I wanted to get y'all's thought on this. Last year with a completely different cast of players everybody criticized the team for not getting Yao the ball enough. This year we have the same problem. What I wanted to know is if you guys thought the problem was with JVG or with Yao just not being assertive? If it is JVG, get him the heck out of town! If the problem is Yao, what do we have to do to get him to realize that he has to DEMAND the rock from the likes of Barry, Wesley, James, etc.? If I am known here at all, it is as an ardent supporter of Steve and Co., but that has nothing at all to do with this question so don't label this another Yao vs. Steve thread. I just want to know why we have a guy shooting 60+% who only takes 7 or 8 shots a game?
The problem IMO is we do not do enough to force the ball into him. Force feed Yao if you have to. Sure he will drop some passes, but most of the time Yao gets the ball in good position it's light out. I see a lot of hesitation from Sura, Wesley, James etc to pass him the ball inside, sometimes we fans watch on TV would think "Yao was so open, really nice position downlow, how come the ball is not here", then all the sudden, 3 seconds go by and Yao has to step out to avoid getting 3 second call. Sad to say, that reveals that as a team we did not play together enough that passing inside to Yao is almost a second nature for most of the guys, just like when we made a entry pass to Hakeem before, it's all natural and seamless.
I agree. We need to get Yao the ball. Get some plays out of the Spurs, Heat, and Cavs playbooks for TD, Shaq, and Big Z. Just do whatever to get Yao involved. I love how we use him to set big screens and stuff..but I think we should balance it more..not rely on that every time..especially when we have those long scoring droughts! Next season..or maybe season after that..I really hope we acquire an athletic tough gritty power forward inside with Yao..and an athletic hustler outside with Tmac.
This is the whole reason that throughout the season there was a long ass Fire JVG thread. He's a great coach, but it is becoming painfully apparent that he is not the right coach to bring us to the championship level. Has he ever won a championship? No. With all the talented teams in the West/East, there is NO WAY IN HELL that the rockets can win with a Tmac first option, 3 pointers second option, and Yao third option on the team. It is so damn frustrating to watch and they have had an entire season to figure things out. Pass the ball to Yao first and good things will happen. Who cares if he has a few turnovers, it'll be made up with the extra fouls called on the other team. Avery Johnson has made the adjustment to get out to our perimeter better, but JVG's dumass hasn't made the adjustment to get a freaking >70% shooter in the playoffs the ball more. And his touted defense is absent. We are up near the end of the game, 2 games in a row and we lose... I don't care what anyone thinks but that's the coaches fault. Wrong substitutions (why the hell did he not take out Mike James and JB when they were playing with their heads up there asses) and bad play calling (come on.... Tmac is tired from carrying the team for 43 minutes so get freaking Yao the damn ball). freaking pisssed cant even enjoy drinking
Big guy takes time to develop. JVG said numerous time it's wrong to expect every big man from now entering the league to produce like Shaq or Ducan in their early years. The poundings, the physical contact inside, it's not fun. Preimeter play is much easier in that aspect. Still, the difference between this year and last year is huge. Yao's pt average go up, more involved in the offense, and we are doing better with less talented players. In the case Yao, it might be for a while for him to get it.
