Do we seek the center-out offensive scheme which has been the common denominator for much of NBA success throughout history, or do we continue to go through the more obvious individual offensive talents of one Tracy McGrady, and in so doing try to use a 5 as a secondary option, reducing the defensive quandries? I guess the essential part of answering this question is two-fold: A) Do you think that Yao has the talent to be a first option on a team with T-Mac, even if he goes 40 a night? and B) Do you think that endurance was the primary issue which precluded him from being a successfull 1st option to begin with? Because at some point you set your identity in stone, or at least in clay, and we are on our way towards that. If we are ever going to become a center-out offense, which history suggests might be the best possible use of our talent (even if T-Mac ends up with more shots) we need to do it sooner rather than later. As much as muscle memory dictates the patterns of the individual players, role establishment becomes part of an accepted norm, and if you set it for years and then look to break it, you have to take the time just to undo what you;ve wrought in the first place while also building anew. As such, it would be to our advantage to determine soon the answers to those two essential questions I posed, and make a strategy to go from there. yes, T-Mac is more talented. But then again, Worthy was likely more talented than KAJ for 4 or 5 years when they continued to run it through the big fella because it puts the defense on the classic horns of a dilema; double down and leave shooter open, or let 'dominant' big man go to work 1 on 1. Yes, it;s off season, but that is when you make philosophical or strategic determinations like this; the regular season is about tactics. So, can Yao do it? If he can, do we do it? Do we go inside-out, as in days of yore, or do we run it through McGrady and fit Yao in where we can? Good to be back, be gentle with me, the stitches are still sore.
yup welcome back I say do both..incorporate both "schemes". Sometimes..dump it to Yao..inside-out. Rudy T days OTher guys have to help contribute. Or sometimes just give it to Tmac..pick and roll..isolation..and Yao will be like role player. It's exciting..but we have to resign Mutombo and Barry. Swift would help our team much more than any other candidate at PF. And then we need a 2/3.
Panda, thanks. Man: Oh, certainly we'll be binary whichever way we go, but there has to be a prioritized set for role definition. Virtually every 2-star lineup in history has had an offensive scheme which was dominant, and while I acknowledge the fact that we can possibly fly in the face of history, the last time someone in here argued that that I can recall, the subject was winning with a shoot first point as team star...
The only big man that was over 7'4" that averaged more minutes than Yao was Ralph Sampson. His career was cut short because of leg injuries. Yao has thicker legs than Ralph so he might be able to log more minutes without putting strain on his legs but I am not optimistic about it. If you look at all of the other big men that were over 7'4" Yao is averaging the minutes that is normal for a player of his size.
With all the fronting going on in the game today and Yao's avg mobility, I think it'd be tough to assume that we should work from the inside out as a team concept. Even Shaq was having problems getting the ball every time (injured leg, okay). He needs to log more minutes, yes, but I think we'll be so much more athletic on the perimeter and at the 4 that his #'s will go up even without a jump in minutes. T-Macs the best player as of now so I'd rather he get more touches than Yao, until he can cut down his turnovers or we get better entry passers.
I think that lower body issues, as you mentioned, were always the determinant though. But yeah, certainly it's up in the air whether or not Yao will ever be able to log heavy minutes, particularly as long as he is pulling double duty every year.
The solution to Yao's trouble with the fronting is not that hard, just elusive so far. It needs three things: 1) For Yao to sustain his base, and keep it wide, rather than try and jump with the ball on the over the top entry. It's human nature to go up when the ball goes up, but you lose your leverage. With yao's lower body, he could carve out all the space he needs for the basic o/t entry, and for the turn for the alley. He just tends to rise up, lose his base, and thenm get pushed into a reaching match. 2) For the refs to call all the backside hacks he gets as he gatherts the ball. He is just screwed by the refs, and in spite of JVG;s failure in the playoffs (his fault or otherwise) the Rockets need to be aggressive in addressing this with the league and officials. 3) Better entry passes. It's becoming a lost art, as we all know, and that is in part why fronting is becoming so popular.
If Yao can increase his minutes, hopefully his consistency will go up too. I'm also worried that sometimes Yao gets big numbers, but his impact on the game isn't that noticeable. When Hakeem was there, he affected the other team's plans whether he was on or not. If Yao had Hakeem's offensive talent, then we wouldn't even need a PF that could give him space. Hakeem saw double and triple teams constantly and he was still the best.
