I thought part of the radio interview at 7:00 this morning on 610 was enlightening on JVG’s thoughts concerning how McGrady and Yao will fit together. 610: When Yao gets back, is it going to have to be different? JVG: Well, I’ve already tried to reiterate to him [McGrady] as forcefully as possible that we are at our best when he is offensively energetic which he was to start the game. When he starts fast, we start fast. We start fast, we get a cushion. When we get a cushion, you’ve got a chance to withstand some poor play. We need to get him going early. The second half, it dropped off energy-wise. I don’t know if it was his groin strain or whatever it was, but you could notice a definitive difference when he was high energy on offense versus low-energy, and we play accordingly. And so when he [Yao] comes back, the ball will find Yao. Our turnovers were up yesterday, which has been an aberration, and so one of the things that we would like to do is get Yao where he’s in scoring position as deep as possible so it doesn’t have to involve multiple passes out, which have led to higher turnovers when Yao’s played. So, Tracy doesn’t need to do anything different. Not only does he not need to do anything different, he can’t do anything different. He’s got to attack; he’s got to attack as early as he can in the shot clock before the defense gets set. He’s got to start fast, and finish fast for us to be a team that can compete for anything significant. JVG further elaborates on the role of Yao and McGrady. JVG: Last year was all based on where McGrady was at health wise, physically and mentally. This year he’s in a much better place, knock on wood. Yao will still be a big time scorer for us, and we’re going to use his post-up game. But obviously, I think we play at a higher level of efficiency when McGrady is attacking, versus deferring. Now, that doesn’t mean he has to shoot the ball every time, but certainly he’s got to be actively involved, probing defenses. Believe me, we’ll find Yao; there’ll be no problem with that.
