Yao was at his best last season...before the injury...dominating in the low post. That's the Yao I want to see.
You're right, Tmac is lightyears more effective when he moves off the ball and gets a good curl. He's not spectacular (I remember him bricking some wide open jumpers which should be automatic for any NBA caliber player, nevermind one of his stature), but it's certainly a better shot for him. What he's awful at, and it's really glaring this year, is the shot off the dribble or off the post up. I barely recall him hitting anything close to that gamewinner vs. Dallas in Game 2 a couple years back this year. I don't think Rafer is as bad a playmaker as we saw this year; he's a gifted passer as was evidenced by some brilliant backdoor cuts vs. the Jazz for Tmac layups. I'd like to see the ball in his hands more assuming we don't get a more capable starter. Tmac drove me freaking crazy these playoffs. When he drove the ball, the man was absolutely unstoppable, moreso than any player I have seen this year: more than Lebron, more than Kobe, more than DWade. But then he would post up Derek freaking Fisher, who he has 6 inches on, and brick jumpers. It was inexcusable. He can shoot over everyone, he just needs that touch back.
I was just stating the facts. That's how Adelman handles his centers who can pass and shoot. I want to see Yao in the post too but I think that's what we have to look forward to alot with Adelman. Yao at the free throw line or a little behind it with the option to shoot, pass to the cutter, or pass out and maybe post up... I doubt he'll have enough stamina to move around that much all game. Anyways I don't think Adelman will change his coaching technique. I'm pretty sure he won't. I'd say ~95% chance we see a LOT of Yao on the high block/free throw line shooting jumpers or passing it backdoor.
I hate to say this. The only one on our roster who can resemble what Bibby did for Adelman is T-Mac. And the only one who can shoot nearly as good as Peja is *gasp* Steve Novak. The only missing link is the PF spot. We have absolutely no one who can do what Webber did. But we have Yao. Given enough chances, Yao can pass as good as Divac and he can shoot much better. Plus he can post up any time he wants.
I'm happy to hear it. I hope this means he won't be stupid enough to stick the most dominant player in the ******* NBA 10 feet and in out by the free throw line. Basketball is a game of numbers. You do not sacrifice your highest percentage offense (a Yao deep post) for something that's inherently less successful (Yao throwing backdoor to say Luther Head). Look, I loved Yao's game his rookie season. I thought it was about to revolutionize the NBA, the way he threw outlets and ran the floor and shook the hell out of Jermaine O'Neal w/ the Dreamshake. He played a beautiful game. However, now he plays an effective game. You don't drastically change the game of someone who just came off an MVP caliber season when healthy and still put up 25 and 10 after returning from injury. I think Adelman is smart enough to realize that. I do believe however that we will see more Yao in the high post spotting up for jumpers and looking for cutters. However, this should be primarily a method to increase Yao's minutes, reduce fatigue, and introduce a bit more variety to the offense by creating a bit more ball movement. His bread and butter still is and forever will be the deep post up. Believe me, if nothing else we and Yao owe a hell of a lot to Van Gundy just for that.
This is going to be horrible. With Yao on the high post, Rox won't go deep in the playoffs. In the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter during playoffs, Adelman will find out it is extremely difficult to get points when Yao plays high post.
yeah, i know you were just stating the fact. i agree with you. and i'm really not excited about it. i really think it's a horrible fit for this team..and for Yao.
Rileydog and chinkman85, great analysis. I was expecting this kind of analysis from someone who watched Adelman's previous teams. I would also like to watch some of Adelman's typical games to get a feeling of his coaching style and offense/defense strategies. Could anyone suggest some videos? Thanks in advance.
Also a good thing about Adelman was all his players in the Kings value went up during his coaching which means he utilized all his players effectively. Example...Divac, Webber, Bibby, Peja, Christy, Jackson, Brad Miller, Bonzi n Hedo. Rockets team without Yao n Tmac....team looked completely lost. So i really hope Adelman can bring the best in players rather than players playing out of style because of JVGs offense. Seriously under JVG no role players value increased because he was so superstar depended and hence we get absolutely crappy value for all the role players besides Battier. For example Span was playing SG for christ sakes...he's not know for shooting...hes known to create plays and play PG. This was not the same JVG we saw when he was coaching the Knicks. I guess he just does not fit well with this rockets team.
