Yao needs to concentrate on Defense and Rebounding

LMAO, you blame the fronting defense on Yao Ming? LMAO. Yao is a matchup problem for every team because of his height. There is so many ways to resolve the fronting defense. I wonder why the coaching staffs is so slow to respond to this problem. The key to resolve the fronting defense is to read the defense and make quick play/pass to Yao Ming or other open men quickly. The current passers(Alston, Brooks, and battier to an extent) we have are too hesitant to make the right pass to Yao Ming or the open player. This is bad because when they do make a play, it is obvious for the defense to react because they took a long time to make a play. Second, Yao Ming is getting poor position because the passer took a long time to pass.

There are so many ways to resolve the fronting problem:

1. Quick passes or quick lob passes
2. Triangle passing to get a better passing angle to Yao
3. Drive to the basket
4. Pick and roll with Yao Ming, and Yao pops the 16 footer
5. Yao on perimeter and shoot the 3 balls
6 etc...

I remember one play from yesterday's game when Alston made a quick lob to Yao instead of a hesitant pass. That play resulted in a lay up and 1 free throw.

 

yes, and 7 years into his career, we're still struggling with it.

and when your GM wonders why more teams don't front him, you get the answer.

 

Morey talked today on his radio show about how Yao does a poor job against fronting defenses because he fails to seal his man for the ball reversal entry pass.

Also, he said that Yao should be getting a lot more offensive rebounds when he is fronted, but he is not.

It is not all about the team doing better, but about Yao doing better too.

DD

 

You make it sound like it's so easy to address the issue. Yao has been fronted for years, and we still have problems dealing with it. That should tell you something. Our primary problems involve Yao being such a small target due to his lack of reach and agility and the roster not being affluent in solid post-entry passers. It's one thing to make a post entry pass to a guy like Dwight (throwing beach ball in ocean from beach) and quite something else to make an entry pass to Yao (playing darts).

Please check out Yao's hotspots from 15 feet and beyond.

www.nba.com/hotspots

Select Yao + any regular season and observe his midrange shooting efficiency. Not good. Let the guards and Scolandry take the midrange jumpers and keep Yao in the paint where he can at least get offensive rebounds if not tip them to other Rocket players.

 

Now u know people are going to have a hard time understanding that. In the 94 finals, NY fronted yao the whole game and even had to double. He still got the ball because he was trained as a big man what to do. You lget ur position, hold it, reverse the ball, seal, and get the ball in a better scoring position right in front of the hoop. Now the shouldve been put in jail with harpers hand checking and oakley/mason/ewing body checking dream, but he knew what to do. Yao has been in the nba for 6 yrs and still don't know what to do. Its not the other players, its yao.

 

Fixed it for ya....

And yes, I know a lot of people struggle with understanding the game.

DD

 

I don't think it is a matter of not KNOWING what to do. It's not being ABLE to do it. Yao is simply too slow to contain quicker players who are usually used for fronting him. Comparing him with Hakeem is useless. Hakeem was 10 times quicker.

Try sealing a kid 8 inches shorter than you, and you'll know what I mean. The kid would simply get around and front you again before the ball could go to the reverse angle.

 

Not if Yao widens his base and extends his elbows out to form a box......like a big man should.

Yao learning how to use his elbows correctly would help his game a TON !!!

DD

 

You have to admit that Hakeem's gifted athleticism, reflexes, etc. allowed him to successfully deal with getting fronted all game, no? Yao doesn't exactly have those gifts. It's much easier said than done.

 

I used to seal smal guys all the time and its really easy. When u get to the blocks and the little guy want to fight u for the spot, u half shade by putting ur right leg and hip in between his with ur right elbow on the back of his neck. When the ball is swung, u already have ur elbow in his chest, u open up by swinging that left leg into the paint and raise ur left hand. The man is sealed. In a way, Yao didn't learn this because he didn't go to pete newells big man camp in the summers. He went back to china and played against guys he wasn't physically stronger than so he never learned technique. In fact, none of the overseas bigs are go post players because as a young big, they're trained like guards. The do a lot of guard drills and stuff. When u look at Dirk vs Detlef, detlef was the better post player because he played college ball here and sometimes being a big 3, you have to postup smaller 3's. When he perfect playing the 6'6 210 lbs 3's in college, when he got to the pro's he was skilled at this. That's why the rox couldn't beat the sonics. Detlef was too quick for Horry and too big for clyde or mario. He would post all of them up and use the left and right jump hook on the whole crew. No matter the bias, there is something to be said playing american ball as a young big.

 

Leeb, being as that it is not that hard, why haven't the coaches, Ewing, Thibedeaux etc taught him?

Or, is it that Yao is just a slow learner?

DD

 

yeah Yao needs to work on his agressiveness. And post play. Then well get down to it

 

hey Rockects hero I like what the topic of what your writing about.

 

Should take a lesson from Barkley and swing his elbows at least once every game. I loved watching Barkley do that on the Rockets. As a Sun I hated it, but as a Rocket fan I loved it.

 

If Yao did that, his defender would flop, and Yao would be called for the offensive foul. Even when something like that happens once, Yao understandably gets reluctant to try similar techniques, knowing he can't afford to get into foul trouble.

 

That's the million dollar question. It could be if you're taught a certain way for 8 yrs, then someone tries to teach you another way, sometimes its just hard. I don't know if yao is a slow learner, but I do know he has problems putting thoughts through his muscles. I mean when u watch it happen time and time again, you wonder what's going on in his head. He's not a "instinctual" player to me. He's a perfectionist probably, but he is a overthinker. I mean I canwatch the play starting to develop and wonder why yao don't see it. If your as slow as yao, u have to be a fast thinker to get ahead. The fronting defense without great ball pressure is the easiest defense to play against. Yao for some reason just keeps fighting and fighting the guy up the lane when he should just get his spot and stay. The more he fights with the guy, the more difficult it becomes for ball reversal. It all starts with his leverage point though.

That's the entire crux of the problem. I've said it a million times, you can't play with a board running down ur back. Your base,back, and arms all have to be bent to hold position and lower the center of graivity. Just like the big rigs I own, there are reason why they can't take a exit ramp at 65mph. The center of gravity is higher which cause the vehicle to turn over. Yao is like a big rig in terms because he plays high. Shaq is a big man also as was deke, but you never see those guys standing 7ft or 7ft 2 in the air. When Shaq posts, he's probably 6'9 because he's lowered his base giving himself position to explode, move or be immovable. Yao is 7'6, but when he post, he's still about 7'4. When he plays that high, its easy for a 6'8 guy to get under his base and push him off the spot. In china, they didn't have guys built like the players over here. So his natural insticts is to revert back to the way he's always played. I thought by yr 2, he wouldve been past that, but here we are yr 6 talking about the same thing.

 

C R A P.

 

Unquestionably, Yao has "mechanical" problems, BUT the most pressing issues with Yao, IMO, are stamina and temperament. When he is tired, which is probably most of the time, he slows down, seems befuddled, and makes poor decisions. As to temperament, he is not aggressive enough for professional sports, especially the NBA. So, he often looks soft. He appears to be a wonderful fellow, intelligent, humorous, and kind; however, his performances are too inconsistent to really carry a team or to become a "great" player. He flirts with greatness on occasion, but his injuries have limited his progress. It is really a shame.