Yao Ming Instructed By Jeff Van Gundy To Take More Shots

hasnt yao been doing this (putting the offense on his shoulders) all by himself, without "instruction," for about 2-3 weeks now?

 

Yes, but it will be interesting to see how he alters his game when T-Mac is back. Will he once again defer to Tracy, or will he maintain his aggressiveness??

 

IF Tracy is back.

Which he more than likely will be. But just throwing that out there.

 

The gameplan should be to go to Yao early and often in the quarter to get to the bonus as soon as possible. Getting into the bonus early helps the whole team be more aggressive offensively and opens up the whole game because the defense has to back off or send us to the FT line. Especially since Yao is such a great FT shooter.

IF we get the 3rd scorer and he is an 80% FT shooter, that will be 4 to 5 guys on the floor that can knock 'em down. The defense can't do the hack a Shaq on us without consequences.

Then when Yao takes a blow, TMac should be the primary scorer. Same thing out of the half, go to Yao early and rack up the fouls for the bonus and for 4th quarter crunch time when guys have piled up 5 and have to get out of the game or play tentatively.

McGrady will get his just within the flow of the offense. I look for his shooting percentages to go up significantly next year with the maturation of Yao and the defensive attention given to Yao. McGrady's shots will be much less contested than they were early this season.

Down the stretch, put the basketball in TMac's hands and let him create. He'll still go to Yao as the defense picks their poison or take the shot or make the pass out to the open spot up shooter. McGrady is a great decision maker.

If we get a 3rd established NBA scorer and TMac stays healthy, our offense will go sky high next year.

 

It took them 4 years to realize that the guy shooting 50+% should be taking more shots than the other players shooting 30%?
Brilliant!!

 

Good to hear the confirmation. I think JVG mentioned that too in the chron a few days ago.

TMac came to Houston ready to play the 1B or even 2nd option. But for whatever reason it didn't work out at the beginning of last season, so Tmac went to JVG and had a long talk, after that Yao became a 2nd option. Now that Yao has made significant progress, TMac will be more than happy to see Yao get much more touches than before.

TMac himself said "Yao has figured it out". So, yeah, if TMAC come back healthy next season and we get much better role players, Rockets will be a force to be reckoned with. That is IF 1)Tmac come back healthy AND 2)we get much better role players. Without 2) Tmac and Yao would be exhausted by playoff or during the playoff run. Without 1), we at best got 94's Rockets with Yao as poor man's Dream, which won't be enough to win a championship either.

 

JVG should instruct everyone else on the team to MAKE more shots. And to stop turning the ball over. Why hasn't he told them that already?

 

C'mon man, we stop with the whole Yao vs. T-Mac thing a long time ago...no need to revisit this. The guy was playing injured most of the season and I think he will get his shooting touch back next season.

Anyway, I agree with JVG on the whole balancing the offense between the two star, but didn't Yao said last week he will demand and be more vocal on getting the ball more from his teammates, or did he revert back to his unselfish ways? Yao needs to walk the talk and don't rely on JVG so much b/c his teammates don't care for JVG. He just needs to keep playing like he always had in the last couple of month and carry it over to the next season. I will be really piss if he decided slack off in the last 7-8 game regardless if his teammates refers to him or not. Just finish off the season with the same aggression and show us that you want the ball...thats all I want to see in this crappy ass season, win or lose.

 

So after the instruction, he took only 11 shots the next game.

 

It's not just about shots, it's about touches. Yao's been playing against double-teams for years now and it's never made sense that the offense doesn't go through him 80% of the time. It's basketball 101.

T-Mac can still take as many shots as he wants, but to help our overall offense the ball has to go through Yao.

 

No! We have just been given a glimer of what is to come. So far Yao Ming has been shy about reaching too high a toatal in any one game, he doesn't want to seem as though he is greedy. It is hoped that next season we will see the new Yao Ming confident and not afraid to go over 40 points .

 

I think that this news is music to McGrady's ears more than anyone else. When he first came here, he was ready and willing to defer to Yao as the primary option (for an entire month, he did so). However, Yao wasn't quiet ready yet to take on that role. Now that the big man matured his game to new heights, I think McGrady will be more than happy to share or defer to him. People often forget that perhaps the best interior passer to Yao is T-Mac, he has a knack for making great passes to Yao in just the right spot. McGrady came here to share the spotlight, not to steal it from anyone else; he could've stayed in Orlando if that was his aim. In terms of unselfishness on the basketball court, he's more similar to Garnett in that aspect.

I loved this quote from JVG, because it's true: "They are both extremely selfless. When one performs well and outstanding, the other will feel happy. Therefore they do not compete against each other (to become the franchise player of this team). Moreover, just because of these 2 people, our entire team has become more selfless. "

There is no need to worry about next season if T-Mac is physically healthy, that's the biggest wild card and the only matter of concern moving forward IMO, the rest we can improve upon.

 

Two of the most insightful posts on these boards and why JVG should be fired. But he won't be because he knows how to kiss but to his star player or at least one of them.

 

Unless we hit the jackpost with out draft pick this summer and land an all-star caliber player, the only way this team will compete for a title is for Yao/T-mac to go the Shaq/Kobe route and score an incredible percentage of the team's points. I'm talking upwards of 57 ppg from our two stars combined.

Especially since we've got Rafer locked up longterm. This is why we brought him in. If he's not going to shoot a good percentage, then he has to help maximize our two stars' output.

Ideally, Yao/T-mac will start playing off each other and go for 30+/30+. And there's really no reason why that can't happen since Tracy has already been able to average 30 ppg in his career, and he sets up Yao better than anyone else ever has.

 

this is jvg big offensive adjustment lol. On a side not why wasnt yao allowed offesive freedom before.

 

by those shooting 30%, i meant everyone at our guard positions. T-mac I can trust making an open shot or over someone. Sadly, yao has a higher percentage shot over a double team than rafer does hitting an open three.

 

If this is true,we can expect more for next season when TMac can come back with a healthy body and Yao keep his state as 20-10.Of course, outer shooters need to practice 1000 3-point shots everyday this summer

 

rockets instructed by front office to win more games.