Yes, I agree with MacBeth. I promise that I'll have some time to read the original post later. Too hungry now.
http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/huddle031106.html Turnover Watch The Rockets posted 22 turnovers in their last outing, but still came away with the win against New Jersey. Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy claims he is not being negative, but simply keeping an eye on a facet of the game that really annoys him. “Defensively we played very effectively, but the turnovers if they continue will get us beat," said Van Gundy. "Those are locks in this league. If you defend, you’ll be in games. And if you turn it over, you’ll lose. We won despite the turnovers, but against Memphis it was one of the main reasons we lost. I think that you can’t accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat." I think Jeff disagreed with the mind set that says if u win, nothing else matters.
Exactly what i was going to say...Yao needs to be ready physically before the guards throw him the ball every time down the court...so far he's been huffing and puffing after 20 minutes of playing time... Maybe not passing him the ball is not a bad habit, just a result of Yao's inability to get with it physically...
Not relevant till he gets the ball every time when he has managed to get position. You guys are like a broken record. Yao isn't always open? Not always in position? Fine. Then don't give him the ball, then. Nobody is complaining about that (or at least, most of us aren't). The problem is when Yao's open... and a guard just dribbles away.
Not relevant ? Being tired is not relevant ? What are you on ? I've played basketball at least once in my life, granted not at NBA level, but my guess is it would be even more relevant at NBA level. Position or no position, when you're tired, you're not going to make many shots. Getting the ball would just be another opportunity to get even more exhausted and turn it over to the opponent. There is not a unique reason for why Yao is not getting the ball every time down the court. Stop blaming everybody else but him... and i'm a big Yao fan by the way...
MacBeth, Nice post. I say that and my guess is we probably don’t agree on a lot. I don’t think the goal of an offense is to be run perfectly for the sake of being run perfectly. It’s meant to be run perfectly so that you win. A play isn’t necessarily a bad play just because it doesn’t involve a couple of screens, a pick, and a back door cut. ISO is not in and of itself evil. I also don’t believe that having Yao the focus of our entire offense this season is a necessarily good thing. In fact I really hate the posts that include the words “get” “it”, and “don’t”. They seem over the top, not without merit, but over the top. So, when I began reading your posts I thought here we go again. Yao must have the ball always and the guards are stupid and will never learn. Your post, however, I found well reasoned and your ideas well espoused. So, based on your post I re-watched the Nets game. You know what. I missed a lot. There was more street then I had remembered. Taylor was lucky a great deal of the night and Francis had three bad quarters not just two as I originally thought. Because I respect your opinion and you have a different take then me, a couple of questions. Don’t you feel the Rockets new commitment to defense covers a multitude of their offensive sins? Does an offense based on Yao mean he has to touch the ball every time he’s in the game? From what you’ve seen so far, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the guard play this season?
Danjo, good point. Ming may have been open but I really cannot come to bring myself to say: Houston we have a problem. You can watch the nets game all you want when I look at the last 8 games where we are 7&1, I see a body of work that suggest the following: - whatever resistance there was to JVG, it is gone; - all the players appreciate, and are commited to, the Ming Plan; - the team, unlike in the past, have the ability to survive without Ming albeit, on a short-term basis; - Ming is so potent that the one or two dunks or hooks he typically gets in the opening tends to affect the opposition for most of the game; - the supporting cast is capable and seem to meet the JVG requirements for the supporting cast; - the team is very effective in those 18 - 28 minutes a game that Ming is not on the floor, with a continued commitment to the post game using MoT, JJ and even Boki. - Ming contribution to this team goes beyoud the offense and more specifically the number of shots and that aspect is reflected in the results.
