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Interesting comments from Yao on the Rockets

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by OddsOn, Jul 16, 2006.

  1. OddsOn

    OddsOn Contributing Member

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    I was looking back in Yao's book "Yao - Life in two worlds" for some quotes I remembered for the trash talking thread and came across this information. I remembered I wanted to post it back when I finished the book but for whatever reason I never got to it. Some interesting views from Yao...

    Yao describing his thoughts of reflection on his second season, first under JVG, after they had finally made it to the playoffs but were knocked out by Shaq and the Lakers in the first round...

    "There was much more team play my second year," Yao said. "We played hard on defense and our fast breaks were much better. My first year our fast breaks were one guy going by himself. He wouldn't care if there was a teammate with him. Or you'd have two guys run down the same sideline. If that happened the second year, the first guy would run the baseline and go to the other side. We didn't do any of that my first year. We still didn't always play the right way my second year, but we played the right way more often. During my second year, when we lost, we knew why we lost. My first year, we never quite knew how we won or lost. Yao's consistency improved dramatically in the new system."


    Take it anyway you want to. I'm sure some of the JVG haters will find a way to derail the thread but IMHO and Yao's game and the team got better when JVG took over the reings.
    Yao also made comments about how Patrick Ewing has helped a lot by setting standards and goals for Yao and giving him the confidence to know he can play with anybody in the league if he plays really hard every night.

    Contrast these comments with many of the ill conceived misconceptions frequently posted on the GARM and tell me who you will believe. Words directly from the mouth of Yao or preceptions and untruths by fans from who knows what source. :cool:
     
  2. rocketfan20

    rocketfan20 Contributing Member

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    Those are pretty good points. There is a lot I dont like about Van Gundy, but there is no question he brought a lot more discipline to the team that it really needed. He also probably deserves a lot of the credit for bringing Yao along. There is no question he is a bright guy, but the problem is that he is not flexible enough to adjust his ideas when they are not working.
     
  3. TracyMcCrazyeye

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    i agree, jvg doesn't deserve the amount of flak and hate people give him on clutchfans. he could improve in some aspects in his coaching, but that's with anyone.
     
  4. rockets-#1

    rockets-#1 Contributing Member

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    Thanks for posting that. I hope every hater reads it. Most fans are too ignorant too have a clue what's going on behind the scenes. I can tell from the quotes by JVG himself and the players that what they're accomplishing is in the right direction. I fully support JVG, and I believe he will lead the Rockets far into the playoffs this season if Yao and T-Mac stay healthy.
     
  5. pradaxpimp

    pradaxpimp Contributing Member

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    jvg is a very good coach.

    He's just not the elite, like riles, phillip, or popzit.
     
  6. CriscoKidd

    CriscoKidd Member

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    That would also have a lot to do with Mobes and Francis not having a clue in transition. I'm sure JVG coached them up as much as he could in regards to that(even though it's common sense ****), but they were still stupid on the court, even in Yao's 2nd year.

    They didn't start running good transition basketball til the Sura/Wesley/Barry show came to town, and even that was brief.
     
  7. declan32001

    declan32001 Member

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    Ok, I'll bite. I'm extremely indifferent to JVG except when he says something completeley stupid that he seems to want to be in print.

    The right direction, huh? What NBA games do you watch and what part of the WCF's or ECF's did you see that didn't make you queasy?

    I have my own opinions about what's been going on in this organization, but there's so much blame to be handed around that I don't even have a target.

    I do tend to blame Les sometimes because there are apparently too many fans that are "ignorant" that see the league and how we look like we're trying to buck all the trends.

    JVG always talks a good game, but he always seems to patronizing either the fans or his bosses.

    Yao, T-Mac, Battier and filler. Narrow window. Things are probably more messed up now than in the 25 years I've followed the Rockets. It's sometimes pleasant to read posts that talk about how good we're going to be next year.

    Sometimes those posts seem "ignorant".
     
  8. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    wow. finally found the opportunity to talk transition with CriscoKidd. Yeah, Francis and Mobley had no clue. Given a good transition PG, either one of those SGs would have learned their wing role, though.

    Question I have for you: when you say, "even that was brief" with Sura/Wesley/Barry," I mean, I always want transition. But damn, am I the only one who thought Barry tried to be way too cute on fastbreaks...like stupid cute. I also thought Wesley showed some of the same problems as Mobley...not knowing when to be on the wing vs center, and not knowing the iimportance of tempo and when to pass based on the defender positioning. bottomline: I was disappointed in Barry thinking he would be smarter on fastbreaks, and disappointed in Wesley in his spacing and tempo.
     
