Rick Adelman On How to Deploy Yao Ming & Tracy McGrady

It's disturbing how some people here are bent on the assistant coach's way of playing basketball even though we all saw how miserably it failed this team time and time again.

I am tired of Yao fighting for position for 10 seconds at a time, and when he finally gets the ball, it's either stripped, he's fronted and doubled, or he's working too hard for a shot because

A. The offense calls for everyone to stand still and watch him

B. The offense was ALWAYS the same no matter what. Everyone knew exactly what was going to happen.

Yao got swatted far too many times in that playoff series with the jazz because the stubborn dictator wouldn't make any adjustments.

For the guy calling himself a Yao fan, yet is doubting his abilities as a player beyond a one dimensional turn around jump shooter, you aren't a real fan.

You're just some fanatic wth very limited basketball knowledge and thank goodness you aren't a coach for this team.

 

Adelman compares McGrady to Drexler. Is this a legit comparison? I know they seem similar, but after last seasons poor shooting and unability to penetrate, I worry for Tracy. Hope he can become Orlando-esque this season.

 

remember, tracy had to trigger everything so it was tougher than when clyde was w/ adelman.

and orlando-esque tracy is on par w/ MJ in terms of offensive greatness.

 

You should see the 2000 Olympics, when Yao was playing just natural before he had been trained so much on repetition play in the low post. Yao has absolutely tremendous instincts on the court, I mean absolutely tremendous. The truth is over the last few years he became a repetition player rather than an instinctual player. This was necessary in order to develop his low post game. Step 1 is complete and Van Gundy did an outstanding job with that. Adelman is the perfect coach along with Dawson to take him to step 2. Yao is basically the closest thing ever to Kareem if he's allowed to simply play to his natural form. All he needs is to develop that go to hook shot, which is what Dawson is teaching him.

At that point with Adelman's offense and the hook people are going to be asking just how great Yao can be all time. So many times Shaq and Hakeem come up in Yao discussions or even Rik Smits or Ralph Sampson, or lots of times people bring up Ewing, but Yao simply does not have the skill set of these players.

I think a lot of people also forget Divac when he was young. The Lakers got him to replace Kareem and because he could do a lot of things Kareem could. When Adelman compares him to Divac he is talking about the young version. Divac's stats don't really tell the story because he wasn't a player that looked to score so much as he did to pass. But young Divac was an extremely skilled big man, Brad Miller is nowehere near the player Divac was when he was young. So all this Brad Miller talk is just Adelman explaining that like Miller, Yao can shoot, play high post, and pass the ball in ADDITION to dominating in the low post.

Adelman is basically saying Yao's skill level is similar to a young Divac, with as good or better shooting than Miller (widely considered one of the best shooting bigs) at 7-6 and outstanding LOW POST skills, with good BBall IQ and passing. He's basically saying Yao should be in the prime Walton or prime Sabonis skill level, combined with a dominant low post game at 7-6. Or that combined with a go to hook (which Dawson is helping with) then puts him in Jabbar level. And yes, I truly believe Yao will be the next Kareem.

But everyone needs to stop thinking in terms of Hakeem, Shaq, Ewing and so forth, because this is simply not the kind of player Yao is. He's actually the Walton, Divac, Sabonis type on skill level/physical attribute WITH dominant size and low post ability = Kareem once he gets that hook shot down. He simply NEEDS this Adelman offense to get better. On the other hand, if Yao is used like he has been he will stay at his current level and not improve.

And this whole worry that many bring up about "he can't really pass," again you watch Yao in the Olympics in 2000 when he was playing freely and tell me he can't pass. In passing ability he's above T-Mac. He's a truly revolutionary talent at the center position, he hasn't even scratched the surface of his potential yet.

Adelman is talking about Yao going from the best center in the NBA to the best PLAYER in the NBA, yet fans are "worried" by Adelman. Really Van Gundy to then Adelman is probably the perfect progression of coach for Yao. Yao's going to be modeled after Kareem, not Shaq or Hakeem. This will also extend Yao's caeer much like it did Kareem's. And remember Kareem had the "soft" label for YEARS, look how that ended up.

 

His jumper definitely needs work, but just as Bonzi they were both injured the summer before and never worked out.

Although for whatever the reason when Yao went down, Tracy stepped up.

I just believe aassistant coach had no clue how to use both players. It's just a problem when you never change anything, even when your all star playmaker is being doubled and tripled at the top and your all star center is getting his shots blocked like a scrub.

I think that speaks moreso on coaching lack of intelligence than anything else.

Clyde wasn't used as a guy who had to be Mr Everything, and frankly Tracy needs just that. No one player, Yao, Tracy or anyone else should have to carry that much responsibility for a so called team.

Thank goodness players will finally cut to the basket now and have freedom, and not have to worry about being pulled if they miss one assignment after being nailed to the bench for 3 months.

 

Thanks a lot Pryuen, great read. I appreciate all the hard work you are doing. Keep up the good work!!

 

There's a lot to respond to here, but here's my thought:

If I'm an opposing coach, I let Yao have whatever he wants in the high post. He's certainly not going to kill me there. When Yao moves to the high post, my center drops back to cover the cutters for help defense. He'll be able to read Yao to know well ahead of time where the pass is going. I know that Yao won't put the ball on the floor and attack from there, I can defend his passing, and I give up the 15-foot jumper. I've still got to worry about McGrady, but I've let the Rockets neutralize one of their biggest weapons for me.

