Agree. One suggestion: Let yao play garbage time to pad his stats. Then the yao fans will be satisified.
Generally, I'd agree with you. But not tonight. Miami sold their soul trying to defend Yao. It was idiocy, imo - but still their choice. When teams do that to Yao, the obvious and correct decision is to let the perimeter players demolish them with all the open looks. Yao did a great job today of playing the decoy. They were frickin' triple covering him before he got the ball today! Passing into that would have been lunacy. Instead, the ball got swung twice around the perimeter... and bingo! Open 3...
Great post. You, Miami may be idiot but they had early success. When the game started, none of our perimeter shooters could make open shot. In my opinion, if you allow NBA players open shot all the time, eventually one or two of them will become hot. It was rare in the Grizzlies game that all of our perimeter shooters were panic throughout the whole game.
Bottom Line: Yao has had problem's getting into the position the last couple games. The guards have been looking to throw it down to the big man, but it gets too risky when they front Yao. We've been playing great though.
I got a different impression while watching the game. Early on, the Heat were playing a very effective zone, but then Brian Grant got into foul trouble. Several times Yao had Lamar Odom on his back, and no one fronting him, yet he still never received the ball. I kept track of the number of touches that Yao had in the first half. It was around three. One of the first times Yao actually got the ball, Eddie Jones fouled Francis off the ball, and the team never went back to Yao. Yes, the Heat played a pretty decent zone around Yao for stretches. However, there were times that Yao could've received the ball, and the guards went the other way. Why not reward the big man for all his hard work (he played great D tonight) and toss him the ball when he's open? Surely the Heat would surround him, but he's great at finding the open man. I say give it to the big man every now and again so he can at least pass it back out. The impression that i got was that the guards, and Yao to some degree, completely gave up on trying to go inside. The 4th quarter was a different story, as the heat were pretty tired out, and Yao got more touches and points. But for Yao to only get 3 touches in the first half was unacceptable. Glad we won though.
I'm worried though that if the Rockets stop looking inside to Yao, the open looks their getting now are going to end. Cuttino needs to realize that the open looks he's getting are in large part a result of the defense cheating to defend the interior pass. If dribblemania shows its head again, teams are going to be able to stop us. Like I said in the chat, we can win consistently the way we're playing but only as long as Yao is like a nuclear weapon - he's effective as a threat alone even if he's not scoring. That threat though will only be real as long as the Rockets keep looking inside.
Good point. Let's see how we run our offence in the next game as Dallas is not defending anybody anyway.
The important thing is that we got a big "W" That will teach them to think twice before zoning Yao. You can shut our big man down but our PGs will show you what OPEN means. Let it be a good lesson for JVG's big brother
Just be happy with the win ! Who cares about individual stats. Just look at the team stats. This team is taking what the defense gives them and punishing them for it. Rockets have a right balance of players that can adjust to anything the other teams throw at them IMO. Of course, we will see if this is true the next two games. But please, no more complaining everytime Yao doesn't get enough touches cuz it's a team game.
Its partly positioning and it is also the poor ability of the Guards to make the required pass at a very precise time. We dont know exactly what JVG is trying to do with Yao Ming. At times he looks lost and exhausted from running up and down the Court with little involvement. The Guards are passing realy well to one another and their offencive Game was great to-night. The Rockets are playing realy well in one catagory and that is in Defence. I am amazed at the turn arround in Defence from our four previous seasons.Too many Turn Overs which JVG will fix in time.
No big mystery here — The Heat seemed to build their game around denying Yao the ball. The hung on him all night, Grant did a good job, etc . . . AND they paid for it. Shooters were open on almost every posession.
My thoughts exactly. I want Yao to dominate as much as anyone else, but Francis had a 2:1 to ratio, Mobley was hot and Ming had 7blks. Not only that, all those people who think the 1 dimensional player Taylor is all this , they see he's just being replaced by Padgett and we're still winning. When he gets back and unlike Rudy did, he will have to win his job back instead of just handed back to him.. The team won so everyone should stop crying. Maybe 1 night it will be Yao,one night Francis other nights Mobley. As long as 2 out of the 3 are on, then this team has a good chance of winning.
Here comes Yao Ming, arguably the greatest garbage time player of all time in the history of NBA. I'm just glad the team wins.
The Heat played Yao well and he definitely could have established better position. However, I don't think it was as difficult to pass to Yao as some people on the bbs seem to be suggesting. We were looking awful on offense until Mobley got hot. If we play like this against the elite teams in the league we might be in trouble, although our defense might keep us in any game. Basically, I still think Yao needs more touches and the offense has a ways to go. I thought the best play of the game was when someone passed to Yao on the block, the double team came and he passed it to a wide open Mobley for 3.
Good Points! Here's my take: Rebounding: Yao's rebounding skills are a consequence of his playing against smaller Asian centers where he, by virtue of his height, could simply reach out for rebounds or tip the ball to himself. That puppy won't hunt in the NBA and he'll need to really step up the level of his aggressive play for the team to be successful. That's why he appears to caught off guard by smaller stronger defenders. A key test will come on Thursday night when the Mavericks throw Bradley, Fortson and company at him. Pck and Roll: What can I say - you've covered it perfectly. His timing should improve as the season progresses. The great thing to see is that they no longer seem to be playing out of control and actually run real plays. Agressiveness: Yao will never be a "beast" in the paint. He has far too much skill. In this respect he's closer to Duncan than Shaq. Once he puts it all together he'll consistently put up the same type of numbers that Duncan does on a nightly basis. All in all, they still look ragged but there is visible progress being made and for that I'm grateful.
If teams are going to 2x and 3x Yao Before He gets the ball, it's obvious that it would be better to pass it to the open man rather than to Yao. When Pike comes back, teams are going to pay even more for that type of defensive strategy. Plus, Yao doesn't have to get all his points from posting up. He should be able to get his share of points from putbacks. If he ever learns to be aggresive about getting boards (i.e. Wallace, or even Braggs), it will a long night for the opposition
What I don't understand is why can't the Rocket do a lobbing pass over Yao's defender who's fronting him. If he chose to front him, then lob it over him....then he will pay for fronting. Didn't you see the Lakers' teammate do that sometimes with Shaq? I mean especially with Yao's height, I can't imagine who want to front him and not risking a lobbing pass for a dunk. WHen I watch the Rockets' game and I see Yao fighting for a position and his man were fronting him denying him the ball...I can clearly see that if you just lob it over to Yao's defender and Yao with the height should be able to catch it and go for a dunk or layup easily and I mean EASILY. Rockets should practice this move a lot more and take avantage of it. I want to see this play in the game a LOT MORE!!!
Well, I agree that Yao needs to be more aggressive and has some weaknesses. However, I can't deny that the hot-shooting mobley has been available because of Yao's existence. Many teams that the Rockets have faced used zone defense and gave double to Yao. That allows much more open chance for Mobley got lots of accurate 3s. Yao's gaining all the attention and mobley goes up. As a result, we win the games!!! I hope that Yao could be a go-to guy, but right now I satisfy with this team's performance...
