getting yao involved doesn't always have to be in the post only. IF they front him just keep doing the pick and pop between yao and whomever. DOesn't matter. Yao can hit that 15 jumper all day long.
I'm not going to go back and forth on stuff that happened last game. the rockets didn't lose to the mavs because they went away from yao, they lost because they couldnt defend. It also didn't hlp with all the bench time, yao cameback tired. People make it seem like we haven't seen this show before. The 3/4 front always gives yao problems. One night its hollins and brandon bass the next its boris diaw or shawn marion. What the rockets did was counter punch quickly.Like i've said, there are roughly 35 offensive rebs availible for yao to get, thats what moses and hakeem used to do. Crash the glass off the front and create a chance to scorer for yourself. menawhile the teammates are using you're attention to kepp the offense going smooth.
I forget, didn't we just beat the tar out of the Blazers? What is everyone so worried about? The good teams employ a pick your poison approach, and when they take away one thing (yao) you beat them with another. The Rockets FINALLY did that agaisnt Portland. I don't care if Yao doesn't get 10 points as long as the team wins..... Just win baby ! DD
Prince has a post up game, a midrange game, and 3 point range. He's a great man defender and help defender. Tell me what Deng does better. Maybe as a pure scorer and midrange game, that's all I can think of. Nachbar...thank Rudy T for envisioning a Rudy T Jr. in Boki...another draft pick gem from Rudy T...
Oh come on Boki was taken like 15, those are all crap shoots anyway, anything out of the top 6 is a 50/50 proposition. At least Rudy took Yao, which getting back on topic does not need to be fed if doubled pre pass. DD
well then how about that sure fire pick of Eddie Griffin at #7 overall then... Yeah Rudy got the Yao pick right, yay Rudy T...he didn't pull an Elgin Baylor or a Michael Jordan executive front office brainfart move on that 1rst overall pick...
Well, you already said deng was overrated, so that pretty much takes out any non biased approach you have of him. Deng is a good defensive player , a great mid range shooter and a decent rebounder. Tay is a really good player also and like you his skills are unquestioned. the only thing about tay is sometimes he floats and doesnt imposes himself into the game. He's too good of a player not to get into games from a offensive flow. DD, you keep saying that, but the whole draft is a crapshoot, but that doesn't mean you stop drafting guys. i didn't understand it then that people had dunleavy jr ranked above prince. Prince was the best player on his team, a leader, multi facetted game, and very athletic. Dunleavy was the great hype, thats it. Anyway back to the subject, i still dont know what people want. I just watched the game again and the rockets really made them play for overplaying yao. Thats what a team is suppose to do and to yao's credit, he was still active eventhough he tried to take another stupid charge. Maybe that was the 1st half with the stupis charge.
I think haoafu's point is that there was definitely one maybe two possessions where Yao established good position without being fronted but Brooks didn't even seem to notice it. I'm nitpicking, but when they start fronting Yao more over the course of the series Brooks will have to do a better job of recognizing those precious opportunities. Overall AB was a big plus for us, but there were some "headless chicken" moments where I was wondering what he was up to. After the last few years I think I'm going to keep worrying till the series is over
Deng averages 1.6 more rebounds then Prince, I think I can live with that difference. Deng is a scorer and looks for his shot alot, I'd rather have Prince who would compliment Yao better. /back to the yao thread
you totally missed the point.or the point of OP (as I understood) --- why not practise more on how to deal with fronting Yao when we lead a lot? or are we going to bypass Yao as long as he is fronted and we can win again and again and again?then againagainagainagain next round? and so on? it does not matter who scores, it is the matter of consistent tactic execution --- yao centered offense is the 1st and main option, but we have rarely done that way when things went wrong. we went to panic, or we went to over optimistic, but not stay steadily in winning mode. when we are on the way winning, everything is fine, but would you switch tract when winning? this time, we still won a game with switching; but last we lost to mav. why? we paid for it by switching to a less steady tract. it may give us a win, but it will not give it to us for ever. afterall, hot hands won't last long. it is quite common for AB/artest being <30%, right? they will have their 12 min to prove their cold hands some nights, but not in cost of cooling a pair of hot hands and even more, worn him out in game 7. if we wish to move further and further, it's better to ensure we can perform consistently. no one wanna Kobe score all 113 points this game, but have you ever seen him not touching ball a quater on court? or Tim? or DH? we all know a fresh Yao is great (or you not), so either rest him or make good use of him, but never make him run and run for 10 min doing nothing. it just takes one or two 4th quaters to kick us out --- when a few points behind, AB/artest ice cold and Yao tired for nothing. when? when the 4th losing game comes. not like you sort of rocket fan, I think this team lacks talent when we compare player by player. that's why rocket is predicted to be wiped out 1st round again by certain media. to me, the chance is to act as a team with consistent tactic, and try it all the best no matter leading or losing. I dount there will be 8th winning game this time. but if the team can not play like a team all the time, there wouldnt even be 4th win. anyway, Yao is the best player in current rocket. if you dislike him and wish rocket win without his great output, you should wake up. otherwise, you are cursing rocket team, not one in particular.
