Are you serious? Bonzi is a VERY legitimate 3rd option along with rebounds. He could easily provide 15 points per game given open shots, this guy can post 90% of the guards in the league (if not them all). He would be a terror for teams with Mac and Yao doubled each. If Mac and Yao get doubled Bonzi can post the last defender leaving 2 open or just cut to basket and Yao and Mac have court vision to find him and get him easy layup. Along with that Bonzi NO DOUBT has the BBall IQ to do this, he could be very valuable (yes I am saying even more than Battier) to a championship run.
Novak is NOT a 3rd scorer. He is a very rich man's Matt Bullard, nothing more (at least now). He can provide a punch and some quick shots, but to provide a whole 3rd scoring option NO WAY. He could be the guy that Yao, Mac, and Wells kick to when they have all 5 defenders on them and he can DRILL it from the outside and I have no doubt about it. But we are giving him too much credit to call him a 3rd scorer (jumping the gun just a bit ).
when rox plays tmac_yao pick and roll it is hard for other teams to defend last game, piston found a way to resolve this problem-- do not let tmac get the ball
lmao.. .. Jho's pic matches perfectly with the post.. lol.. Zboy once again you entertain us with a great post.. what's sad is that it's true.. and I know I've said it before, but I gotta say it again... GREAT SIG... five six, Juwan in the mix..
Another way is to make tracy feel tired~ Make TMac a finisher and a playmaker together is a ridiculous idea. It limits Tracy's talent. So we need VSpan to be our playmaker and let T-Mac shoot more.
I also agree that pick n roll is the way to go. The key is for Yao to actually roll towards the basket every frickin time. Correct me if I'm wrong but sometimes Yao just stand there and watch Tmac after he set the pick. If he does roll to the basket, defenders would have no choice but to collapse on him from both sides to a) prevent him from getting the ball AND b) to get into position, that's 3 defenders on yao w/ o the ball! Now our role players just need to make wide open shots.
There should be a thread of pics showing opposing teams playing dirty on Yao and we can build a hate list...
Um, nice 4 point response to my 3 line posts. I think you extrapolated a little too much in what I've said. All I'm trying to say is that Yao, being a prominent big men, with such a size difference between him to every one else around him, are gonna have whoever is going against him to have the benifit of the doubt. Shaq went through the same thing, any post move he makes will basically look awkard agains smaller players. Which is why refs basically let him get away with murder while at same time letting other players get away with a lot of fouls on him. Smaller aggressive players will always get the benefit of the call against a bigger player, think Dwayne Wade in the playoffs. It's just the nature of officiating and that's I was trying to point out. EDIT: To further clarify, it has almost everything to do with perception, bigger player's actions are always magnified and will always look more awkward compared to the acts of smaller players. I don't necessary think it's fair, but I also think it's hard for refs to make a judgement call. It goes both ways sometimes too, think two years ago in the playoffs. The pick-n-roll was extremely affective, but you could argue that Yao was moving on quite of few of those. But the refs didn't really call it (except for that one game after Cuban whined about it) because they try their best to balance out the fact that Yao really wasn't doing more than what most other players would do when setting a pick, but that the action is magnified due to his size. Lastly, that was the pic TeamUSA pick.
So you mean there is no fair play in NBA game? The best thing NBA ref did is the call balance. Yao will not get any benefits from their calls because of his great FT skill.
I'm trying to say that the game of basketball, when invented, didn't forsee the type of players (in size) we see today. While it's supposedly a "finesse" sport, it's evolved and has a lot more contact in it as the players playing it evolve. The rules as they are written allows too much room for for judgement calls, which is hardest when it comes between two players of significantly different size.
skywater raises a valid question - will the team be able to overcome opponents 4th quarter defensive adjustments? The offense has been stale for 3 years - it is more than a trend or a pattern - it's a rut. The Rockets are a bottom tier offensive team and they have been since 2003/4 - nearly all the players are different now but the result is the same. We know they can play defense - and that that is a key to success in the post season - but a stale, predictable, brittle offense will not be able to leverage the the defense. The Rockets need a system that makes all five players a threat in the 4th quarter. The supporting cast gets very few touches in the 4th quarter and they move without the ball very little. Actually it really doesn't matter how much they move with or without the ball - so long as they score some points. But if they don't move or get touches and they don't score then - no excuses - one of coaches favorite quips - should be reflective also.
the problem is that teams will eventually pick up on these 'new' plays, and again the rockets will suffer in the 4th q when the defense takes over. teams already know the plays the rockets are going to run before the game even starts. scouting makes this so much easier for opposing teams, because they basically know all of our plays and come back with counter defensive plays. the difference between the first 3qs and the 4th q is that the opposing team finally gets used to their houston-specific defensive plays and it becomes harder for the rockets to score. however, if the rockets would run these plays efficiently, the team would always find an open man to put up the shot. developing new plays would only temporarily fix the problem, as the rest of the league would eventually pick up on these plays and adjust accordingly. having the third scorer would make the plays more reliable and less prone to breakdowns. however, i think the underlying problem is the team attitude in the 4th, because no matter how well we run the plays or how many scorers we have, losing will be the norm if the team does not play with aggression throughout the entire game. so i guess in the end, we both agree that it is team attitude that kills the rockets.
Thanks for the real time replay. I can see it clearly now that Yao did not have an elbow in the guys face. But at the sametime, if you were a ref, without the help of instant replay, did you just see a player putting a body on Yao in the low post or did you see a foul? With the help of replay I would say it's a foul, but at the same time, it's a split second decision and I can see how it would appear to be a no call in real time. If you were playing basketball with your friends, would you call a foul in a situation like that? EDIT: Though the more I look at it, the cheaper that move look . He's basically ramming at Yao with his leg, but that same time, because it's in the low post and the movements are small enough for a ref to hold on to the whistle.
