2004-2005 Lineup Sura Ward Lue McGrady Sura Gaines Jackson Nachbar Padgett Howard Taylor Weatherspoon Yao Mutombo Howard Wow. What a drastic change from last year. Strengths: INTELLIGENCE: A MUCH more intelligent ball club. I remember watching Sura play and one trait that he has is that he is a playmaker. He is patient and heady. McGrady is also an excellent passer, yet regressed last year with the weakness of his team. Howard is another player that is an underrated passer and is a heady, patient player. MCGRADY: This guy is just a beast. With last year being an exception he has carried a HORRIBLE team to the playoffs year after year with no help. Last year remember they were up 3-1 to the Detroit Pistons, before losing it. No one could stop him and eventually they ganged up the whole Pistons team on him and the other players couldn't hit a damn thing. The amount of spacing he will get with Yao/Taylor/Jackson etc will bring this guy to life. They cannot double Yao and McGrady with guys like Jackson and Taylor being money on the wings. I often dreamed of what it could be like if we had traded Ralph Sampson for Jordan as we were allegedly offered to play with the dream, and I think this is not that far off. McGrady's only weakness is his effort, but he is an amazing defensive player when needs be (see the blocks on Kobe when he's inspired). I see us beginning with the same offensive sets with Yao in the paint. He is simply too strong and too good of a passer to start anywhere else. I also think that having McGrady and Sura along with Jackson in the 1,2,3 spot, Yao will get better inlet passes than Cuttino and Francis (who are both not that tall) gave him. I could see McGrady running the same slash plays that francis/mobley did, but being MUCH better at them. I also think Sura is an underrated slasher to punish the double-teams. Any ideas about offenses??
I think you are correct on your many observations. We won't necessary have a different offense, but a more efficient one. There won't be many passed open shots and there will be less force shots too. Our roster are full of mature, solid players who know to take the right shots and make the right decisions. It won't be perfect, but it will be much better than years past.
Another note about our roster, I think Clutch was right about our roster being 4 deep at each position, not just 3. C- Yao, Deke, JH, MoT PF - JH, MoT, Spoon, Padgett SF - JJ, Boki, Sura, Tmac SG - Tmac, Sura, JJ, Gaines PG - Ward, Lue, Gaines, Sura Long term, Spoon and MoT won't be with us. We might get a new player or two each year down the road but our core is solid.
I think McGrady can do more with the ball if he's catching it. He can juke his opponent, he'll have fewer defenders. I think the best set is going to be the triangle. We now have a decent pg and sf that can deliver the ball to Yao, high or low post on the right. Set McGrady and Howard opposite on the left. They can two-man game or swing it back to Yao. Yao can see over the opposition and deliver a bucket, deliver the ball to Mc Grady/Howard, or deliver it backdoor to a cutting Sura or Jackson. If the point or sf goes around Yao, the opposition cannot defend both TM/JH and the backdoor or jumper from JJ/BS. Yao can pick them apart. -----l---0---l-------- .......l........l........... ...JHl.........l....... JJ .......l.........l......... .......l____l.YM..... ....TM................... ......................BS.. ............................ ............................ If they front Yao, that means two men are on him and TM is free to get the ball and score, with JH helping, if necessary. If he gets trapped Yao just needs to be patient and step/roll toward the hoop to catch the bail out and deliver an easy bucket.
This offense is not utilizing Yao to the fullest. He is basically doing what Divac does in your offense, or a very old Sabonis.
Try using Courier Font for your diagram. All of the letters/punctuation takes up the same space. -----l---0---l------------ .....l.......l........... ...JHl.......l....... JJ.. .....l.......l............. .....l______l.YM.......... ....TM.................... ......................BS.. .......................... .......................... Is that a little more like what you wanted. Though for some reason I can't line it up perfectly.
i'd rather have Yao in the low block rather than the high post where he would be used as a passer and a jumpshooter it seems. Replace the positions of JH and Yao in that diagram and it maybe worth something to consider seriously. I just havent seen enough of howard after his michigan days to know what sort of passer he is. I also dont know about using the triangle , it worked great in chicago and was used fairly well in chicago, but i dont think JVG is a big fan of the triangle so i dont think it will be used often, if at all
Do you think the Rockets will be a strong rebounding team, average rebounding team, or weak rebounding team?
If we were above average last year I don't see any reason why we can't match it. Steve is an excellent rebounding PG so yeah we suffer giving him up but Cato was kinda weak in rebounding for his size in my opinion. With the addition of Howard and Deke I don't see us losing much from the frontcourt. We still have JJ who surprised me with his rebounding and although we don't have Francis rebounding from the PG position anymore we have Tmac at SG who can gather up rebounds very effectively. Also from what I've seen Sura can rebound rather well for a guard too.
Pick and rolls, pick and rolls, pick and rolls. Lots of 'em, whether it's with Yao and T-Mac or JJ and Howard or Yao and JJ or T-Mac and Howard.
Yao's not a good pick and roll partner, he's an excellent pick and pop partner, from what I've seen Howard doesn't do either, maybe there's a reason for that? Use the same offense as last season, hopefully Yao doesn't pass it back as much and attacks double teams.
What are you talking about? How many open jumpshots did Jimmy get on the baseline off the pick and roll with Yao? How many times did Cat get an open lane to the basket? How many times did Steve miss a wide open shot at the top of the key?
Those are all examples of a pick and pop, pick and roll requires Yao to roll to the basket and catch a pass, how many times did he do that?
In fact, he rolled to the basket a lot (from most of the picks from the right wing) and I think he got a total of maybe 2 passes from Cat, zero from Steve as I recall.
yao is EXCELLENT at the pick and role, anyone will tell you that. btw, you might not be aware of this but your posts are very poorly informed. its a reoccuring problem.
He did fumble a lot of passes into the low block and such ... but on the pick and roll on the right wing, he almost never got the pass.
