off of Yao to guard the Arc then the Rockets quickly adjusted and passed inside to Yao who was now 1 on 1 down low. Got to love those odds. Also something else to note Billy has already become the best passer into Yao on the team. This is impressive for several reasons. One JVG in a short period of time has the young guys executuing very efficiently and unselfishly. 2 we have gunners who are deadly. From Novak to Padgett to Battier, Snyder, Lucas, Alston, we have guys who can shoot. Finally Yao hasn’t been as open as he was at times last night because of the deadly shooting. So now I have to ask myself why hasn’t Jeff run this kind of offense before. And don’t say it’s because we never had the shooters. In the beginning of the season we had some shooters with Wesley and Barry and Tmac. But the movement of the offense never looked as good as last night. My thinking is we had too many players who wanted to do it themselves. Think about it when we had Francis, Moochie and Mobley my biggest problem with them was they tried to much to do it all themselves. Once a player has that mentality I am not so sure it is easy to coach it out of them. Certainly Van Gundy tried with Francis before he traded him. And last year Wesley was that kind of player as well as Howard. I was watching Juwan last night and I only saw him once pass the ball after receiving it. He is a blackhole. And you know JVG isn’t telling him to never pass out. So he must just be uncoachable in that area. Anyway my point is in order to make the offense work the way it did last night is you have to have players that can shoot but also are completely unselfish and will move the ball until they find the open man. So there in lies Van Gundy’s dilemna. Last night Tmac didn’t play and the offense ran smoother without him. Please before you Tmac fans start bashing me let me say I think Tmac may be the most gifted athletes in the league. He can shoot from almost midcourt and he can create on his on. But if you ever watch players like Tmac and Kobe play you will see a lot of standing around by the other players while the superstars do there thing. It’s not a knock just a fact. So how do you coach a team with 2 stars as unique as Yao and Tmac and still move the ball around as smoothly as last night. It seems to me Tmac will have to be willing to give up some of his offensive focus and fall into the more team oriented. And IMO that’s a lot to ask from a guy who is the best offensive player on the team. I’m not saying he has to do it all the time. Certainly there will be times we should clear the floor and let him do his thing and obviously when Yao’s not on the floor then Tmac needs to be the central focus on offense. So working in Tmac into this new style will be a challenge. And this isn’t even including Bonzi who has a history of being a low post scorer who likes to back his players down low and has not shown the unselfish kind of passing we might need from him. So Van Gundy has his hands full and his coaching abilities will be tested. Still he has shown he can do it with a bunch of young guys who are willing to listen. Let’s see how he handles the starters. P.S. On a more personal view of JVG. I thought it was humorous the way he auditioned the Rowdies. Sometimes I think I misjudge his character. It could just be gas.
1) If Tmac is not on the floor we will not get the wide open looks we got last night against the scrubs of Milwaukee 2)T-Mac has never been a player that demands touches. He just wants to win. It just so happens that he has to carry most of the load on the teams he has been on.
Relax TMac Fan... This is not about bashing TMac. I am a fan. This is about seeing how he will work into a more team oriented offense. And regardless of what you might think it is not automatic for a player to change styles. Tmac as you so well put it has been on teams were he was demanded to be their central focus. And after you do for as long as he has and as good as he has changing habit does not happen over night. Before when he got the ball he look over the defense and see how he could take advantage of them. He would make his move and many times get to the basket. Now with Yao he has also learned to look for Yao if there wasn't anything for him in the middle. The problem with Yao down low there is already congestion for Tmac trying to drive to the lane. Now if you have some suggestion on how to deal with this that would be appreciated.
1. One difference between Hakeem's days and now is the illegal D rule. Under illegal D, you can't double a man without the ball. Now, teams don't really have to wait until a player got the ball to send extra pressure on him, whether in the form of a double team or a "near double team". Early on, I saw the Bucks sagging extra guys around Yao even when he's just trying to establish post position, leaving the shooter open. I like the fact guys learned to take the open shots when they got them, thus free up Yao later on. 2. How Yao and TMac play together needs to be worked out. When Yao does into the post hard, TMac will need to take a backseat and play more like Novak/Snyder on offense. When TMac is going at it as the man running the show, Yao needs to find some way to be useful without having the ball. It's going to be the challenge for both stars and the coach to figure out.
