I should be more clear. I do think Yao's passing has improved some, probably due to better spacing. It's just when he gets the ball in the high post there's an expectation for him to make a pass, and among the starters he's worst passer and possibly worst decision maker. It seems like he's forcing it more. I don't know which re-post you're talking about, because it's just about out of the Rockets' gameplan. It was a lot of work on Yao, so maybe Adelman is getting rid of it to keep him fresh. But it led to a lot of good shots and free throws for Yao over the last couple of years.
Just come out and say it. We Want Steve!!! Adelman should play Steve just to make the point that he's not the answer to replace Rafer. Until he does the Rox fans are going to keep believing that Steve is still the Franchise.
As noted by Daryl Morey (see durvasa's recap), with ball in hand, Yao's decision making, including passing, has everything to do with his teammates' moves in the grand scheme of Adelman's offense. So far, his teammates, sans Bonzi, have not done nearly enough hard cuts etc. It's really a two-way street, brah. Yao has every intention and the ability to make his teammates' lives easier, but they have to be up to task.
Yao does need to improve his decision-making, but to say he is the worst among the starters to pass is simply a joke and impairs your credibility on BB knowledge.
Co-signed. You would think that with JVG gone, all the JVG bash threads would go to but looks like one of them stayed. It's funny how they bash JVG but Adleman is more like JVG that people think. Short rotation, Rafer starting, Hayes starting, no rookies playing, never smilies, doesn't play guys who come into camp out of shape, ect.
How so? Rafer, T-Mac, Battier, and Chuck are all better with the ball and pass better than Yao. They're also all really good passers.
As mentioned earlier, I think it is a two way street. Yao can only make the pass if the cutters/angles are there. Its the first time he's played such a role, so I won't be so quick to dismiss his ability.
exactly. its comical how these people created this myth around adelman and think he's so much different. They are the same in many ways. Hell even the rockets best plays are still JVG type plays, i.e. yao in the post with people spotting up and tmac/yao pick and roll. some of these people are just sick and it's scary to think such delusional people are out there in the world.
its all about being open, having options.. and not being stubborn and close minded.. with yao and tmac which are truly great individual players, any coach will use the same plays for them to utilize their strengths.. but what adelman has brought it are different options and looks.. make it not too predictable.. also not battling in the low post everytime, not chasing guards has been good in terms of yaos stamina during the game.. while not handling the ball most of the time has been good for tmac.. the bobcats game might remind us of gundy ball, but the previous games were alot different
To me the biggest difference so far as far as impact is the crashing of the boards vs getting back for transitional D. Personally, I prefer crashing so I like that, but currently the offense is pretty stagnant out side of Yao Ming and TMac. Two games James was killer and two games Bonzi was killer. Beyond that, though, the offense has been bad. I expected trouble in the beginning, though. But, as has been pointed out, the original post is pretty poor because JVG did allow Yao Ming to shoot from outside when he was there (but preferred to post him), YM and TMac have run the pick & roll a lot under JVG (but it worked best in the '05 playoffs and the last few games), JVG would have sat Rafer more if there was another option (and all accounts were that he really wanted James back) - besides, if you increased his minutes to the 37 per game he played last year he would have 10 fga per as compared to 12 last year. So 2 shots a game is all we are really talking about. Definitely a difference, but this is also a deeper team and is not just a coaching change.
If you don't see the difference between this year's and last year's offense, then yeah, you are really sick and delusional. Instead of just use the meaningless adjectives on people, why don't you answer Deckard's questions:
The biggest mistake being made statistically is that you can't take the Rockets' efficiency numbers on face value right now because of our ridiculous strength of schedule. After this next week, we should even rank #1 on the Sagarin ranks for SOS. So just be patient and wait till two months into the season before judging how much more or less we're scoring.
Actually, the only significant difference maker from our bench so far is Bonzi. James and Head are shooting like crap so far (not saying they will stay this way). We are winning because Yao and TMac are playing great. THAT is the major difference under Adelman, IMO. Adelman has delivered his promise to make life easier for the two stars, and it shows. What remains to be improved is the other players to change their habit of standing around so that the offense can really work to its fullest.
Rafer is THE starting PG on this team, do you expect him remain a starter if he doesn't do his only job well, given his atrocious shooting? T-Mac is the play maker. He is expected to be a better passer than Yao. No argument there. Now onto Battier and Chuck, you gotta be kidding Gundy's Angkwor donkey if they are better passers than Yao. Five bucks each to the tip jar from me if you can find me an R2K video highlight showing Battier or Chuck dish 3 assists in a Rockets game, with Battier passing himself an open shot to Rafer included. The only other player is a better passer than Yao on this entire Rockets squad is Bonzi. END OF DEBATE
it is all about options. Rather than having luther and juwon howard as your 2 best bench players...the rockets have bonzi, scola, MJ and luther. THats where your options come from. I've heard the options argument many times but people tend to ignore you cant have options if you dont have players for it. who said i didnt see a difference? I just commented that the bread and butter plays are still the same, i.e. tmac creating off the pick and roll and Yao in the low block.
mistake? (I said so far, meaning it's early) yes we have a very tough schedule, but that shouldn't restrict our offense- against Bobcats, Trailblazers and Bucks we avg. 92.6 ppg against Mavs, Spurs and Jazz we avg. 97.6 ppg I know we will improve offensively. The bench is stronger, and TMac is TMac this season. But I will go you one further at season's end the Adelman Rockets of 2007-2008 will score within 2% of the Grumpy Rockets of 2006-2007 somewhere around 97-98 ppg the only way I see us averaging over 99 pts per game is to give up something on the defensive end and I don't think we will do that. hardly the offensive burst of improvement some predicted. (edit- of course I won't be disappointed if we avg. 102 ppg and win it all )
Isn't it great to have a coach say he's going to do something and then he actually does? The game has been easier for Yao and McGrady. As you said, it shows. What I'm excited about is that it is so early. If everyone stays healthy, imagine how the Rocks will be playing by the break. This early season has been a killer, yet we won 3 out of the 4 games we had with some of the toughest teams we'll play all season. We did that, and the guys seemed to be struggling to figure out where to go, when to pass or shoot, just remembering the offense. The defense they still have down pretty well, thanks to the foundation by Van Gundy. Other teams are looking at us and getting really worried. Adelman is considered one of the top coaches in the league, and he has some talent to work with. Totally groovy!
Yao is NOT a horrible passer, but he is not a quick decision maker though. Yao's turnovers come almost always when he puts the ball on the floor or is double teamed, both of which could be remedied by quicker decision making from the big man. He is certainly not the worst pure passer on the starting squad (read: Chuck Hayes) and he is also certainly not the best. He will cut down on his turnovers by making quicker decisions: decisive outlet passes, assertive jumpshooting, and avoiding the double team from quicker teams (like Charlotte). Anybody else bothered when Yao appears to have decent position down low but MJ won't feed the entry pass to him. I cannot understand for the life of me why Yao doesn't touch the ball on every possession, esp when he's shooting 13/15.
James is our 3rd best scorer right now. He can hit an open shot. Luis's shot is bit off, but it will be there once he gains more confidence. However I do agree PG is our problem right now.
