What it takes to play well with a dominant big man (inside presence)?

"What it takes to play well with a dominant big man (inside presence)?"

Sam Cassell

look what he did with big fellas, Dream, KG, Brand

 

The problem is not that T-Mac scores less with Yao in. You are bound to score less playing with another high scoring player. The problem is that T-Mac actually shoots worse (less efficient) when Yao is in. That's worrisome.

You normally expect that when you have another superstar to take away defensive attention, you score less but more efficiently because of the good looks generated by the other superstars. This is the case for the role players on the team. This is also the case for Yao. When Yao plays with T-Mac, he is more effective because the defense can't swarm him like when T-Mac is out. Not so for T-Mac the other way around.

Is it...

(1) because Yao makes the lane more crowded so that it is harder for T-Mac to go to the rack?

(2) T-Mac has to defer to Yao so that he loses some focus on scoring?

If it is (1), a Mac-Yao pnr should make it more effective. Before the season started, I thought a Mac-Yao pnr would be so unstoppable they would make some rule to ban it (a little exaggerated, but you get my point). The only comparable pnr duos would be Stockton-Malone and Nash-Nowitzki. A pnr with a good decision-making ball-handler (who can score) and a good shooting big man is just extremely difficult to defend, especially when you also have some sharp shooting role players spreading the floor.

If it is (2), it is all mental. Let's just hope that he will be more focused comes playoffs time.

I notice that T-Mac is not finishing well going to the basket. Somehow he misses a lot more layups than he normally did. Frankly, I don't know what's going on with him.