I would say that in many of those games we lost last year when Yao was doing his thing, we would've won had our players been able to hit open shots. Our players can hit open shots this year so I don't think your first assertion is accurate. As far as T-Mac wanting to win first, I totally agree. He wouldn't be here if that wasn't his main priority.
Like your name says, you are a macfan. Tmac is good, but if he "wants to just win", he's just going to have to fit in like something other than a sore thumb. He also needs to play defense as a team guy. The guy is one of the most talented athletes on the planet and when he wants to, he shuts his opponent down. The problem lies in how often he wants to do this. I'd like to see a player like Tony Parker get hot. Tmac notices him heating up and calls a timeout. Says to coach, "Put me on him. I'll shut Parker down." That is the one thing missing from Tmac's game, defense. Everyday, every-play defense.
You're making it sound like there's something very different about this particular duo this year. How did they accomplish it the last 2 years when they played together? How did Shaq and Kobe do it and not get in the way of each other? T-mac was very succesful playing along Vince Carter as a secondary player. Bottomline is, he's a high IQ player who is very adaptable and is so versatile thatn he can not be rendered ineffective. HE can be Magic Johnson or he can be Michael Jordan. That's why he's so good. He doesn't have to be a scorer to impact the game. His talents are diverse.
it's harder to double team yao when u have to double team tmac too. when the defnese is scrambling to figure out who to double team, novak, padgett, shane go to work. no dilema. it only gets better.
This is the kind of stuff that Tmac has been hearing since the day he starting average 20ppg. The guy is pretty good on offense, but he still shoots below 50% on offense, his PER isn't that great and he doesn't play defense every play. When he starts doing that, he'll be the player he was born to be. Until then, he's a rung below any great player.
The reason he has been hearing stuff like that is because of people like you. People try to put forth these misconceptions about T-Mac about not playing defense etc etc That's BS. People have selective memory. You choose to focus on last year when he wasn't healthy. THe year before he was hands down our best defender. He shut down Nowitzki and Howard. He has shut down Lebron, Rashard Lewis, Carmelo Antony and other top small forwards. Bottomline is, he has been the best playoff performer 3 of the last 7 years. No perimeter player shoots 50%.
Kind of reminds me of a well-oiled offensive football system, like the Colts of 2005. You got the Edge establishing the run similar to Yao at the post, and Peyton gunning it like Tracy on the wings playing off the play-action pass. Pick your poison.
I think TMac has always made an effort to get Yao involved. During the playoff series with Dallas, there were several shots of him trying to pump up Yao when Yao wasn't doing so well. You can't say TMac doesn't get others involved as well. A career average of 4.4 assists/game from a 2/3 refutes that. (Up to 4.8 last season) I think the main issue in the last 2 seasons has been the other players deferring to Yao. Although they would always say he's a great player, it didn't always show in how much they would focus on getting the ball to him. Now that we have a bunch of youngsters on the team, they are more willing to look to Yao for leadership. And TMac not playing defense..?? There are a lot of holes in this contention. 1. 1.3 steals, 1 block, 6.4 boards per game is very good for your primary offensive weapon. 82games also shows he has a positive impact on defense. 2. TMac shouldn't even have to be our primary defender. He's already our main offensive weapon. Having him chase around quick 2-guards would hurt the team more than help it. 3. Lastly, I don't think in Van Gundy's defense will you ever see a stand-out, primary defender (ala Bruce Bowen). JVG's defense is team-oriented, and depends on a lot of switching and (in my opinion) is a mix of man-to-man and zone defense. It uses the entire team to blanket the field. Why depend on 1 man when you can use 5? Anyway, back to the main point. I think Yao and TMac do know how to work together - they've been developing a chemistry over the last 2.5 years. (Can't say 3 because of last season). I would argue that this -is- the first year they have reliable shooters. Barry and Wesley were good shooters, but often were too slow or short and were only good in spurts. As for Bonzi, I think he will be best for us as a 6th man. When Yao comes out, take out someone else also and put in Bonzi and maybe Hayes. Go small and let Bonzi be a wrecking ball in the post. He won't have to worry about being selfish and can be in his element. Teams will have to pick their poison between Bonzi and TMac, who will have 2 quick shooters (Head, Novak, VSpan, Alston, etc.) circling around them. Hayes will be there for the boards and putbacks