Yao's Mama never have any problems feeding Yao. If anyone has any problems feeding Yao, he should talk to Yao's Mama.
Thank u DD, these new cats to the forum think Yao is DREAM. We could force the ball into DREAM because he had great hands and there was no team alive that could front him and get away with it. I liked that we attacked once the big man was out of position. 2 of Yao's 9 field goals came on missed shots. Why the big man had to rotate to stop AB's penetration. Everyone, there is another way for Yao to score that is a lot easier than throwing the ball into the post. Like get ready for an offensive rebound or wait on pass from someone driving to the bucket.
Dont worry about complimenting any player, just get good players. This team needs guys that will stay aggressive and punish defenses while running the offense. I'm not saying prince cant do that, i'm just saying i like deng more because i think he's a better player. thats saying alot because i really,really like prince.
Yao defintely has some "headless chicken" moments also. If Yao is being fronted he should immediately go to the PnR with AB. Which leaves the middle wide open for a drive and Yao can follow to the rim or set up for the 15 ft jumper from the free throw line extended.
You must think chemistry is overrated also, huh? Forget finding players with skills meshing well with each other. Hell, let's just get 5 All-Stars...I heard Iverson is available...
Let me guess, you're part of yao ming mania. The simplest solution to the fronting of yao is to run the offense the coach calls. Judging from what coach said, they excuted the way he wanted them too. Even if they were missing the shots, they got great looks within the flow of the offense. There isnt much a team can do when a team fronts yaobecause of his limitations. If he was a guy we could roll and throw oops to like shaq, that would be one thing. If he could seal his man 80% of the time, thats different too. When yao is fronted, the only thing that works for the TEAM is pick and pop or offensive rebs for yao. given his below average stamina, we know that yao will get tired early in the 2nd half if he plays alot in the first. Pick and pop is a good play, but what about involving other in the gme so they can be ready when the well runs dry? Its called 5 man basketball and its good for the team and for yao. yao isnt shaq,dream,kareem, moses or any other great center that can get the ball when he wanted to and score when he wanted to. even dream had problems against the junk defenses of the sonics because we were a stagnate offensive team with little motion. so the sonics played off thorpe and basically zoned dream with perkins, kemp and even a guy like payton digging the ball on the dribble. in 97, they couldnt do it because we had barkley who demanded doubles also and was a great passer.
I agree we need to do more than force feed Yao when he's getting fronted - it hasn't worked so far and it's not going to start working all of a sudden during the playoffs. But if you read carefully, my original post wasn't talking about when he's being fronted though.
So what part of deng's game dont compliment this team? i didn't say get 5 all stars, i just get get guys that can play 1st and foremost. good players can work with other good players. Deng if ever availible fills a huge void because he's young, skilled, long, and a hard worker. Where he scores his points would really help this offense take off and he's a good defender. So just because you think a guy is overrated even htough i bet you havent watched more than 40 games of deng is really confusing. now prince is a more durable player if you want to throw that into it and he has a ring and has been on more winning teams.I think if you replaced each with another on their teams, its would probably be the same. Tay would probably score just as much and deng would probably do the same. Both good players, both upgrades over shane.
Does it take watching Deng 40 games to know what type of player he is? Can you tabulate the dates and times you specifically watched the 40 Bulls games when Deng played? I personally don't need 40 games to size up a player, even though you think that is needed to give an educated opinion on a player. I've seen the national tv games and league pass games of the Bulls, and Deng doesn't really impress me. He's a good player, gives effort on both side of the floor, nice hustle player, good midrange game, looks for his shot alot...but I haven't for once thought "Man, I wish there's a way somehow to get him". And one more thing I think Prince is better at is the IQ department. Do we need another player that looks for his shot alot, or do we want a player that can score off of our main guys who will attract doubleteams? I'm sure Deng can be a good complimentary scorer also, but Prince is a better fit at that. I'm not making out that Deng sucks, I'm just not overwhelmed with the feeling to get him.
Way to start off your counterpoint by attempting to discredit anything he had to say by insinuating that he is biased. Also, you realize all of those "great" centers you mentioned all played during an era with illegal defence rules. If that were the case today, it would be incredibly easy to get Yao the ball because the fronting defence would not be possible. It takes at least another defender playing OFF his man to front.
