Well if the ohter guys are not making Open Jump Shots- I mean really open Jump shots- It has little to do with JVG or System or Rythm ( trust me none of the guys we have are rythm shooters anyway!) Calling plays should not really affect these open shots- especially at the NBA level, where you are paid for doing precisely that. The only solution is to go to the hoop and draw fouls- well that is a lot easier said than done with the talent we have. Especially Stro should not attempt 18 foot jumpers- he should dunk the ball period. I feel that we basically have given up on Stro- which is really sad. This guy should be able to get 15 points- not sure if coaching has anything to do with that. Phoenix may look great in the regular season- for the nth time, I repeat- they will not win many rings. Sure it is entertaining but who gives a damn with regular season performances. If Nash is out of the line up- their production goes down instantly, and in playoffs that would not be something oponents will shy away from!
If Yao is hitting 50% of FGA'a nd 80+ on FTA's- I am not sure why we even want anyone else to do the shooting ( given what they were doing). Yao just took 20 Shots ( I know this has been a strenuous ride)- but I think if he took 25 shots yesterday and we selectively doubled Vince Carter we could have kept it a lot closer. ( Again who expected Strickland to go off!) Double teaming Yao does not necessarily mean that he gives up the ball- as long as he resets closer to the basket there is nothing a double team really achieves when he is that close to the basket ( and you end up giving a foul)
That's BS, these guys can hit an open shot when told to shoot. It's a rhythm thing as stated earlier. Get the ball into Yao and when everybody and the bench converge around him whip the ball back out an around the horn until you find the open three. How can 3 guys guard Yao and someone not be open. Make the other team chase the ball around until you find the wide open 3. Anybody in the league can hit a third of those shots. Look at Posey, when he was with Houston he was known as a slasher who could take it to the basket with the best of them. Now in Miami he has become a 3 point specialist. Because with Wade and Shaq on the team they don't need or want another player slashing to the middle clogging it up. So they demanded Posey develop his outside game or sit the bench. End of story. JVG has to demand that they get the ball into Yao and take the open shots. Not ask it, demand it. If you are open and you don't take the open shot then you are on the bench simple as that. But that's not what happened last night. They constantly tried to create their own shot. I don't want Alston trying to drive into the middle when Yao has already got position down there. I don't want Howard and Bogans forcing shots in the paint when Yao is on the floor. It's just stupid basketball to run the offense through anyone else on the team. I will give Van Gundy credit for showing signs of thinking this way, pulling Rafer in the SA game because he wasn't passing to Yao. But he waited to long. Even the announcers were saying why aren't they trying to get it to Yao. And don't tell me San antonio was stopping them from getting it to Yao. Hakeem said the Rockets used a portion of every practice working on getting the ball into him. The best way to put a stop to Yao is to stop him getting the ball. And every team knows that. So you have to practice, practice getting it into him. Throw ever defense at him in practice and then try to get him the ball. No one man in the league should be able to consistently stop the Rockets from getting the ball into Yao. And if they try to double him before he gets the ball then find the open man And shoot the open shot! And again let me repeat myself I am not saying Yao should shoot most of the shots and score 60 points are even 40. Just run the offense through him 90% and if they double triple team find the open man. ANd if they elect to leave him open. Look at last night's game - in 35 minutes, Bogans (a starter) was 1 - 12 and scored 2 points. Two lousy points in the whole game. Juwan Howard was 3-13 in 31 minutes. Altogether, Bogans, Howard, and Head (three of our five starters) combined for a whopping 20 points. From three starters!!! Throw in a lousy 7 points TOTAL from our bench and it's pretty clear what our problem is. Bogans, Howard, Head, Bowan, Brunson, Swift and Hayes (that's seven players) combined for 27 points. They were 11 - 46 for 24% shooting (they missed 35 shots!). That's is absolutely aweful. Yao's getting a LOT of touches now. But he can't do it on his own. He has to get help from someone else. Remember when T-Mac played for Orlando and scored 60+ points? The Magic lost that game. You can put the ball in the hands of a hot player and let him score all night, but if the other players can't play worth a damn, you're gonna lose.[/QUOTE]
Too many times Alston refuses to pass to Yao Ming when he is calling for the ball. Last night there was a case in which Yao had position close to the basket and Alston came up court with the ball and was about five feet infront of Yao and would not give him the ball, insted Alston tried to go to the basket against Yao's defenders and did not score.
