Let Yao Face up

Yao isn't quick enough to face up. In order to face up, you have to be at least be able to be a threat putting the ball on the floor and going around your defender - a la Duncan, Garnett, Olajuwon, etc. Yao doesn't have that kind of quickness.

 

Dude. YAO has put the ball on the floor a bunch of times with success. He did it to Orlando a couple times. Last year against Golden State he took one dribble and threw it down. "The Move" against Indy. Plus if he faces up he can shoot his jumper and pass the ball better 'cause you see more of the court. You don't need too much more quickness to get by other Centers in the league if they try to play your jumper, so that is to YAO's benefit. You're not asking YAO to cross people over you're just asking for one move to the hoop if they defender is trying to stop the jumper, otherwise just shoot the jumper over the defender.

This one dimensional Post up crap that JVG is making him do is limiting his game.

 

i totally agree. Yao should be given more freedom especially if he getes good spacing. Van Gundy has made yao a 1 dimensional player. Just dump it down and let him go to work. I don't think its the way to go if Yao is to blossom as a player.

 

Yao is not quick enough or athletic enough to put the ball on the floor. He already has trouble putting the ball on the floor when he is in the post. If he had to do it facing someone up then he would have even more trouble holding on to it.

 

Yao makes LIMITED use of dribble penetration, but it is only when lanes open up wide or when he is forced into it. You do NOT want Yao facing up like Barkley or Duncan or Garnett against athletic big men. He does not have the quickness to go around them laterally that way on any kind of a consistent basis. I mean, do you honestly think Yao is going to crossover, fake penetrate and hit a fallaway 15 footer? That is the kind of thing that face up players do in order to shake their defenders.

I mean, the guy is great, but he doesn't have that kind of quickness.

 

I wouldn't call Webber laterally quick or even quick but he has a deadly face up jump shot. I am not quite understanding why Yao wouldn't be effective facing up if he were encouraged to shoot that 15 footer. To block his jumper, the defender has to get up on him, and that opens him up for the dribble drive.

In fact, in his rookie and sophomore seasons, his dribble drive penetration came off face ups and spins from outside the paint. Yao has a quick first step and is very effective with 1 or 2 dribbles from outside the paint.

In traffic there is no 7 footer in the NBA that can dribble the ball with his back to the basket and not get stripped or stolen. But Yao can dribble on the post up with man on man defense. His problem is just like any other big man when the little guys come from his blind side. Right now, it doesn't look like Yao senses the double team coming as well as he did in his first 2 seasons. What made us all salivate especially his first year was his decision making when the double came. That's where his decision making really stood out.

Now we have 2 factors that we are dealing with not very effectively.

1. The league is playing more and more zone and fronting D. We haven't really found the answer.

2. The foul disparity on Yao right now is atrocious. He gets called for every bump and his defenders are allowed every type of contact in the book.

Until we get answers for these 2 things, it ain't gonna matter whether he fronts, plays high, plays low, or whatever, he is not going to be very successful. We have to work on getting the ball to Yao over the top when he's got the fronting defender pinned and we have to do something about getting the officiating in line.

 

Yao doesnt need to be laterally quick to face up. He can get a
shot off over anybody. The major problem is that he's not
getting the ball in low post.

I dont call guys like Duncan and Webber quick. Duncan many
times looks as uncorrdinated as Yao. He also takes a long time
to wait for double-team to pass out, a style Yao used to be
blasted for here. In fact, Duncan and Yao often remind me of
slow elephants on the court.

 

Yao may not be as quick as Ducan etc, but he can certaily put the ball on the floor when face up the basket, and he had some success there in the past.

Normally, big men are told not to put the ball on the floor, especially when surounded by small & quick defenders, that's where Yao got into trouble most of the time since the help defenders usualy were waiting to double him. When he was completely isolated vs one defender, he is cable of drive by defenders.

 

You don't have to be super quick to play a face up game, but you do need to be able to dribble the ball. Yao can't. He would get the ball stolen within 2 dribbles. Or he would run into someone while dribbling and get called for a charge. Webber and Duncan may not be super quick but they can dribble the ball and they are much, much more coordinated than Yao while dribbling the ball. I've seen those guys dribble the ball up the court several times. I've even seen them lead fast breaks.

 

excratly what i'm thinking. when you face up, at least, the defender can no longer push you around from the back. and it doesn't mean Yao has to do what Hakeem did down low to be success; how about Duncan's bankshot? Yao, at 7'6" and facing up, can simply shoot over any opponent in front of him.

 

Yao can put the ball on the floor when he is open for a jumper, and his defender is running at him to contest his jumper. That is the only time I've seen Yao drive past his defender. Big difference from creating your own shot off the dribble.