  9. dandorotik

    dandorotik Contributing Member

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    More messed up than 2001, 1988, or 1983? How silly.
     
  10. m_cable

    m_cable Contributing Member

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    Wesley was a disaster running the break in the playoffs against the Mavs. I pretty much cringed every time he pushed the ball. He was good filling the lane and finishing though. And while Barry may have been a bit fancy on the break, I can't really fault a guy who makes seemingly 2 out of every 3 stop and pop three pointers that he put up in transition. And you got to admit, when those fancy passes worked, they were fabulous (that behind the back pass from behind halfcourt, springs immediately to mind)
     
  11. slowmustang

    slowmustang Member

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    In the past 25 years, the situation has been MUCH MUCH MUCH worse. :confused:
     
  12. CriscoKidd

    CriscoKidd Member

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    I was dissappointed in both of them at times as well. It was funny seeing Barry think he had some kind of midrange game. If it's not a set shot or a open layup, he needed to just pass it off. Wesley ... strange seeing him not being in the right position a lot of times, esp since he played quite a bit of pg earlier in his career. But SF and Mobes made them look like geniuses.

    I'm really not excited going into the season with Alston looking to play 30+ minutes. He is not good for transition. The best thing that I can say about Alston is that he tries to make as little mistakes as possible. But I'd rather have a difference maker(like James and Sura) than someone who is just risk averse. We need easy buckets, and I don't see that unless it's McGrady pushing the ball or some backup pg steps up.
     
  13. Van Gundier

    Van Gundier Member

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    There are a lot of Riley love now, but remember this is the same Riley who got his ass kicked by Van Gundy's Knicks quite a few times in the playoffs, even when they had the homecourt advantage. It's the same Riley who supposely was overrated and behind the times and couldn't win it without Magic and Kareem all these years, the same Riley who retired after injuries/age decimated his Heat squad only to have Stand Van Gundy making more out of the team than anyone expected.

    People are bandwagoners... now that Riley won, he's a genius and all these negative things are largely forgotten, but when times were bad, Riley got as much hate, if not more, than Van Gundy does now.

    The same thing happens with Larry Brown when he won the title with Detroit... he was the genius coach of that year, but before that it took hm 21 years to even make it to the NBA final and something like 25 years to finally win it all. Before that he supposely wasn't a championship coach in the NBA (even though he won an NCAA title) and wasn't on the same level as the Phil Jacksons of the world...

    Did Larry Brown all of a sudden go Super Sayan on us and became a "championship coach" in Detroit? Not really, he coached pretty much the same way he always did...

    The only thing that changed was the perception of the bandwagoners.

    People need to take a chill pill and read up on some NBA history before saying a lot of things.
     
  14. OddsOn

    OddsOn Contributing Member

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    I couldn't agree with you more.

    IMHO Phil Jackson is the biggest band wagoner of them all. This guy waltz' into Chicago just when Michael Jordan is in the prime of his illustrious career to ride on his coat tales to an NBA final (much the same way Rudy T did with Hakeem). Now I'm not saying that these coaches didn't have any input into winning the titles but lets face it sometimes its better to be lucky then good :D

    But I do believe in JVG's philosophy of discipline, smart play, low turn overs, high % shots, and strong team defense. Run the fast break when its there and slow it down and go into a half court offense when its not. And anybody who doesn't think the above is true is clearly not listening to the coach and has blinders on or some sort of disturbed hatred in them. Players and chemistry are the difference maker in most title wins.
     
  15. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    m_cable,

    LOL. I would cringe too. One of the benefits of having tickets is seeing the transition defensive positioning before the cameras on TV re-adjust. I remember several times saying out loud, "this fastbreak is busted."

    I guess the difference between Wesley and Barry vs the Francis experiment years is we tried many more fastbreaks post Francis...JVG swinging his arms and all to push it. So, while there were a lot more transition points, we still didn't seem very good at it. Although, like CriscoKidd, I agree with the Sura comments re: him being a "difference maker"/forced the defense on transition.
    agree. but would add that we can and have recently started getting the secondary transition points with Yao, somewhat ala San Antonio and Duncan, where Yao gets a quick low block and immediately attacks. He doesn't get the easy trailer pts that Duncan and Shaq would get (with a better pg, maybe), but he and the team did get quick hitters to him on the low block out of transition. He and the team seemed to get better at that, and that was largely without TMac playing with him....as I recall.
     
  16. dandorotik

    dandorotik Contributing Member

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    Can I borrow your last statement for my signature? Seriously, it's unbelievable how "bandwagonish" certain fans can be. Basically, with a few exceptions, most NBA coaches and players are very good. Most teams are very good. And most reactions from fans tend to be towards the "over" than the under. But that's OK- everyone has the right to say what they want- it'd just be nice to have a little perspective from some.
     
