Fronting takes Yao out of the game. We all know that, and we've known that since his sophomore year, when Najuera took him to school. But, the surprising thing is this. We STILL haven't figured out how to beat it, and it's not rocket science. (no pun intended) The biggest problem I see when teams front Yao is our continued efforts to feed him the ball. This plays right into their hands, because it's the ENTIRE purpose of the defensive strategy. It's set up to exploit Yao's lack of speed by placing a small guy behind Yao to strip it immediately after the ball is caught. And that's the reason why Yao has to be COMPLETELY IGNORED, if and when teams front him. The coaching approaching shouldn't be to find ways to get Yao the ball IN SPITE of the defense, but to pick it apart. A fronting defense isn't the mecca of defenses. It takes their opposing big man out of position to protect the paint, and it also leaves the weak side completely open, since a guard is usually roaming the paint in anticipation of a lob pass. Therefore, given these weakness, you have to have several things to pick this defense apart. 1. A guy who can get by his defender at will. 2. Capable shooters on the perimeter. 2a. Athletic wings/ bigs who can cut to the basket. 3. A guy who can get his shot off at will. The idea behind this approach is that once the ball-handler gets by his man, there is only weak side help to protect the basket. And in these situations, it is usually not their primary shotblocker, which means that the ball-handler can take it to the basket. If the defense comes over fast enough, or if the help defender is an adequate shot blocker, then the ball-handler must find the open man - which, depending on the help defender, can be a wing man (Battier, Artest, etc), or our other big man (Scola/Landry). Another approach is to simply have the ball-handler get off a shot, and have Yao chase for the rebound. If we had vintage Tmac, this wouldn't be a terrible play because of Tmac's advantage with one on one. This seems to be to be Basketball 101, but it has eluded us from day one. What seems to be the problem?
Yao is too slow to get around the smaller guy that is fronting him, thats all. You think D. Howard is gonna let some fukin goofy white boy front him?? Psss, Yeah mothafukin right.
I love how everyone thinks they're being witty by making sweeping generalizations without actually contributing to any topic.
Actually your right, I didnt read the post, I just wanted to make a comment about Yao being fronted. Im just so damn tired of these losses.
At the start of the 3rd, Battier hit a 3 where Yao was being fronted. They tried to enter into Yao and quickly swung it around to Battier in the corner. In the past, this has been one of the best counters on the fronting. Its all about quick passing around the perimeter and proper spacing. I don't think we saw that set again the rest of the game.
our best cutter and ball handler is unfortunately a second year player who coach wont put on the court at crunch time. tmac used to be that guy
It's worth a shot, cause whatever we are doing now is not working. Also, thanks for giving ideas to talk about since this is a forum for discussing these things. I'm tired of these people dropping one liner insults about the threads. If you dont like the thread topic don't participate, its that simple.
I stopped right after Yao = ignored, if you are ignoring Yao Ming completely on offense, why the hell do you need him on the court. Why not bench him all together then. It is really not that complicated, lob the ball high (not very high, but high enough), tell Yao to hold the ball high, don't bring it down. Then make a play, it is really simple. If the smaller guy comes after Yao while he is holding the ball high, that is an automatic foul. See Murphy's foul in tonight's game.
Yeah, Brooks is our best ball-handler, but he's not our best cutter. We have solid cutters at the 4 with Landry and Scola, and we have adequate shooters at our guard positions (sometimes). But, you're right in that Tmac used to be our primary ball handler, who can take his man off the dribble.
normally when yao gets fronted they run a pick for him where he goes to the other elbow and repost.. i didn't see them doing that in the 4th when he was getting fronted.. yao tried to post up, they would front him and when nothing was there someone else was forced to take a shot.. unbelievable that as poorly as we played in the 4th we only needed for someone to make one shot and we win this game
I wouldn't call Brooks our best ball handler. Plus, he hasn't show he can get the ball to Yao properly either. Always throwing bounce passes to him. On the fronting, it goes both ways. The passer has to make a precise pass over the top. If he throws it too far, the help defender behind Yao gets it as Yao isn't fast enough to chase down a pass. They also did a couple things in recent games where they swing the ball to the opposite side where Yao is being fronted and that gets the defender behind him.
Actually, the quick way of breaking a fronting on yao is for the ball handler to go around yao and his defender. Basically what ron was doing today, but he's got to finish strong or yao needs to grab those rebounds if he misses. Late in the 4th, i saw ron do this couple of times and succeeded but yao doesn't either move toward the basket or seems confused on what to do. As soon as ron gets ahead of yao, yao need to move towards the basket behind ron for a tip in or a rebound. This is just an adjustment yao has to make this year, and i'm sure he/rockets will do it eventually, it will take some time though.
Like I said, fronting the opposing big man is a disadvantage from a defensive standpoint. Having Yao out there forces teams to front him, thus making themselves susceptible to being countered with either an open 3, or a cutting big man - both of which are better offensive options than anyone going one on one.
its not as easy as it looks. that pass is difficult to make especially if you aren't a good passer. after all the years we had yao, i don't remember one person that could consistently throw a lob to Yao while being fronted.
That's exactly my point. The ball handler has to beat his defender, then drive past Yao and his defender. It's how the defense reacts after, which determines if the ball handler should take it to the rim or throw it to an open man.
Von Wafer. 1. able to get by most guys at will and the closest to Tmac at being able to do this, except for Brooks. 2. Good shooter 2a. athletic, good hops, has shown he can finish or draw fouls, is aggressive going to the rim. 3. Can get his shot off at will, of course not like Tmac, but he shoots high and has good lift on his shot. Now i'm not saying Wafer is the solution to all their problems, but he needs to be given a shot in situations like these.
I'm not going to play adelman, but after 6 yrs, yao still does a piss poor job of seasling and releasing. The fronting defense only works with great ball pressure on the ball handler and the inability of the post player to hold his spot. Yao still is fighting the position instead of walking to his spot and standing strong with a great wide base. Once they reverse the ball, the guy is on his back so now he needs to open up with his arms up elbows out and seal the guy. I know in china he wasnt used to playing against that type of defense, but this is yr 6.
That is exactly right, how come no one can do it? Do they even practice lob pass? Do they even practice fronting defense? Let Scola front Yao in practice, so we can practice the lob or other ways to break down the fronting. What puzzles me right now is how clueless the players are on offense. 80% of the time, they look unsure or hesitant.
