[nba.com postgame interview] Yao himself admits he needs more touches

*pass the ball to Yao

typo

 

So, what do you think about why nba teams usually double opponents' star players and let role players open?

My understanding is that role players don't have enough ability to take over the game. Especially for the playoff games. In general, role players' consistency are not very good. Otherwise, they would be stars. You know, the playoff is a 7-game series. Consistency is a very important thing!

 

The two best passers at getting Yao the ball --Tmac and Rafer -- are gone.

The best coach at getting Yao the ball --- JVG --- is also gone.

JVG made some points on ESPN about how to get Yao the ball effectively, RA doesn't do that often.

 

i get the basic idea is that stars will be more consistent than role guys and that's why u double them, but nowadays you dont see a lot of guys being doubled because teams believe they have one guy who can contain them, which sometimes is true. I dont think anyone in the league can say "our one guy will contain Yao". So while some fans say "yao sucks" because of the end result, they dont realize it happened because opposing teams think he's too good and wont dare keep one guy on him consistently.

You also have to remember you can be consistent without necessarily being great/good. Role players may not be consistently great or good, but they can still be consistent. Tonight i dont think any role player played above their level, except for shane, who pretty much made up for ron's below average game, so except for that the role guys just played their game. Scola got 19 but he's good enough to do it consistently, he just hasnt due to lack of attempts. So our role guys dont need consistently play above their heads for us to win, they just need to be themselves consistently :Scola 15ppg(20ppg if he gets yao's usual attempts), ron 17 ppg, shane 10 ppg, etc...and i think that's possible AND a realistic expectation.

 

Yao wouldnt be doubled if we had a guy with tmac's talents, so it has more to do with that than his or rafer's passing skills. A rockets team with rafer but no tmac would have the same trouble. You add a healthy tmac or a player of similar quality/skills and they cant double Yao as much or else the other guy would make them pay. That's the beauty of having a big 2 or 3, unfortunately Ron doesnt have the skills to consistently be a superstar, so he doesnt quit fit as being a player of similar quality/skills..

 

If we won big tonight, that might be the case!

However, we won at the last second. It's really a lucky win!

 

Glad to hear that he wants to score more! I just think that he need to impose his will on the game.

 

Does Yao exaggerate his player comparisons all the time. I remember he said Vspan can be a Steven Nash, and Yi can be Amare lol

 

Eh, the Blazers hit a lot of tough 3 pointers in the last few minutes. The Rockets werent lucky to win this. The Blazers were lucky to have a chance to win it in the final minutes.


Pick any of the last 4 Blazer 3 balls. Blake, Aldridge, Rudy, Blake. Just pick one. If that shot doesnt go in, its over. You can only point to 1 Rockets shot like that in the last few minutes. This was a solid win, and that was done with the Blazers nailing about every 3 they took the last few minutes. That shot by Rudy was Reggie Miller-like.


I personally liked Adelman's quote on Yao's touches. Said he's tired of it, because the goal is for the Rockets to win. Who cares who scores the baskets.

 

we had the lead, we didnt com from behind to win it, portland made some great shots to bring it that close, but this was not a "last second win". Its like game 2, although we almost stole it at the end it was never as close as a back and forth game that ends up on a buzzer beater or something like that...

 

exactly, all they're doing is distributing the points differently, but the total outcome is the same as with other wins.

Tonight shane played scola's role of 16 pts. Scola played Yao's of 19 pts, yao played shane's of 7 pts, Brooks played his of 11 pts, because of the low scoring game someone's usual point had to be lower, in this case it was ron's with 8.

 

This is where having Tmac is so important sure he is another threat but even if Yao was fronted Tmac would still be able to pass to Yao with either a drive and dish or a pick & roll pass so without his talent the only person who can still pass to him is either Battier or Lowry

 

I don't think that any of the Blazer shots were lucky. Blake is very good at that drive/stop open 3 pointer. They passed the ball well and made them.
I did like Adelman's quotes on Yao's touches but he also said that has to mix things up which is absolutely correct. He will need to emphasize that to Yao and to Brooks,Lowry,Ron.

 

Yao's right, more than 7 points is needed. However, cont try to go the other trying to make Yao get 40, force feeding him the ball. If he gets 15-19 and does all the other things, Rockets should be in good shape this series. Should open up just enough for everyone else. T

How does Oden play better defense on Yao than Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard? Just strange how these things work

 

its not the shots that were lucky, the shots were just tough, the luck was hitting such a high percentage of tough 3 point shots in that short amount of time in crunch time.

 

Totally agree.

There are a lot of fans here are content that the rockets are winning with Yao scoring only 7 points, and are pretty defensive when someone says Yao needs more touches.

 

Yes, we need to pass the ball to Yao.

 

Put it in your dream and wet yourself.

 

I don't think you are some knee-jerking punk kid like so many here, but I don't think you understand basketball either.

If you got a sucky 59 out of 100 points in an exam of a graduate level course, you suck, you might lose your confidence. But please don't get your personal experience confused with basketball of the highest level. You watch the game, you understand what you are watching, then you may give us reasonable arguemant; otherwise, you just downgrade yourself to a knee-jerking punk kid.

Please watch the game first.

With the fronting and helping defense on Yao, didn't you notice that the Rockets got many more wide open shots than the Blazers? and when our players attacked the basket, the defenders were often half step late and had to foul? Basketball is a team sport, you can have great impact on the game by doing many things other than scoring. One reason the Rockets won the game is that we just let them pay what they did in defense, mainly on Yao.

Also, didn't you hear even JVG said that the blazers might better gamble using one more better offense player instead of a player only plays defense with no offense skills? That was Yao's impact too. Very seldom you can beat a strong opponent right from the beginning in a 48-min basketball match, you try to get the upper hand through the game. The rockets led all the way in this game.

I don't need to remind you what Yao did in defense end.

Yes, I agree a great player like yao sure should do more. We think so, doesn't Yao, himself, tell us so too? Yao is a gentleman, he won't yell at his teammates if they fail to pass him the ball when he has positions, he will just run the next play. As a center, Yao can't do it alone without help from his teammates, our PG's are young, and not good to make passes to Yao. Wasn't JVG surprised the Rockets didn't try lob pass even once to Yao? The team will get better to get Yao involved in the offense in this playoff. Yao, who has a great basketball mind, will figure out ways to contribute more in the offense with his coaches.

Yao losing confidence, give me a break, that is the last thing I would worry about. Try to learn some more about what kind of person Yao is.

Yao did his job like Mark Jackson said. The only thing I am sure about is that Yao will only play better from now on in the playoff.

Spank the pupils on Sunday!

 

yao is going to leave, he already declined to sign extension on two separate occassions. and i think coach and management knows this.

tbh, many here would be happy if yao left.