Next time we play GS, start Scola, then put Yao on when Harrington goes off. Don Nelson and his 90 year old head will be so confused. ...In other words, bench Yao when it makes sense. Yao may be a franchise player, but you don't dump balls into him to watch him go 1-10, 10 TOs, which he has an awful tendancy to do against small, fast teams.
God i hate that any thread that does not make Yao look like a god automatically gets rated badly. I mean this thread makes sense the OP brings up a very logical question, yet it gets a 2star rating?
benching Yao not an option. Teach him to be better on defense. Get Hakeem in here and teach this man how to lock down the paint. Let the other four guys guard against jumpers, Yao's job is to stop anyone from driving inside.
I went with play sit Yao, play small and matchup. I just want to see if its effective or not. Also, it would give the team a different look.
Most posters don't understand that, a bigger lineup almost always beats smaller one . Why would you sacrifice shot blocking ability and rebounding? That's dumb, that's GS got throttled by Utah last year, because Sloan didn't play the hack strategy. Utah dominated the boards and easily won the series. Small ball teams never win championships.
what i dont get is why are we giving up our strength and let the team go small? When yao is on the court , we got the threat at low post ,which rare team could handle ....and why cant we just come out with some run that can help Yao stay longer on court ? instead of benching him? when playing the small teams like suns and warriors, we dont have to go with their rhythm.....coach A, do something .....
The question, though, is whether Yao really is a strength against small, athletic teams. I'm not so sure we play better with Yao against such teams than without him. Ultimately, that's all that matters.
From a basketball point of view, anybody could be benched including super stars like Tracy and Yao when they are hurting the team on the court. From a business point of view though, a coach would get fired if he dared to bench the super stars whom fans buy tickets to watch.
Almost backfired tonight when Foyle bullied his way to the hole for a game tying tip-in. You give up some things to get other things. If the Rox had better perimeter defenders this would be less of an issue.
Adelman did bench Yao for the last plays in both the Orlando win tonight and the loss to Denver in double OT.
No, the Heat made a similar mistake when they were in control the entire game, rather than sticking to what was working they benched Shaq in the 4th to match up with them and wound up losing. You need to find a way to win your way, not by matching up with what the opposing team does best
Play Yao as a role player at last few minutes. He can screen and reb. If they will shot 3s then bench him. It's depands. Hard to vote.
It's not "hopefully Yao take advantage of the D." The mentality has to be to deliberately find a way to use Yao to take advantage of the D. Successful post play, even with a very talented player, has to be a team-wide effort, with good passing, shooting, schemes, and intelligence-- especially given the current rules allowing zone D and previously illegal defense. Perimeter play, on the other hand, is much simpler. You can indeed just throw the ball to, say, TMac or Baron Davis, and stand around and watch (as long as you have decent enough spot-up shooters to take advantage of double teams). I think this is a legitimate question, but I think the answer should be (and has been for both Adelman and Van Gundy) to keep him on. You'll have to have a team that can operate around a post player, though... and enough good intelligent defenders to minimize Yao's defensive deficiencies. If we don't have such guys with him...then it may indeed be a good idea to sit him down if the team is really struggling. This, though, assumes that your D will be better with a Scola/Hayes frontline than Yao/Scola or Yao/Hayes. Maybe the matchups are better against some teams... but neither Scola nor Hayes are shot blockers and Scola is still mistake-prone. We do give something up with that switch.
And it was the right decision, both times. Bonzi screwed up in Denver, and nearly screwed it up in this game as well by leaving Foyle and not boxing him out. It's unfortunate we can't duplicate Shane and Chuck for the final defensive possession.
Play Yao, establish deep position, learn how to pass the ball when he's low. What has a higher percentage of going in!? A long jumper or a 5ft shot from Yao against a dude a foot smaller than him!? Make the other team put in a big to match up with Yao. Always make the opponent play to your strength, not the other way around. If we give in to small ball, we have already lost.
I totally disagree with benching the most hard working, our best rebounder and an absolute beast in low post player against the midget teams. No doubt here has been swarming, clubbing and flopping by midgets on Yao, the solution is not to quit against such injustice. The solution is to sharpen our arsenal of weapons, artilery and go for sophisticated defensive system. Many do not want Yao to be a high post player, I do not also but then when playing with midgets, Yao should bombard them with a variety of long artilery and tomahawks dunks (low posts) until those midgets looked lost and running scare. Unfortunately Yao has still not sharpen his long range artilery. He is used to quite good 18-22 ft shots, I just wish he could get back to his pre-NBA shooting proficiency. Don't get me wrong, Yao should be in low post but when the midgets swarm you inside the paint, you need to go out sometimes and go in again anything he like to destroy his opponents. Back to defense, Yao is crucial in the paint to protect but with Yao inside, there will be a free midget and if these midgets are good shooters like the Suns, GSW, then special quick rotating zone defense is needed to trap and disrupt their shots and drive. These can only come with lots of training and practise. I would also like to see Rockets players practise and learn to make super speed bullet pass from the arc to the paint and Yao or anyone to catch such passes stationary and while on the run. This will definitely kill a lot opponents. Again, time, practise and lots and lots of training are needed.
Small ball is pretty muched aimed at exploiting the Yao Ming types. Geared to leave big slow lumbering guys in the dust. And Yao tends to look dusted against these teams... A team relying on its big slow guy as its offensive focal point is the other issue. If a team lacks scoring and gets theirs heavily from the slow center, it will have a tough time once that players is gas'ed up or out the game. I'd take Yao out. If Berkman comes up to bat against me late in a close game, I'm switching out my tired right hand starter with a lefty reliever so Berkman bats from his weaker right handed side If stats show Yao is ineffective against certain 5 perimeter men small ball matchups, he's coming out for the "left hander".
The answer is so obvious. I'd even bench Shaq in his prime if he couldn't match up with a 5 perimeter players team.
Adelman chose not to put Yao back in the game in the last 5 minutes of the game against Portland. Should this continue to be an option for us, now that Landry is playing so well? I wonder if anyone's opinion has changed on this issue.