No. Absolutely not. The Rockets mid season surge was in direct relation to their adjustment to an outside-in offense run through McGrady as opposed to the inside-out Yao offense. Yao is simply not a good low post creator in the way he was being used ala Hakeem, Shaq. He can be fed in the low post in spurts, but he is too immobile, too weak, has too slow reaction times, and is too poor of a post passer to be a #1 offensive option. He is at his best when he is finishing as the end result of the play rather than the primary option in the low post. While you assert that Worthy may have been better than Kareem for a stint, McGrady is so much better than Yao that it's not even an argument. This is probably the 2nd or 3rd best player in all of basketball IMO. I fully expect them to run screen/roll to death in the coming decade.
yeah, I certainly agree that Hakeem as Yao's role model won't work, but he can accomplish similar, if less spctacular results by virtue of having a real other star Hakeem lacked, and simply using basic basketball where Hakeem revolutionized.
Completely true, but not necessarily decisive re: long-term goals. I agree that we adjusted and exploded, but what if either other teams adjust in response, or it raises our floor while lowering our ceiling? He can be a mid post creator, but I think if we ever get the ref thing and endurance under control, we'll see his interiro game explide. Right now he gets the Shaq treatment in one respect: ie, players are allowed to hack away because he's so big, but unlike Shaq he is not allowed to respond by bulldozing, but insrtead is called for ticky-tack fouls whenever he gets the least bit aggressive. As I said, this can be addressed bu base and better ref treatment/endurance but you may very well be right, it may not matter that much.
I don't think the failure of the inside-out offense is necessarily a reflection of Yao, but more a reflection of the legalized zone defense that is played now. Even Hakeem had difficulty when Seattle played its illegal zone against him in 1996. But I agree that it was obvious towards the end of the season that the pick and roll was a more effective way of getting Yao into the offense.
You have to go inside-out the majority of the time, in my opinion, if you have someone who probably averages 60%+ within 12 feet of the basket, if he's not dizzy from exhaustion or freaked out about bad calls, or calls he earned. Yao is just money within that range, and it opens up everything else. At least that's what I was thinking before I read thacabbage's post, lol. Have to agree, although the concept seems unnatural for a Rockets team. We did it last season, and it worked, when everyone was healthy and not worn down from too many minutes. This has been talked about over and over again, but Yao's still trying to do the things Hakeem could do with ease, swipe at the ball for a steal, recover from a fake and still get the block, or at least not get a call, and he's got one bad habit picked up in China, no doubt, where he towered over everyone else and they didn't have hops, and that's putting his arms too far over his man, and being too close... just begging to get jumped into with the cheap foul added to his tally. When the Rocks mesh enough to go seamlessly from inside-out to outside-in and back, we're just going to kill people. And that'll require people who can make effortless entry passes, Yao to get better at finding the open man from inside, and someone running the damn offense, so Tracy has one less thing to worry about. (and a 4, and a good backup for McGrady, and Head to be as good as we're hearing as a two, and so on and so on) He's just getting screwed royally by the refs, no question. Yao could at least avoid the instances when he leaves himself open for the whistle, like those we've all seen, and the couple I mentioned. Totally agree about Yao sustaining his base... perhaps the biggest in NBA history for someone who can really play the game. He needs to use it far better than he is. Damn, MacBeth, it's great to see you back. I can see a score of posts since I started pecking out mine. We've (most of us), really missed you. Get your ass down to D&D... it's been pretty boring lately. OK?
This is sort of dumb, but I think we go with whatever works. If we can feed Yao inside and he can consistently capitalize in big minutes, great. If not, pick and roll and/or let T-Mac create. The fact that we can potentially do either is exhilirating. It's a great time to be a Rockets fan.
Maybe I give him too much credit but McGrady really is the 2nd best offensive player in basketball right now. To take the ball out of his hands for any long stretch of time is a crime. Yao has trouble establishing post position due to his meek nature and immobility, but when he was allowed to move freely away from the action and serve as the end result of a play, they can get it to him right underneath the hoop where he's close to unstoppable. Didn't they come back from like 12 down in 5 minutes with that pick 'n roll in Game 5? It's a shame they didn't discover that until so late. Oh well, they'll have the better part of a decade to fine tune it. And I fully expect the one run by Stockton/Malone to pale in comparison due to the much larger size of their counterparts.