 

To those who oppose the "Yao Face-Up" option, I say this: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is FREAKIN CRAZY (and stupid...) !!

If Rain Man was willing to put the ball in T-Mac's hands to ensure more success on the offense, then he also needs to be willing to let Yao fade right or left after the high pick and not always roll directly to the hoop. Yao's range is greater than most 5's in the league as is his ability to shoot over them.

I don't agree with the Yao ISO on the wing, which is just about the only way he's going to have consistent success off the dribble...

Another option is for T-Mac to flash through the lane when Yao is in the post and then have Wesley/Barry/Sura follow the double-team for a feed from Yao and a wide open layup underneath the hoop...

I haven't seen either of these plays lately.

Let my Yao Ming Go!!!

 

There are tons of tall power forwards and centers, that make their living on the fifteen to twenty foot, face up, jumper. Yao can obviously hit this shot as least as good as any of his teammates in my opnion. It seems a shame that it's an option that's rarely used. He seems destined to grind out all his points on the post, where he gets tired very quickly.

On pick and rolls with Sura, no one ever guards Yao at fifteen feet, but they never kick the ball back to him for jumpers. Pick and rolls are only effective when they're unpredictable. The Rockets pick and roll is so predictable. Kicking the ball out to the person setting the screen (in this case Yao) would force the opposing center to cover Yao away from the basket and open up the lane for penetration. It's Basketball 101.

 

We need to run more pick and pop plays and let Yao shoot that 15 to 17 foot jumper. He doesn't have to put the ball on the floor. Just catch and shoot the ball on pick n' pops, like what Rik Smits used to do for the Pacers. If Yao works on that shot, he can shoot a higher percentage than most of our guards. Nobody will be able to block that jump shot. Yao's biggest strength is his height. We need to utilize that. Otherwise Ming would become a quite useless player. He doesn't rebound well, and he isn't ever going to be a defensive force due to his lack of quickness. So if he can't even contribute on the offensive end (like what's happening now on most evenings), why would we even play him? Right now Yao's confidence level and his overall play is at all time-low now. And I'm tired of seeing how miserable he looks every game. We need to find a way to get him going offensively. And letting him face up and shoot more jumpers would be a good start.

 

We're not expecting Yao to outquick anyone from the high post, but rather to take some face-up jumpers. If you think, like I do, that he could just catch and shoot, Yao WILL BE effective offensively playing the high post.
I just don't understand why some of you, especially the senior posters, have been so adamant against it, insisting on Yao playing EXCLUSIVELY in the low post. Even Bradley and Smits took more face-up jumpers than Yao.

 

I have been thinking about this recently. Now that I've seen Yao take a few more 15 and even 18 footers the past couple of games, i've wondered if JVg would take the shackles off Yao to be as free and T-mac is to take jumpers.

Think about it, why does t-mac have the green light to shoot whenever he wants and as much as he wants? Becuase he can shoot over any gaurd in the league, even if they are ready for the shot. Now think about Yao. Yao can shoot over anyone in the league if he's given just a few feet of room (which he almost always has when he's around 15+ feet.) I'd honestly love to see that play ran until he either stars bricking it or until the defense adjusts. If he misses 2 times in a row then run the play again and maybe have him pump fake and do his little spinning move toward the basket or have a cutter and let Yao use his extinct passing skills we all know he has somewhere.

We need some more offensive plays that focus on Yao out of the post. Let him try to get deep post, if thats defended well have him run a pick and pop or a pick and pass to a cutter. That would save him a lot more energy than to have to fight for position again or make a rainbow around to the other side with our gaurds just passing around the arch waiting for Yao to get set. If we resort to these types of plays our offense will be much more fluid and adds another demension.

I can congure up a few variations of plays with Yao in the 15 footer range that would be a blessing to even see attempted. I'm sure they will add a few more plays before the season is over, let's cross our fingers that it involves Yao with the green light to shoot. We've freed T-mac. We've freed Boki *snicker*. Now it's time to Free Yao!

 

We should just have Yao bring it up ~ that way his explosiveness and mad handles will be best utilized.

 

I don't remember Yao ever being all that great a jump shooter, even in his rookie season. His jump shooting was just as inconsistent as his low post game. One game he'll hit every shot from the outside, the next he'll brick every jumper he takes. It's not much better than Howard or Taylor and it may not be even as good as Padgette's jumper.

I mean, sure, I wouldn't mind if he took a couple of 15-18 footers every now and then, but I sure as hell don't think letting him take more outside shots is suddenly going to turn him into a superstar or anything.

 

Yao should have the greenlight to play the game he's comfortable
with. We all know how Francis and Tmac performed when out of
their comfort zone.