Before Landry got minutes, there was nobody that was a shotblocker on the rockets other than Yao Ming. What this means is that EVERY opposing team will attack the rockets by placing a mobile shooting big man who will get open jumpers all day on Yao, because Yao is too slow to get out to his man and still recover to protect the middle. Now that Landry is getting minutes, at least he can work on his shot blocking and provide somewhat of a threat to block shots that scola/chuck will never provide. It puts less pressure on Yao to always get back to the middle because at least Landry will make people think about it. I expect to see some adjustments with Yao's rotations against that shooting bigman, because in the playoffs it will definitely be exploited and having landry there, will be a counter.
Did Landry block a lot of shots in college? I haven't seen much shot block ability yet. He did have an impressive goal tend against San Antonio, though.
his help d on the guards weren't that impressive, and for some reason he and yao didn't communicate well enough in transition D and always left a trailing Kurt Thomas open. Carl has to know when to leave collison after yao recovers in transition and pick up kurt, because if it was utah, all those kurt thomas ft jumpers would be okur wide open 3pters.
Nope. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=22137 Chuck Hayes blocked 3 more shots as a senior than Carl did. I can't find Chucks stats from other years yet. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=5538 Landry is a nice looking young player, but people are fantasizing about what he is. He is not the wonder-****ign-PF.
Landry has that Wilcox thing going where people assume he can block shots. He is definitely athletic though. The quickness, length and vertical is there.
Historically, poor shotblockers don't develop into great shotblockers with experience. His athleticism will be great for positional defense. In time, he can make for Yao's lack of foot speed and take more charges.
Yeah, but you want them to miss. Sonics were slightly better shooting wide open vs contested. Usually the gap is much larger open vs contested. Also, Seattle played one of the best games they played all season.
If only shot-blocking were the #1 aim of basketball. Then we could put Yao and Dikembe together on the court at the same time. Unfortunately, changing a shot, causing a miss, or just preventing the open look is just as effective. I wish stats geeks could create a TS%-Against so we could see how much of an effect Battier really has. I'm willing to venture it's a lot.
Doubt it. Shots are changed in the paint, Battier usually stays on the perimeter. His men are only in the paint when they blow by him.
Having shot-blocking on a team is overrated anyway. One of Rick Adelmen's best teams on the Kings had Divac, Webber, and Pollard in the middle..none were really great shot-blocker.
You're absolutely right. Yao is our big hole to defense that big shooting guy. the opponent bigman always find a big open chance by a simple pick. JVG couldn't solve it,cause our lost in the playoffs. Can RA solve it ? Landry may be the answer.
There's like 3 teams we have this problem with.....two is our conference. Basically Utah and Golden State. Actually, it's two players. Boozer and Harrington. Boozer is mitigated by the fact that he can't guard Yao...and to be honest, you have to live with Boozer hitting those shots. As for Harrington, that's a bigger problem. Because Yao has trouble on offense with him as well - Yao has to figure that out. As for Harrington taking 3 pointers.... Yao isn't going to step out and go at him. And GS can run 5 guys who can hit the 3 - so you have to give them that shot. With Boozer, you rather him take an outside jumper because it's a lower percentage shot. With Harrington, you'd rather him do something else because he shots 40% for 3 pt land which is equivalent to 60% from 2 pt land. So that's a real problem. With Harrington, you just need to find a way to keep him inside the arc and take his jumpers. That will eliminate his advantage because while he's popping jumpers at 45%, Yao will score at the other end at a 55% clip. So the advantage is ours. But if Harrington hits threes - we are in trouble because it effectively negates Yao.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the GARM, where you find such astonishingly intelligent statements as "having shot-blocking on a team is overrated anyway."
The only way Landry could be our answer to Utah in last years playoffs is if we benched Yao and had Landry and Hayes play against Boozer and Okur. Hayes always did fine against his man.
You guys did notice that RA made an adjustment last night for the first time that may alter our win loss in closs games. He sat Yao down and inserted Chuck to guard the pick and roll and take away the wide open jumpers that the Sonics were getting. Haven Landry and Chuck who are have foot speed took the Soncis right out of their game.
