Perhaps this isn't the Adelman offense we were thinking to see, but here's something interesting I've found: Against washington: Artest- 6 ast Alston- 5 ast McGrady- 3ast FG% 47.9 Against orlando: Alston 7 ast Artest 5 ast Yao/Tmac- 2 ast FG% 48.2 Against miami: Tmac/Yao 4 ast Barry/Scola/Alston/Artest 3 ast FG% 45.6 The ball is really being spread around by different people now. It used to be Alston and Tmac were by far the assist leaders on the team. Now we're seeing Artest and Yao making passes to open guys. And it leads to the higher FG% obviously. I hope they can keep it up too.
We're starting to play like a team instead of 1v1 ball. RA is having Yao at the low post, and having the other 4 players move around the perimeter. The play where Rafer made the 3 point shot with a little less than 3 minutes remaining in the fourth showed how it works. Yao was off ball and standing around in the post. The ball didn't even get to Yao for the Rockets to get a wide open shot. Yao draws attention, whether it is needed or not. What RA needs to do is make our offense very similar to last year when Yao when down. Pretend Yao is mutombo, and run a 4 man offense. I think RA is trying too hard to get Yao involved in his motion offense. I'm pretty sure JVG offense + motion offense can be effective as well. We basically have a mutombo who can dominate a game and shoot. If the 4 players play around Yao, we'll easily get an open shot without have to feed to Yao everytime.
This is all a result of pounding the ball downlow to Yao, which results in more ball movement. I think the most amazing thing about Artest's game is his passing ability on this system. We no longer have to accept luther head's horrible pass to Yao which makes Yao so out of position that essentially forces him to commit a turnover.
i would like to see more penetration when Yao kicks the ball out from the post. If we keep shooting spot up 3's, we're no different than we were with JVG where we lived and died by the 3 ball. Get more penetration from the outside.
very small sample size, but great point none the less. it may be that too often people are concerned with what the offense looks like rather than how it functions.
YES !! I was going to start a similar thread....well noticed sir ! Too many people complaining about what has Adelman changed etc...but you can see what he has changed, the ball is flying around out there and people are getting wide open looks. Earlier in the year there were spurts of this but in crunch time the team would revert to old stand around and watch Tmac ball....(San Antonio collapse) now they are trusting the system throughout the entire game. And it is working. WOOOOHOOO !! DD
The reason Adelman's offense flowed was because of Tracy. He wasn't feeling good and rightly decided not to chuck up a lot of shots. Instead he kept the ball moving around and let others score. The key question is how will Tracy play when he feels better and takes more shots? Will he revert to form and ignore Adelman's offense like normal? Yao played within the offense also but my problem is he passed the ball out of scoring position several times. We can't afford for him to do that against good teams. Tonight it worked out because of the weak opponent. His heart was in the right place but Yao needs to shoot when he's 5 feet away from the basket against a 6'9 player. Another thing, when teams wait until he puts the ball on the floor to double-down, Yao should not put the ball on the floor when he's close-in. Just turn and shoot it before the 2nd/3rd player gets there. You could tell somewhat the starters aren't used to running Adelman's offense full-time because of the TOs. TOs are the reason the Rockets didn't lead by 20 at halftime.
If T-Mac is feeling better and he becomes more aggressive, that will only help the offense. It's nice to know that when he doesn't have it, he can just move the ball around and we know how to play effectively without depending on him. But to take full advantage of our talents, we need Tracy to play aggressively. By that, I don't mean he holds the ball for 8 second at the 3-point arc, and then launch an off-balance jumper. I mean, primarily, he looks to penetrate more and create for himself or others off the dribble. That's when he and we are at our best.
Agreed, but as you define it, Tracy doesn't often play "aggressively". I'm hoping with you that he gets healthy and attacks more instead of bailing out the defender. The final touch would be for him to consistently move without the ball. I'm probably asking for too much.
I think these are the two points I've repeated the most here. The logic is basically the same for both players. Do the hard work w/out the ball, and make an immediate offensive move (shoot, drive, hook) when receiving the pass.
When Yao is playing well he does what you suggest. TMac doesn't and that's my biggest complaint about him. Even if TMac never totally regains his athleticism he could still be a great player in this system because of his passing ability. But he must buy into it first. When he said last week he needed more touches I agreed, because if he'd play within the offense - pass and move - he'd get the ball back more often, and 90% of the time get a better shot. I know his leg isn't allowing him to drive at times, but if he plays as he did last night he'll give a better chance to win when he's not feeling right. I hope TMac will finally "get it", I hope watching Artest going through his adjustments has inspired him somewhat in this regard.
I love how our coach is fexible and adjusts to his players rather than bench them and go out and get washed up players to run his system.
Its really hard to go to the basket when Yao is in the game because his man will just leave him at the baseline to go stop the driver. We have the best post up threat in the league, we have to use him. I'll take the spot up 3s because we have players that can make them.
Which is why Yao needs to kick the ball out less often unless it's to AB, Shane or maybe Barry. Passing out to Rafer makes no sense at all when Yao is 5 feet away from the basket. Seems like there were a couple of times last night where Tracy zipped the ball right back to Yao before he could even move, sort of like telling him, "shoot the ball".
It is kind of like the question: a) A double-teamed Yao in down low b) A wide open Alston at 3-point line Who do you rather to shoot the ball? I say Yao. But, it seems that Yao believe that the open man should take the shot. Well, I guest it just how Yao had been taught back in China.
No. Last night on several occasions, Yao quickly passed the ball from close-in before the double-team came. That was his mistake and it has to stop. When Yao is double-teamed, he should pass in a hurry before they crowd him because he turns it over under pressure.
Tmac, Battier, Brooks, Barry, Artest, and even Rafer, all can hit the open 3. Obviously there are players that are better at it, but all of these guys can hit the 3 above 33%, meaning I don't mind them taking that 3 if they are open. The idea is that Yao gets doubled and it means someone is open. If they guard him 1 on 1, Yao should be able to score at a nice clip. If they double, you leave someone open at the 3 point line (or he could even shoot through the double). If they front him (which is what teams usually do), generally it leaves Scola or some other player open at the elbow. And theres your offense. If for some reason Yao isn't hitting the shots 1 on 1, then you still have Artest and Tmac as play makers. When Yao goes out, you see what happens. We go to a more fluid offense involving Brooks, Landry, and Artest/Tmac.