  17. Rockets-R-Us

    Rockets-R-Us Contributing Member

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    HeyP and Crisco -

    I enjoyed the comments about the fastbreaks, though I might argue a little with throwing SF and Cat under the exact same umbrella. I think Mobley is significantly better with B-ball IQ than SF and did a better job overall than Francis at running the break IMHO. In fact, I think Cat was better at running the point than SF because he made fewer stupid decisions when the ball was in his hands.

    I went to quite a few games the first year JVG was here, because my expectations were raised thinking that with our backcourt quickness, Yao and the discipline of JVG, things would get much better, much faster than they apparently did. I now hold SF as much to blame as Van Grumpy.

    Regarding JVG's ability as a coach, I think he's similar to Bill Parcells (and I say this as a lifelong Cowboy fan), in that he's got "his" system, "his" players and "his" way of winning. Unfortunately, Parcells has seen a couple of Championships doing things "his" way and JVG has not. :rolleyes:

    I also see Parcells as someone whose capable of maximizing a player's talents rather than demanding that player fit into a rigid system that may or may not fit his skills.

    In other words, I've never questioned that JVG "could" coach, I just believe he's too rigid, and far, far too conservative in coaching offense. D'Antoni could run rings around JVG coaching offense, while defense is clearly Van Grumpy's strongest area.

    I honestly believe the Rox would even be better off with Dunleavy as our coach than JVG.
     
  18. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    probably shouldn't speak for CriscoKidd, but I think what he said (I what I meant) was as a backcourt team, SF and CM didn't and couldn't run a consistent fastbreak...with major emphasis on "didn't." SF liked to do that skip hop and slow it up...which forever frustrated me, and you could see how much it frustrated JVG, as well. If we are to say that Cuttino was better, first I'd say that it's somewhat a non point since we didn't run that much...meaning, to me, the problem was more lack of running that execution of running. In execution, SF wanted to be on the wing, which screwed up both Cat, Shandon, Posey, etc. To your comments about Cat being better than SF, I'd agree that he knew his role better on the break than SF, and, also, when with ball in the middle Cat simply was so good at finishing with those long arms that he'd just take it all the way. But as far as his spacing, tempo and passing instincts when he couldn't take the ball all the way, my point is that he and Wesley were about equally inept, which shocked/disappointed me about Wesley (as m_cable, moreso than CriscoKidd, alluded to as well). In fairness to Wesley at that age, if he had Cat's height, speed and athleticism, i'd bet he'd execute better. Then again, when Cat reaches Wesley's maturity, I'd bet his fastbreak execution will be better than what we saw with Wesley.

    As for the coach comparisons...I'd rather defer to people who choose to argue that.
     
  19. rserina

    rserina Member

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    And this is what I don't understand. I assume you are suggesting the trend is towards smaller, quicker lineups that take advantage of changes in officiating perimeter defense. If not, then ignore the rest of the post.

    But if so, who has exactly followed that trend and done so with success? Phoenix and Dallas? Who else has garnered moderate success that way? The last three world championships were defense-first, half-court offense teams none of whom relied upon a cadre of athletic guards/wings to make plays off the dribble. Sure, Detroit had Rip and Teyshaun, Miami had Wade, and San Antonio had Ginobli and Parker, but who else? Billups and Hunter are jump shooters at best, Bown, Barry, and Finley are members of the AARP, and Williams, Payton, and Posey are at least getting the discount rate at Luby's on Sunday afternoons. None fillow the "prototype" of a Phoenix or Dallas.

    Besides, I don't see our backourt/wing play as the leadfooted group some others so. Alston has average quicks (at least on par with J-Will), Head and Snyder are fairly solid, and McGrady is, well, better than any player on the last three championship teams that's not named Wade.
     
  20. Van Gundier

    Van Gundier Member

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    Go for it, if you want ;)

    Definitely agree with the overreaction by fans.. I don't know what causes it, but I'm guessing it's the teams marketing. The marketing folks want butts in seats, so they hype the hell out of their team. As the result, way more fans think their squad should be championship contenders every year than is realistic.

    When that doesn't happen? It's off with the coach's head.

    As for the other half of the fans who don't believe their team is ready for championship contention yet (their hope tempered by such things as back to back 55+loss seasons), most of them are absolutely convinced the 18-20 year olds they drafted are on their way to superstardom and franchise savior status. Most of these projects, obviously don't pan out.

    Then what happens? It's the coach's fault for not developing the kids.
     

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