I think we need to stop assuming that Adelman will come in and say "let's make this SACTO PART 2". He's not gonna run the exact offense he had there and try to fit guys into the molds created by Bibby/Christie/Peja/Webber/Divac/Miller/BobbyJackson. edit: Very few coaches do that.. I originally said NO coach, but Nellie, among others, came to mind. Adelman certainly didn't run Kevin Duckworth out of the high post all that much, nor did he have Jerome Kersey spotting up for J's all day, nor did he have Buck Williams be a passer and facilitator for the offense. Have faith that he will adjust his offense to the personnel and don't assume we need to find a way for guys to be players that they aren't. I'm sure we'll make some offseason moves, but I'm just saying we don't need the exact style of guys that the Kings had..
^^^^^ (edit: you posted the exact sentiment milliseconds before me. wow! nice job) You can't assume anything about how the new head coach will use Yao. The Rockets will be at their best with Yao in the paint. But you can't say the same about Divac and the Kings. Adelman will adjust "his" offense around Yao and Tmac.
Just like to say that if Adelman's 1st move is to "bring in his players" that will be horrible. It will be just like when Van Gundy "brought in his players." Its a new team, you can't keep recycling the players you are used to. A Realistic Team: PG: Maurice Williams (It's possible; full MLE)/Alston/V-Span (He needs more minutes. His play reminds me of Cassell's 1st season. Not great shooter, a bit erratic passing-wise, but give him some leash & he could produce) SG: T-Mac/V-span/Morris Almond/(use Lucas & Head to move up in draft to get Rush, Law, Splitter etc. or get another pick in early 2nd round for Gray/Stuckey/Pruitt/Byars/etc.) SF: Battier/Synder/Novak PF: Howard/Hayes (depends how much. 1.5 mill is too much for a PF without size and no offense) L. Roberts (sign for min.; young player, played well for Memphis, bigger version of Hayes; project) or 2nd pick C: Yao (needs to be able to hit jumpers from 15-18 feet out) / Mikki Moore (sign him, He didn't perform that well against Cleveland's front court, so should be cheaper than earlier in the postseason. Not great player, but a decent, somewhat athletic backup PF/C) --Jake is not mobile enough, and Deke will probably retire without Gundy. Yeah I wish we could do more, try to trade Alston, Head, Lucas for someone, but I don't think any of them have a whole lot of value except to move up in a draft, maybe get another later draft pick. No one would want to take on Alston or Lucas's contract for what they give out. Basically, this team would rely less solely on 3-pt's, adding some driving. I think with Adelman's style, there could also be more movement (cutters, back picks), so this line up may work better. Maybe they could learn how to throw an entry pass and lob pass into the post. We have too little cap room and little trade value to do too much more.
Great posts, everyone. Regardless, it's clear to me that with our current roster we don't have anywhere to go; I personally think any changes in coaching philosophy on offense won't result in any substantial improvement. This year we relied heavily on two superstars and the inside out, looking for Yao postups first and relying on kickouts to open shooters, Tmac pick and rolls (which were largely ineffective), and Tmac dribble drives to find shooters. This maximized the contributions of limited offensive players like Chuck Hayes and Luther Head. It also taxed enormously Yao and Tmac. I think this highlights the fatal flaw in JVG. He truly takes each game one at a time, and in each one plays the combination that gives the greatest output. It's without a doubt that Yao is the higher percentage scoring option than anyone, and that Tmac is the best playmaker on our team--perhaps in the league. However, this eventually backfired when other players became relegated to limited roles. While maximizing their other abilities would not have benefited the team on a game-to-game basis necessarily--i dont think we would have won more games--giving less trusted players more responsibility may have paid off in the long run. I'm not sure what Adelman can do with these same players. I think the main problem with the inside out was poor spacing and the tendency for the offense to stagnate. I'd like to see Adelman play Snyder more and have him look for cuts assuming Yao has the ability to find him. However, Luther and Rafer are probably never going to finish the layup off the cut. Consequently, Yao needs to work on his passing to make it crisper, enabling our shooters to catch and shoot with rhythm and thus efficiency. Most importantly, we need to lessen the load on Tmac. A lot of people have said that the 4 spot is our greatest weakness, and I agree to an extent; as long as Tmac continues to play as our primary playmaker the 1 is nothing more really than a glorified 2 that happens to bring the ball up on occasion. However, the result was that Tmac became exhausted and other portions of his game suffered--i think this was one of the reasons for his atrocious shooting and unwillingness to drive (besides the bad back of course). We need a point guard and we need one bad. I think Rafer is a decent playmaker and Adelman needs to trust him more but he needs a backup at the very least desperately. Winning games is about personnel. This team isn't there yet.
