Miller looks like he's having fun out on the court. Adelman's system must really be a dream come true for a jump-shooting, passing big man like Miller. No wonder he took less money to sign with Houston. Miller really helps the offense because he takes the pressure of playmaking and passing off of the backcourt. Just look at how he's helped the 2nd unit. But a healthy Yao who can play 35 minutes is still the better option because he creates so many matchup problems. Right now though, Yao's status is such a question mark that it's almost futile to compare the two.
He definitely has the most glorious three-ball celebration, in which he pretends to rip a joint and proceeds to throw 3 fingers up in the air. I like the Miller/Hill combination -- an overweight stoner with exceptional court vision and a mean stroke from downtown and his trusty sidekick, an absolute animal with a knack for throwing down vicious dunks... and consistently losing his man on defense, failing to play timely help-side D, and earning a classic Rick Adelman scowl/look of disgust. Miller, under the influence of Mary J on the bench:
In theory, yes, In practice, not always straightforward. The correct answer is, In theory yes, and in practice also, yes. This is not a maybe question. Yao has always created open shots for his teammates. Teams have been doubling him and tripling him for years. JVG has set up his offense around Yao, and surrounding him with 3 pointer shooters. Why? Because doubling Yao would be penalized by an open 3 shooter. Your statement, if not completely false, is disingenuous at best.
LOL! Enjoyed the post. I also like Miller and Hill playing together. From the looks of that image, however, I think Yao has been "mowing the grass" with Brad.
What an uneducated statement. I think this poster is a good representation of the kind of crazy thinking that is common these days. People are so bitter and angry that they revise history in the most outrageous ways. Yao, please wear Purple and Gold next year.
I'm not saying that Yao drawing double teams doesn't provide openings to our shooters. It would be silly for me to deny that. What I mean is that it isn't so straightforward, because the Rockets historically have struggled to get Yao the ball, and especially when he's fronted they've struggled to take advantage of that extra attention. After several years, building an offense around "The Great Wall" still feels like "The Great Experiment". My opinion, and I've expressed this on a number of occasions, is that his impact on the offensive side is very much overrated. I think offenses geared around low-post players is not a great strategy in the modern NBA. It stifles player movement and takes away from the advantages afforded by the league towards perimeter players. Miller's offensive skills as a floor-spacing big with elite passing ability, to me, is a more useful and enabling offensive role. Notice how reluctant opposing centers are to get out and defend Miller? If they don't do so, he gets a wide open 3 which he's great at. If they do get up on him, well now their interior defense is compromised and AB or Martin can go to work.
Miller on offense with those guys is more beneficial...there's a lot more ball movement and options to get to. With yao it's much more difficult to adjust on the fly and more chance that someone, especially yao, will get stuck. Having the offense revolving around yao is more predictable as well. Which is weird because when Miller has the ball i can tell who he's trying to pass to. I wonder how he still manages to get that guy the ball when he literally just looked at him and motioned where he wants him to go. I guess it's a mix of Miller being that good and the defense not paying detailed attention. Noah did pick up on it though and i think stole it once and deflected another by anticipating the pass.
Such a shame that you don't win games in the NBA by only playing on one end of the court, otherwise we would be contenders!
So what are you waiting for? Why don't you drag your sorry ass to a Lakers site and work your way up from rookie there? This is a Rockets fan site. Not a Yao Ming fan site or the site of any other individual Rockets player.
I agree, Yao's fronting problems and inability to get him the ball in the post would kind of kill that theory against more athletic defenders. I would have liked to at least give it a shot with AB/Martin/Battier but doesn't look like we'll have much of a chance to see it. I do think having a low post threat could still work because of the 3 point line which is great for a dominant center. Orlando is pretty successful running that style and now that Howard is becoming even more dominant and a great low post scorer. I am excited to see what they could do against the East in the playoffs.
I think Yao's low post offense can be very effective if all the other teammates on the floor can shoot. The problem with our past offense was that we never got enough shooters around Yao. Remember we kept wanting to have that 3rd scorer? With only a couple of guys on the floor who was genuine scoring threats, the team had to force feed Yao and defenses figured out if they could deny Yao the ball, the whole offense would stall. We have better scorers this time around.
It's official. You're not a Rockets fan. Congratulations, you had me wondering a bit longer than most YOFs.
Well, I was also referring to the other team's lineup and what options we would have and not have against it. Seems like Yao would be more beneficial against certain defensive lineups and Miller would be better against others. Using your hypothetical offensive lineup, I'll make a rough list of the pluses of either option: Yao: from my memory of games I've watched, Brooks doesn't shoot as well as you'd expect from wide open threes given to him by the defense doubling on Yao for some reason (I wonder if there is a metric out there that records this [Morey probably keeps track of it]), so this is not a point for Yao Yao theoretically plays a little better with Martin, whose skills complement Yao extremely well, even considering the Miller notes below Offensive rebounding goes to Yao Scola is equally effective shooting mid range jumpers (w Yao) and posting up (w Miller) so it's a tie with Scola Battier seems to play better with Yao, even on offense, as he seems more comfortable taking those corner threes Yao gives him than the threes he's been getting without Yao Of course, one on one, it's not even close. Yao, when he can get the ball, can close games for you in crunch time. Miller: opens lanes up for Brooks and Martin to drive efficiently hits cutters (probably Brooks and Martin) for backdoor buckets good kickout option on the perimeter coaches players on the court on Adelman sets Basically, I choose Yao, by a hair, in particular due to his offensive rebounding advantage.
Good points in the thread. I love what Miller's done for the team, but I wonder how effective an offense based on Miller's high-post game can remain in the playoffs. Even in the regular season, our ball movement and spacing seems to evaporate when defenses tighten up late in games. If we had more talented wing players, it would be different. But given the current roster, I see a limit to how much Miller can benefit the offense and a need for a big man who can dominate the low post like Yao.
This may be a Houston Rockets site. However, there are many T-Mac fans here. Many Carl Landry fans here. Many Yao Ming fans here. We all have our favorite players. The person I was addressing made an uneducated statement. He claimed, Yao doesn't want to win Championships because he played for his national team. Are you in agreement with this person's original statement? Please clarify your position.
All I'm saying is that if Yao really cared so much about winning a championship he wouldn't have wasted his time trying to get China into the World's/Olympics so they could be embarrassed in the first round. If he wanted to be the best player he could be, he would've been here training, staying strong and improving his game. Yao isn't like your 'normal' NBA player, he didn't have the endurance to last an NBA schedule and a summer of Chinese ball. He knew this, he knew he's had trouble with that left foot for years. But the truth is he valued playing a few years of first round-and-out summers for his Chinese team much more than he does winning a NBA championship...I'm sure it was worth it for him. I guess we all do what we feel like doing, Yao is no different.He made his decision, took his chances and we ended up paying for them in the end...thanks Yao. It's funny because China isn't any worse off without him playing...they're as ****ty as ever, but we had a chance to be something really good. Meh, but it's over now...it's time we both moved on. But seriously, it would be nice for Yao to go to LA, it would get rid of the bandwagoners that have polluted our board since he got here.
