That's what I wanted to say but you said it so much better I totally agree that Yao needs to help the team in other ways when he isn't scoring like defense, rebounding, and spacing are all important aspects of the game too.
Since u asked for it, I will deliver . Yao being fronted and getting 6 shots didn't have anything to do with the loss. The fact 2 players had 68pts and shot amazing was the culprit. That's for another day and discussion. The biggest problem when yao is fronted is it kills scola and shane. Scola really benefits from doubles by yao. Shane also benefits because he's very limited. That's why I've said scola is good, but he's not good enough to put pressure on defense if teams pay attention to her. We'll get to that later. What I would do is move yao up the key and basically gurn him into a jump shooter. It was apparent they were not goin to let yao going. So as a coach, you have to find ways to keep your team efficient which adelman did. Sometimes I feel like its better to not have yao on the rockets. Anything any coach does or players do isn't enough for the faithful because of this flawed view of yao. Yao is a very good player with serious and major flaws. That doesn't mean the team can't win with yao, it just means the team structure and personel has to be unique. Theres a reason why shaq never got fronted. There is a reason why teams rarely fronted dream. The lob is the best play, but if magic johnson has to throw it perfectly, then how do the rockets accomplish that? The staff has to take advantage of yao other best skill, shooting. The need to invert him to the ft line and let him get shots there, but what happen if they stick to him there and brooks or wafer can get to the rack and finish? I can go on and on and like ibm said if a team can effectively take away your best player, then you chances of winning goes down. The only thing to that is the other players have to step up. IBM said our 2nd best player isn't good enough. Basically isn't that what I've said all year. I've said many times this isn't a championship caliber team. If brooks keeps playing like he is, they will have to adjust and maybe try to take him away which will open yao up. I say thing that other are scared to say and I don't care about rep or if someone calls me a hater. I call it like I see it. Yao is good, at times can play great, but we haven't seen him ever dominate a series in the playoff. He needs help and its nothing wrong with that. The refs called a couple of bs calls on him that maybe cut down on his aggression, but like I said there are 70 rebs and he grabbed 8. Also he didn't block a shot either. Yao can impact a game without being a focal point on offense. He just needs to contrfibute and impact the game in other ways.
Look, I don't really have much problem with what you said in your posts. Actually sometimes you do make good points and I will give you that. But what is interesting (or say amazing...or say creepy) to me is that you are almost in every single Yao Ming thread and your stance is always on the negative side. If you read carefully, what I am saying have nothing to do with the quality of your posts, but rather have everything to do with the predictability of your stance in the numerous Yao Ming threads.
They won with their main guy taken out of the game but we lost with our main guy taken out of the game. Life is not fair.
Howard is a better defensive player, that's why he won DPOY award and was presented the award before this very game. Yao Ming is a better offensive player, who needs the ball to score. Oh, btw, since we are talking about DH12. After game 1 loss, he was reportedly angry and said he wanted ball in his hands more, despite he's a poor free throw shooter and limited offensive player. SVG also said he should exam his plays calling more to get Howard more touches. But on Rockets board, after Yao's perfect 9-9 game 1, with constant over 50% shooting career, proven offensive ability and free throw shooting reliability, posters are saying 6 shots are enough for him. As I posted in other threads before, TMac and Rafer had one thing in common. When it's a loss, they would always say "WE didn't do this or that". So is Rick, it's about "WE" not "I" when we lose.
Yeah. Yao must find a way to contribute meaningfully to the game in some way other than being a decoy.
I thought we have established the fact, that Yao Ming is no where near those great centers. As you said countless times, he's a very flawed player. But now, you want him to turn on the Dream mode when offense is going, and switch on the Deke (4 time DPOY) mode when offense isn't going? Sure there is more than one way Yao can impact the game, but as my observation, Yao is much more offensive mind oriented than defensive. He needs to be involved offensively to be active at the defensive end. It is one of his flaws, or you can call him lazy or heartless or soft or whatever. But we have him now, with all his flaws, he's still the most efficient scorer and the center piece of our defense. How to make best use of him to win more games? Get him involved in offense, AT ALL COST. I know you and some other posters like MadMax don't think he deserves another max contract. That's all fair. Opinions are different. However, we are paying him 17 million a year, our 23 million guy is down, with Deke's unfortunate and sad injury, he's the only center we got, in the middle of playoff. What do we do? Arguing whether Dream or Deke could do better in his situation, or play with the card we are dealt - a very flawed Yao, to make best use of him? I think the answer is obvious.