 

drexler never attended a rocket practice under van gundy...ever. and bad mouthing rudy just shows what a low life he is.

 

Bad mouthing is a low life. Good.

So, who did bad mouthing CD? I guess a low life.

 

stop being an ass yao_fan_2007. this is a rockets board not a yao board.

anyone who knows basketball knows its much easier to score as a low post player than a perimeter player. shooting closer is easier, its common sense. yao shot 44% in the playoffs. that's terrible for a low post center, but he was shut down by Okur and thats his fault.

wasnt the reason why we got rid of van gundy was to make the offense more up tempo and take yao out of the low block? im all for yao getting out of the low post, because half the time the entry pass would get stolen or yao would lose the ball. yao would have a much easier time taking care of the ball at the free throw line then down low.

one of the biggest reasons we lost vs the jazz was we had no offensive rhythm or a defensive presence. yao made Boozer look like a superstar. i still think if mutumbo had played for yao in some instances we wouldve won.

 

I'm feeling the kareeem thing even eddie jordan was:

Kareem and more
The Wizards, however, could barely believe what they had seen in Yao, with Washington coach Eddie Jordan comparing Yao favorably in one respect to one of Jordan's former teammates — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

"I don't think anybody has an answer," Jordan said after trying four centers on Yao. "If you have personnel to look him in the eye a little bit, just a little bit, that helps. But the guy has an arsenal that I haven't seen before. He is equally dominant on either box. Now you tell me: Who in the history of the NBA can you say that about?"

Reminded that he played with Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time champion, six-time MVP and the all-time scoring leader, Jordan said: "Yeah, but Kareem was dominant on the left box and darn good on the right.

"This guy shoots turnaround jump shots, gets post-ups, makes free throws. He does everything."

 

I don't think he was badmouthing Rudy at all. In his personal opinion he thought Adelman was a better coach. Is that such a terrible suggestion to make? Adelmans one fault is he hasn't been able to get past Phil Jackson. Not a lot have.

Rudy on the other hand did win a couple of championships, but I think that's more on Hakeem than any other individual. Drexler may think Adelman is a better coach but I'm sure he'd say Rudy T with Olajuwon was the far superior situation. I see no diss on Rudy T.

 

In the new offense, I think the Rockets should push the ball and then if there's nothin there...slow it down and get it to Yao down low. But Yao can be effective in the high post...he's a good passer and midrange shooter.

 

and drexler was a bad nba assistant (fell asleep at nuggets' practices), a horrible college coach (u of h has just started to recover) so i dont think his evaluation of coaches is reliable. and hes got his head so far up les' ass im surprised he came out to give his opinion on anything other than to say that les is the best owner in sports for giving an illiterate an announcing gig.

 

thanks pryuen
i'm excited.
bring back the GREAT tmac
i think it'd be nice if we had a player like jon barry though..to bring energy off the bench.
aaron brooks?

 

to be perfectly honest - and I know I may be in the minority - I like Clyde and would much rather hear his opinion over yours any day. Now if it is facts you have to offer I'll take 'em...

You can call Drexler whatever you like - and his poor work ethic is well known and documented - but I would be willing to take a wild guess and say that he may know more than you think he does about basketball.

Best Regards,
Brock

 

i sure am glad the yao_fan_2007 is not making any decisions for the rockets, he seems to have no ideo what he is talking about.

 

You guys are arguing a useless point! You haven't even seen Yao play one game under Rick Adelman and you're already trashing his philosophy? When he says he wants to play him like Vlade and Miller I don't think he's saying the same EXACT way. He just means he wants to open things up for him and give him some different looks. Whats wrong with that? It will help him AND the role players flow better (if all goes as planned obviously)

RA is known for using this players strengths so when you say he's going to try and turn him into Brad Miller, you make an invalid argument because that would actually go against RA's style. Did he try to use Kevin Duckworth from the Portland 80's Blazers teams the same way? NO! He is a smart coach and will figure out where and what his stars are most comfortable doing, and how they can make the role players better.

 

This has been maybe your best post that I've seen. I've seen every scrap of film on Yao that has made its way stateside. I realize that he can pass, hit jumpers, all that. I'm interested to see if Adelman can design an offense that makes use of those skills. I agree it's exciting, and I'm willing to give the new coach carte blanche to implement whatever kind of system he thinks will work best, just as I did with Van Gundy (who also worried me coming in).

I just don't want to lose sight of the fact that the best, most dominant part of Yao's game is in the low post. At his best, he's the best post player in the NBA. I understand he's a good shooter, he's my favorite player and I know his game. But can he hit 60% of his shots from the elbow? Who is he going to throw passes to-- Rafer? Battier? Bottom line, we need Yao to score a lot of points to win. If I were to look up games in which Yao scored more than 30 points, I'd imagine the Rockets' record for those games is rather good. Naturally, an Adelman system is going to work differently than a JVG system and possessions perhaps won't be quite so important, but I'd rather not see Yao's post play become limited by his other offensive responsibilities. His #1 job, I feel, should be to score, and he scores best from the post.

That doesn't mean I'm not intrigued. I recognize the potential for Yao to mix it up and become less predictable. That would certainly augment his post game. But that's what I'm hoping for-- an augmentation of his post game. The post should be the FOCUS of Yao's offensive game, not just a part of it.

But hey, I'm not the coach. I really am interested to see how Adelman does. I still don't feel we've got the chemistry to get past the first round, but I'm sure excited to see some games played.

 

yao can score 18ppg and rox come with a win i'm okay with that results.