[/QUOTE] Totally agree. Hakeem said the Rockets used a portion of every practice working on getting the ball into him I really wonder if JVG is doing the same thing on Yao.
I thought I was the only guy who noticed it. Rafer Alston is not a starter. The so called "pass first" PG doesn't make our offense much better. Plus he can't shoot and can't defend anyone.
patience, people, patience. The time might come when Yao can go to upper office and tell them, "let that fellow go, me and him not match well". Right now, Yao has not established that status. Other players in the team, understandably, want to advance their career (millions of dollars) by creating their own shots and acquiring nice stats, sometimes at the expense of the team. It's human nature. So the power to balance the darn thing should come from the star players and the structure. TMac is too nice. Yao is too nice. It's possible Yao could get to a point someday to force the entry pass. I wouldn't bet on it. I think it depends on TMac to enforce it, and a new coach won't hurt too. I am enjoying the developing process though.
I also noticed the inability of Rockets players to make an entry pass. Often times Yao gets great position and guys from outside hesitated just for a second, the opportunity passed and they decides to swing the ball around. Yao has to waste his energy fighting down low and not getting the ball, and then have to step outside to set a pick or get out of the paint. Sometimes when Yao gets good position, the ball was not passed and he got call for 3 seconds.
You got old man rock wrong. His point is that getting ball to yao is more strategic than simply letting him take over and score one on one. To a certain degree, I agree with Old Man. Once ball is Yao's hand at low post, it creates tremendous problem for the opposing team. The thing our scrubs inability to even make entry pass makes it so hard to feed Yao. We need a like Horry that knows how feed post, and knows how to shoot.
Totally agree. Hakeem said the Rockets used a portion of every practice working on getting the ball into him I really wonder if JVG is doing the same thing on Yao.[/QUOTE] Dont know if JVG is capable of showing players how to play the ball. He may know the "system" damn well.
Bill said it himself, Alston told BIll if Rockets needs him to be an offensive force, he'll be one. And he said he was going to step it up today and do just that... little did he know that his offensive scoring game hurts the team more than actually helping. It seemed to me that he half went with JVG's gameplan and half wanted to do his own thing and show everyone that he can score. He wanted some of the glory too. During the first quarter, when we kept sending it into Yao, we were up a good amount. Then everyone decides the game is locked and they all try to be the next rockets superstar when they're not. I think JVG is a good coach, theoretically if everyone follows JVG's game plan... we win. It's just that he's not getting through to them and they do their own ****. That's why we lose, not b/c of JVG's bad coaching but b/c of our player's inability to listen to him.
There are way too many YOF on this board. The Rockets problem is really simple. First, they don't hit open shots. Yao gets plenty of touches. He has been really good at passing the ball out, but our 3 point shooting has been horrible. Wesley, Head, and Rafer have been bad at shooting the three this whole year. Yao can't take this team to the playoffs on his own, he just can't. The other problem, of course, is the lack of defending the 2 spot. Wesley just isn't big enough to gaurd the bigger 2 in this league. We have been really bad at guarding the 1 as well.
I might not agree with everything OMR says. But one thing I do agree. All perimeter players who make it to the NBA should be able to hit the 3pt shot at least a third of the time, which is as good as 50% 2pt shooting. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be making millions of dollars being a perimeter NBA player. And I believe our guys are able to do that under the right conditions. I've been pointing out the rhythm thing for a while. JVG keeps ripping the players for effort. That might be true about their defense. But our biggest problem is obviously hitting open shots. You know, if your shot doesn't fall, you set yourself up for transition defense, which is not a strong suit in JVG's defensive scheme. They don't say "the best defense is the best offense" for nothing. Hitting open shots has nothing to do with effort. It has everything to do with rhythm. You only have rhythm when you are playing loose, relaxed, confident. There are two ways to play loose. You can play run and shoot offense, like the Suns. We rarely play the run and shoot, either because we don't have a PG like Nash or because JVG don't know how to teach it. You need to keep your offense simple and let the players play by instinct. That's not what we are doing. The other way to have good rhythm is to get your offensive system down so well that you run it like your second nature, like the Spurs. This is what JVG's system is doing. However, to be able to get a system like that down so well, you have to have a stable rotation. This season's injuries killed all rotation stability. That's understandable. But what pisses me off is that our roster is a revolving door in the past 3 years. And the funny thing is, people here keep saying "get rid of this player" or "trade him" or "sign someone." This quick fix mentality is my biggest gripe about the front office (be it JVG or CD) operation so far.
