American cultures just love the "heros" and love "dramatic" moments -- probably the best play on earth should be someone whose team is always tied with the opponent at the last seconds and he always score the buzzer beater. Man, if your team is good enough, you establish a solid lead, and you don't need the "dramatic moment". With all the American bball palyers with freaking physical talent, (well, you can say that when they score, the way they scored are soooooo dominant), but they can't win a damn title in many years in international basketball game. Thanks to those dominat plays.
are you saying all these players are in already? or are you thinking the "50 greatest" saga? have not done my research. but iirc the hall often does NOT admit you just as a player. you will have to achieve some other great things that contributes to the sport of basketball. and iirc phil jackson was just admitted into the hof not long ago as a coach.
soft or not, their games are completely different. very little truth to the comparison if you ask me. and again, a better comparison can be made after the active players like yao finish their careers.
true. and false. if you're talking about the pick and roll defense in that game, it can take hours to just talk about that topic. yao has his own problems in that. all the centers do. but it's more complicated that that... if some said, "look, this sort proves the op's point once again. yao quietly had a 26-12-6 game but we all tend to remember mcgrady's heroics late in the game..." or something like that, then maybe it's more appropriate.
this is the n-th time i've seen an obviously biased post. can you enlighten me a lil more? i've made my points many times in this thread (as i thought this one was an interesting one).
I'm talking about his inablity to contest jumpers, in pick and roll or otherwise. I know it's not his fault, but it's one of those things that's hard for me to look past.
I don't think Shaq had much success with that either. Once human beings get to a certain height they lose quickness and agility. You lose something with Yao but on the other hand you gain an unstoppable force/defensive intimidator in the paint.
what do you mean "inability to contest jumpers"? do you mean he does not contest them at all, or he leaves the shooters too far out, or what? does kurt thomas or collison score every time? in tonight's game, yao would typically lean more towards the pg side of a center/pf and pg kinda p&r to prevent penetration; and then after the pass he's usually not quick enough to recover the 5 or 4. that is a common problem for yao and virtually all centers in defending a p&r. shaq used to be notoriously worse in p&r defense. jvg might've had better ideas, but there is no standard answer or cure-all type of solution in a p&r. since we've got yao, this has been a big issue. adelman has handled it a lil differently. last year, it was a big factor in losing the jazz series as we're incapable of defending a williams-boozer p&r. but a yao-mcgrady can be deadly, too. it's all about the x's and o's and who uses their tactics better. p&r (and how to defend it), it's variations. just too big of a topic. we'd better not talk bout it here...
I'm saying that it's a particularly severe problem for Yao, compared to other centers. Perhaps I'm overstating that, but that's my impression. It does make wonder how I'd go about trying to verify it.
If you're talking about tonight's game against Seattle it's pretty clear to me that Adelman decided that they were going to give guys like Thomas an open shot rather than throw Yao way out on the perimeter.
If you are not knowing what I am saying there, you d better go back and read again before you do your post, please. I am saying 1993-1995 at Hakeem prime time Yeah, you are a fan who watched the games but not a fan who can read, cant you? Thx for READING this again.
Thomas got his open shots when rockets were mismatched because of bad communcation between landry/scola and yao in the transition. The plan was for yao to guard wilcox/collison and the pf guard kurt thomas, but they have to cover for each other in transition. They are suppose to swtich back when they get the chance, but i guess the chemistry wasnt there defensively. I don't think Yao was the problem tonight defensively. He made them shoot jumpers and put a hand up for the most part. On the curl play, the guards have to do a better job staying infront of their man and fighting through screens so that their man doesn't get that wide open. Landry and scola has to learn to bump the man coming off the screen a lil too to help out the guards. The pick and rolls with the other teams center also picked us apart, but Durant and most of the sonics scored more off screen curls than pick and rolls. I like the fact that adelman is telling yao to stay back on those pick and rolls to save him from fouls and save his energy, but that kinda just leaves rafer alone on an island trying to fight through the pick and challenge a jumpshot. Also seattle made some tough shots and set hard picks tonight. I think one of the problems rockets have is playing against teams that do set good picks like Seattle, New Orleans, and Dallas. The best defense against that is just to give them the jumpshot i think and also to have the guards do their best to fight through picks. I certainly wouldn't want yao jumping out and having a nba guard beat yao off the dribble and get easy layups or fouls on Yao. Adelman is doing the right thing and so is Yao.
It's clear Adelman doesn't want Yao leaving the paint to contest those Js. It's the chance you take. Some guys hit'em, some don't.
No coach wants to give up wide open jumpers. It was Yao's responsibility to contest his man's jumper on a lot of those plays. It's also understandable that he struggles to do so.
Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather take my chances with Yao on Chris Wilcox or Nick Collison instead of the middle range jumper of Kurt Thomas. Dunno why he was left on that island all night. Wonder if Adelman even has an explanation?
True centers "shouldn't" be able to create their own shots to the likes of Kobe or TMAC. That's not their game. But I completely disagree with you on the point that Yao doesn't create his own shots. In fact, most of his shots are created by him. In fact, I think around 80% of his shots are of his own. Let's take a look at a typical Yao possession. Posts up in the lane or shoulder, gets the entry pass. Then he takes a few dribbles, does the patented fadeaway or muscles under the hoop for a layup or dunk. How can you say these shots are not created by him? On the other hand, players like Howard and sometimes Amare gets a bulk of their points off of alley-oop dunks and put backs. Amare at least has a mid-range jumper. No, Yao is good. He's only guilty by the fact that we have set such a high expectation for him.
agreed. apparently, jvg's defensive plan was different. adelman's change imo has enabled yao to better protect the basket. but i think reaction and flexibility is key. must adjust to the court, not stick to one pre-set tactic. i'm saying this because last night their bigs were hot for a while, thomas, collison and even petro were all hitting that 14 footer. maybe yao should come one step closer to them. there's no perfect solution in defending a p&r, though. sometimes you just never know what could've changed if different tactics are taken.
Don't know how this thread has morphed into pnr strategy, let me add my 2 cents. Watch how Deke defends the same play. Deke is old, and just as slow as yao, but his knees are bent in a defensive position with his arms up ready to contest. Yao gets tired and gets lazy on defense. Go and look at the tape and you will see. Most times when guys get tires, their fundementals break down. When Yao gets tired, his defense and rebounding goes in the can. Contesting shots isn't merely holding ur arms up. Contesting the shot is being in great position with as small space possible with ur arms up. This isn't college where guys doesn't make open shots. In the nba if you're not crowding guys, its a open shot. I'm watching the playoffs games from last yr against boozer, and there was a lot of space between him and boozer. That's why to boozer its a uncontested shot. I still like the way yao is playing now.
You can't blame too much on the coach or the center when the opp team big men who usually don't shoot well suddenly hit 14-footers. It's like in baseball terms you don't set up your defence to prevent a bunt from a big hitter. Yesterday Sonics players were just very hot. Even wide open, big men don't necessarily make 14-footers that easy. Most Rox players can't even get their FT fall.
please ... Yao guarding boozer... should never have been somthing we were okay with... if Yao wasnt such a team player... and had been a spoiled... star player... he could have demanded... that he stay on the perimeter...and guard his (own man) Okur taking those 20 foot plus shots... then atleast he would have looked good... instead he not only did that... but he would switch off... and guard guards... that our own guards had problems guarding... and where on most other NBA teams... the guard who is being picked... fights hard to either go under or over the pick...