Remember the JVG time, Yao averaged 15-20 attempts, Yao beat doubleteam or even tripleteam. What happened? JVG asked our guards to pass the ball to Yao and asked Yao to shoot no matter what. JVG was mad when our guard ignored Yao's existence. RA asks Yao to pass the ball when doubled, and gradually Yao lost his determination and motivation to catch the ball and shoot the damn ball. I'd rather Yao run pick and roll and shoot those long jumpers than Ron shoot those ridiculous 3s last night.
I read every thread in the garm, always have. My stance is consistent on Yao and thoughts on him. People don't like it or me because maybe the truth hurts. I want everyone on the rockets to do well. I think battier is the most hyped player on this board ever, but he's a politcian, so everyone like him. He has been poor and I feel like he holds the rockets back, but I wish he would play better. People misunderstand the truth and reality to wanting someone to do bad. I always want yao to do good, but I realize and know that its all about how well the rockets do before yao. A lot of fans want the rockets to do well, but want to make sure yao does well. People were crying when the rox blew out portland ingame 1 cause yao only had 9 shots. That's crazy to me. The rox lost to seattle 16 straight times and they wouldve kept losing if not for the barkley trade. Dream didn't have good games because they were determined someone else was going to beat them. Now we're talking about mvp, 27ppg, beasting dream and he had some single digit games. Now if a team can take dream out of the offensive flow, why can't people understand yao can be taking out also. Even so, yao has to help in other areas. Tonight, howard was in foul trouble and fouled out. He played 30 mins and basically dalemb ert and ratliff played him well along with doubles. He had 10 pts 11 rebs and 4 blk and a steal. His attention allowed courtney lee to go off. That's what good players do, they impact the game other ways. If next game they want to do that to yao, he needs to grab more rebs, blk some shots, set some good screens and everything will be fine. Tinman created a thread earlier this year and talked about how yao needs to do other things even if he's not in the offensive flow. DD and and few others have pointed out his offensive production determines how he do everything else. That shouldn't ever be the case. Offense shouldn't ever reflect defense ad rebounding. I've been consistent with that and people still have a problem with it.
lee, a good post from you. seriously. but that one you've got it backwards. i want yao to do well because i want the team to win. not the other way around. when yao does well offensively, we usually win no matter what. it's been proven, especially this season since mcgrady went down. i figured the reason is quite simple. we don't have good enough options outside of yao anymore. so keeping yao involved and establish him early and often is a big key to our success.
I rarely complain Yao not getting enough of the ball. I've said in the past that when you go through 3 coaches, 3 point guards and 4 roster overhauls and we still hear the argument "Yao doesn't touch the ball enough", then it goes to show that some of it is going to be on Yao. But last night YAO NEEDED MORE LOOKS. He was fronted, and he was a decoy, yada yada yada. But there were so many plays where he thinks about getting in position and we IMMEDIATELY go to the other side with the basketball before even trying to look at his direction. That's what confused the heck out of me, they weren't even looking or thinking about Yao possession after possession. If he's suppose to be a good decoy, you have to pretend to at least try and get him the ball. That did not happen last night.
That's not the best argument, the offense was inferior in JVG days and the team as a whole were more inefficient. It's not about force feeding Yao, but utilizing him correctly. We didn't do that last night as we didn't even try to establish him, but we shouldn't say "hey if they give you a 20 ft. fade-away jumper take it Yao because you need 20 shots".
that's not true. both jvg and adelman try to use an offense that best utilizes the players' talent. it's just they have different players. compare the team ppg under jvg and adelman. they are about the same.
inbetween offense sessions, Yao got good position with loose double, still no ball went to him. it was telling them we would give up having a look at Yao as long as they were defending Yao. we took Yao as a dead decoy from the first minute. do we need 3 more games to re-prove: a losing game with Yao score 10?
the answer is to build AB with the cost of first round. no matter how Yao worth big $$$ anyway, rocket can trade Yao to get someone else to team AB. rocket needs rebuild in a couple of years anyway. perfect plan, isn't it?
it has been repeated many time in thread and others by IBM and other posters that in 4th Q Yao got better chances but he was kept away by his teammates. and that's the right time when 2 things happening: 1, defenders too tired/fouled to keep high quality D on Yao, 2, they started to build leading points. those had nothing to do with the loss?
Feels like an old Amy and Seth segment of Really?! on SNL. So Yao Ming got shot 6 times? Really?! But you knew they were going to front and said you had been preparing? Really?! <object width="512" height="296"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/WFSL6wrKUIUGCdcUhR1xWQ"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/WFSL6wrKUIUGCdcUhR1xWQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" width="512" height="296"></embed></object> Offense needs to be more patient and look for the big fellah to get into the flow.