Rock, I think a lot of us have misjudged Jeff's ability. He is a system coach. Rudy was more of a player's coach; running plays based on his player's strenghts and catering to their game. Jeff, wants everyone to fit twithin the limits of his sets, which highlight constant ball movement to either isolate or free up a shooter. The system clicked for the first time in the Spring two years ago. (Remember the Pink Floyd locker room reference "Welcome to the Machine...") This was also the time that JB, David, and Bobby really gelled and started knocking down the J's with consistency. That said, the system really looks good, as it did 2 years ago, when we make opposing teams pay by hitting the outside shot. As was the case with his Knicks during the stretch that they made the playoffs year after year. Allan Houston, Chris Childs, Derek Harper, and ocassionally Latrell would make teams pay for sagging and cheating down on Ewing. I know it's not rocket science, but surrounding Yao and Tracy with a bunch of CONSISTENT shooter's seems to be what was missing. I have faith in Van Gundy. I think he is weak in terms of dealing with the media and staying positive, but as it has been mentioned on the board lately, he is trying to be a little more optimistic and positive. With the talent on the roster, he should be.
I won't worry about this. This is just preseason... Tmac and Yao pick'n roll two man game will be deadly. Yao backdoor to Head, Tmac, Yao kick off to Novak, Snider will also be effective.
Snyder has impressed me with his passing into Yao, too. I'll say for sure that he has made the best pass into Yao this preseason. The Dallas game, when he caught Diop looking away, and threw one right by Diop's ear to Yao at dunking range. And Snyder had that ball in his hands for only a split second--a catch and pass while noting the defender was looking away. I recall at least one other dart to Yao for a point-blank shot. Those types of passes show me that Snyder is focusing on the defense rather than Yao. Like how a quarterback looks at the defense and not the WRs. Yao's easy to keep in your peripheral vision...he's watching you and he'll catch the ball, so find the open passes by watching the defenders. Burn them if they take their eyes off you to cover Yao. but, imo, TMac is the best passer into Yao. I think he proved that in the Dallas playoff series. Not to mention TMac has the height advantage in his passing, the TMac/Yao pnr destroyed Dallas, with several nifty tall man-to-tall man passes over the defense as Yao rolled. that said, I'm definitely impressed with Billy's ability to make good fastbreak decisions and passes. He's a natural.
Yeah that was a smart pass from Snyder and definitely TMac is good too. But you have to watch where Billy gets the ball to Yao. It's not just the pass but it actually puts in a place above Yao's chest where Yao seems to be able to handle it better. It could just be coincidence but it seems he is aiming for that area and Yao seems to be able to take it from there and go right to the basket with it. I only saw it twice but it's definitely something to watch for.
I see no problem with T-Mac sharing. T-Mac has a very high BB IQ and has seemed to always attempt to share the ball since he has been here so I see no issue here. In 04-06 when the Rockets played Dallas in the play-offs assits were way, way up and ball move ment was exceptional. We just did not have the athletes to stay with Dallas in game seven that year. With Barry, Wesly, Sura and James our team shot extreamly well and moved the ball as well as any team in the NBA. That is what I hope this team imulates but with better athletes.
Hey, all of the league would love to have our problem. Having two all world superstars like that on our team, the rest is just gravy!
