I've been thinking about this and let me know what you guys think... I think the Rockets should run a starting line up of Mutombo, Taylor, Jackson, Mcgrady, Sura... And here are the reasons why. 1.) Yao plays terrible Defense: Teams love to pick and roll Yao Ming to death... and with good reason... the guy cannot for the life of him move quick enough or jump high enough to recover on pick and rolls... While I think this will be an issue with Mutombo I do believe Mutombo would handle this situation much better. In any case better defense means houston can run which means more open court play for T mac (something he needs). 2.) Yao does not rebound: Yao does not rebound very well AT ALL. Mutombo on the other hand does. How many times this season have we seen Mutombo surrounded by defenders alone in the paint rebounding Mcgrady's misses... The Rockets are one of if not the worse rebounding defensive team in the league and Mutombo would change that drastically. 3.) Forces T mac to be the "MAN" early: I am a firm believer that if this team is going to recover and go some where T Mac must be involved in the offense early and often. With Yao on the bench, this forces T mac to take over games from the tip. 4.) Forces Yao to be the "MAN" latter: When T mac went done early in the season, Yao Ming took over for the Rockets, keeping them in games. Why? Because he was Houstons only option. Yao is a player that seems to play based on inspiration. Remember when he came into the league and everyone thought he wasn't going to do anything and suddenly he emerged as one of the best centers in the game... Yao is a guy who when his back is up against the wall his greatness comes out. Being the man off the bench as strange as it sounds may help his confidence. Dont get me wrong, just because Yao would be coming off the bench doesn't mean he would be on the bench when the game matters most (ie fourth quarter). I just believe such a move would help his confidence during games as well as help the Rockets get off to better starts. Yao can and will be a dominant player, I just think the chemistry would be better this way. I say start Taylor over Howard because Taylor provides a better inside post up threat. Thus our line ups would be like this: Pg- Sura/ Barret Sg- Tmac/ Jackson, Sura, Boki Sf- Jackson / Bowen, Boki Pf- Taylor/ Howard, Padgett C- Mutombo/ Yao In any case, I think the Rockets idea of swinging the ball around the top of the key to get Yao the ball is one of the worst offensive strategies in the world..... it takes too much time off the clock..... instead I think the Rockets should have penetration from Sura, Barret, and Mcgrady and cause Yao's man to commit to whoever is penetrating opening Yao to actually touch the ball (remember the guy shoots 50%). Also, Mcgrady needs to have an iverson mentality and shoot shoot shoot, does not matter how much he is bricking....... we live by T mac, we die by T mac!
Another NBA team has tried that strategy in the last few seasons and it didn't work. Why would you think it's gonna work here? I don't think T-mac likes that idea either.
In an ideal situation i agree with you. The Rockets need more then Mcgrady to be a good basketball team. But with the talent we have Mcgrady needs to continue to share less and shoot more. Or probably a better way of saying this... get to the basket more so defense can collapse and he can kick it out for open shots.
I think you need to put the device down and step away from the crack pipe. If you want any more of a sure way for Yao to leave this team then, yeah, make him a bench player.
My comments are directed more at whats best for the team during a game... Just because you come off the bench does not mean you are not a vital part of the team. I want Yao to be the man but just at different parts of the game. I do agree with you though that Yao on the bench may "hurt his feelings"
So, Mutombo is going to play the most minutes in this new strategy? Puh-leeze. That's like admitting that Yao and TMAC can't play together. It's too early to come to that conclusion.
Tech, once again, just because a guy comes off the bench does not mean he is not a vital part of the team or that he is not going to log heavy minutes. Yao plays based on his confidence... if he has high confidence he is going to be a better player... playing against another teams bench player typically means you are going to play better. Yao plays better has more confidence can finish games better. Think about when Barkley came off the bench for Willis, was Willis better then Barkley? Did Willis play more then Barkley? No but it helped the teams chemistry... thats my idea
Might work well for a while, but we need to think about the longevity of this team and invest in Yao heavily because he's still getting better and needs the time out on the court to improve. Yao is still very young and has a lot of improvement that he's capable of making. To bench him now for instant success will take away from his development and hurt us in the long run.
No way. This would be very detrimental to Yao's confidence; and it does not reflect his skills. You would not bring Shaq or Even Brad Miller off the bench either.
I have League Pass and have watched nearly all of his games this year. As for your assertions, you are plain wrong or do not make sense. 1. Yao's defense is good. He does adapt to the pick and roll well and can follow smaller defenders. Yao Ming hustles his ass on defense. One problem is that Yao defends the entire paint so when someone drives in he needs to switch defenders. The Rockets still don't have anyone transitioning to Yao's defender when he switches. If you have watached how easy it is for opposing teams to score on us when Yao is out of the game then you would know how silly this assertion is. 2. Yao does not rebounds consistently. He does rebound OK at times and in his last several games when he does not rebound it, he tips it to other teammates. 3. This is pure conjecture without any real sense. 4. Again, I don't know where you find evidence to draw these conclusions. Some points to consider 1. My merely mentioning starting MoT you have lost any remaining credibility. 2. Mutumbo is a great blocker, but he's also a defense liabilty because he is so foul prone. If you want to talk about someone who has a hard time with the pick and roll... 3. I do agree with your assertion that we should find easier ways to get Yao the ball with slashers. However, I would say that we live and die by Yao, T-Mac, Sura, good ball movement, and rebounding.
zenithnader on your comments. 1.) I have watched games when Yao is on the bench and the Rockets seem to be a much better team in terms of scoring and playing a more uptempo game... something that i think will help the Rockets with their offensive problems. 2.) Yao has put a string of decent rebounding games but come on... how many times do we see a rebound that just goes by Yao and he does not get the ball. 3.) Tracy Mcgrady being the Rockets main offensive force doesn't make sense. B/c from what i've seen when the ball goes more through t mac then yao good things happen. 4.) As for Yao playing better against second units.. I'm thinking of the Mavs game where Yao dominated Booth... and struggled a bit against dampier. Maybe it would be poor idea to bench Yao but how about have him play fewer minutes to start games so that he is fresh against teams second units.
Your original post: 2.) Yao does not rebound: Yao does not rebound very well AT ALL. Mutombo on the other hand does. How many times this season have we seen Mutombo surrounded by defenders alone in the paint rebounding Mcgrady's misses... The Rockets are one of if not the worse rebounding defensive team in the league and Mutombo would change that drastically. ************************************* If Mutombo is going to drastically change our rebounding, then I'm assuming he's going to play more minutes as a starter, which would lessen Yao's minutes.
Yeah, Yao isn't succeeding under JVG's system, so Chris Mihm definitely will. I mean he's just looking so good in LA these first 20 games while before this season he totally sucked. Yeah, lets just basicly give Yao to L.A. Man you people that SERIOUSLY want to trade Yao Ming crack me up. 20-13 and 13-14 = 33 pts 27 rebs the last 2 games. I say thats pretty damn good. I for one am extremely happy to have Yao on our team. It's like the old saying, "You never know what you have until it's gone." And I hope you guys don't ever have to come to that realization about Yao because I really hope he stays.
Remind CD to tell JVG to bench Yao near April timeframe. That will leave a good impression to make sure Yao won't come back next season. I may even get to actually watch him play for Warriors.
A Line up like that will not bring you instant success at all. Rest of the league will laugh their asses off when they see that.