Seems like some people are worried that Adelman is going to just plant Yao in the high post and that's it. I think he's too smart for that. 14 straight playoff teams, the guy knows what he's doing. He's not going to take away Yao's most efficient scoring looks. I think he's going to implement a high-low game for Yao. Plays with options to either post Yao up, or to pop him out to the elbows. JVG liked to run misdirection setting up Yao on either block. Well imagine how much more effective that tactic could be if Yao could set up on either block, or either elbow. It'll make it a lot harder for the defense to know how to adjust and defend him. I know Yao was far from dominant in the Utah series, and Okur had too much success one on one. But a lot of that ineffectiveness was also due to Kirilenko constantly coming over to help. The rox offense was way too predictable, and AK always knew where Yao was set up, and knew when to come help. That has to change. And increasing Yao's range of attack positions can help do that. It's not just going to be high post Yao. It'll be Yao with plenty of low post touches, and open looks from the elbow where he can either shoot or pass. And I figure Yao will get more touches, and be more effective than ever because he can expend less energy in the high post, and when he does post up, the defense can't key on him as much because he'll be attacking them from all different angles and positions.
And JVG has to shoulder a big share of the responsibility for the roster turning out the way it did. You can't just sit back and point at the gm when it is clear JVG had a huge say in not only roster moves, but also obviously in molding the guys he did get.
Somethings I have noticed about Adelman Pick-N-Pop - Adelman uses this a lot where a big man sets the screen for a guard who drives to the lane and passes back to the big man for an open shot. I've seen this numerous times especially with Webber and Bibby and it worked so beautifully when Webber would just shoot an open 15-18 foot jumper. Maybe Yao could play the similar play with T-Mac because he is too slow to run the pick-n-roll. Yao could really add another weapon to his arsenal and T-Mac could drive more effectively if defense have to remain honest on Yao. 2) Double Screen Fade Route - Peja used to get a lot of double screen fade route where multiple screens were set for him and he moved without the ball for an open jumpshot. It is very similar to what Pistons do with Rip Hamilton and his constant movement without the ball and players setting screens on his defender for the open look. T-Mac could possibly do that and get open shots instead of running isolation plays like under JVG. Also remember in this play T-Mac has the option to pass the ball to the screener who cuts to the basket if the defenders both switch too aggressively on him. Again many possibilities and uses for this scheme maybe Novak would also fit this type of play. 3) Movement and Passing - These will be the most important aspects of the offense. Look for the offense to pass the ball around from side to side and at least 6-8 passes in the play before attempting shots. All player must be actively moving around either cutting to the basket in a back door or spot up for the 3. Remember passing is perhaps the most crucial part of Adelman's game. He was highly successful in Sacramento because he had players capable of making great passes. Webber had such a great touch that some people called him the best hands of any bigman ever. Bibby was their best passer of course and that is why they trade Jayson Williams because he lacked the proper court vision and at times would take early 3s instead of setting up the offense properly. I am certain that T-Mac will make full use of his height and court vision to make some excellent passes like he already does. Yao could be a suspect because his handle on the ball is not tight and thus team strip the ball from him very much like the Jazz did. These are some of the finer points I've found so far so I'll go over some other stuff maybe soon.
T-Mac is not a good enough shooter to come off the screens that Peja would use. He shot is not quick enough, and the mechanics are not there for that. We really don't have a player to fit that role. Novak did that in college, but not sure if they could translate it here. Hopefully we get a SG with #26 who can do that. Biggest problem with that is that pretty much only Battier and Hayes known how to give a proper pick/screen. (watch the Jazz & Pistons play, those are good screens & picks)