Good post... Yao is getting more attention than anyone else on the team. The opposition is faking doubling down on them. He is drawing attention to himself and is getting the other Rockets more shots. If we can beat a team like that, I have no problem there. I don't think that our iso-ball will just go magically disappear. Remember, JVG ran iso plays for Latrell and A. Houston on countless occasions back in NY. It is just another option on offense. Yao still needs to get better positioning on the low post and I would also like to see him get the ball at the elbow and find some cutters. Especially against teams that are fronting him and the ones without a true center. But in due time, he will learn and dominate and call for the ball more and more. Iso-ball is still a valuable tool. The Rockets are learning to use iso-ball in moderation(the way it should be used, not just to be the bread and butter like it has been in the past. Stevie and Cat are still one of the, if not the quickest backcourt in the league. JVG knows this and will let them operate from time to time. Both the low-post game and iso-ball if used accordingly, such as the game's tempo dictates, will keep the opposing D guessing. Watching the Bulls-Rox game eariler this week, I notice the the Bulls were playing like we were last year. And the results were the same. I have seen tremendous improvements compared to last year and expect more to come.
great observation DR.... I especially thought that the point about the shots that he gets in the opening goes a long way in the psych of the other team. If we can get Moochie to dribble up and get the team going without a TO... we'll be set. Why can't we get WIlks more PT?
He has a real suspect jumpshot. I think with Moochie the operative word still is patience. I am hoping that in the next five games or so he just completes his transformation and get with the program. I would not hesitate to use Mobes at the point if necessary. Even JJ has been bringing up the ball and Mobes did okay in his rookie year; at least good enough to help out here instead of going to Wilks. I do not know much about him but I know JVG said he cannot shoot. Personally I would have felt more comfortable if we had gone with Smush Parker, Tierre Brown or Mark Jackson.
I dont give a damn how many times Yao shoots the ball, the offense still runs through him. If he touches the ball or not, the defensive focus and attention is primarily on YAO which frees up cuts and passing lanes for others. I think the timing of the offense is still off, when I have noticed Yao will be in position prematurely(ball not on the wing) and vice versa. This should correct itself in due time. But it is apparent that these guys are playing as a team. We are showing that we can finish games, which in my mind is the most important thing.
This simply nulifies Jeffs takes and those who agreed. To me it is a common sense thing - stupidity is stupidity in win oder loss - I 'get it' but I don't know how others do. Do you 'get it'? Lets avoiding justifying potential detrimental actions with wins or rather when we win - it is a naively simplistic way of looking at things.
Again, this wasn't really a post about Yao. Yao was merely the object of the difficulty. Suppose for a moment three things; that it was conceded that it is significantly better for the team to shout out "Hurrah!" after making buckets,B) that the coach has said that he wants the team to do this,and C) that Steve and others have a long standing reluctnace to do this. I am purposely being ridiculous here, to make the point. Irrespective of what I feel about the word " Hurrah", if Steve et al are not doing this, that's a problem. Moreover, if they don't do this and we win, it reinforces in them the feeling that "Hurrah" doesn't lead to winning. My pointing this out has nothing to do with "Hurrah" directly, do you see what I'm saying? That was my entire point; not that there weren't times where it made no sense to yell Hurrah, not that they always avoid yeling Hurrah, not that yelling hurrah is clearly the best way to win right now. Merely that, if we agree that long term if the team is going to progress we need to learn to yell hurrah, every game that goes by where we see Steve et al find reasons to not yell Hurrah is counter-productive long term, and that every one of those games that we win could easily be seen as a step in the wrong direction, in terms of Steve et al buying into it. As I demonstrated in my parade thread, I am not at all impatient about what we show right now. I would be, unlike many here, willing to take another losing year this season if it laid a much better foundation for winning big in the future. It might take that, although I don't think so, but we need to keep our eyes on the prize, and the road to the real prize runs through the middle. the longer we detour, the longer the trip is going to take.
MacBeth, I understand your point. To follow your simile, I'm just not sure that Van Gundy is asking the team to shout hurrah after every bucket so much as shout hurrah after MORE buckets, or certain buckets over others. Perhaps he's fine with "YESSSSSS!" or "Boom Shakalaka" if it feels right at the time. I think he feels "Hurrah" may be the most reliable cheer, but that he is not opposed to differing exclamations so long as the cheering continues successfully. I believe that shouting hurrah is really part of a larger gameplan of cheering together loudly than the very gameplan itself. Christ, did that make sense? Embrace the abstract... hippieloser needs some acid 'r sumthin'...
