Some insights about a fronted Yao [NOT a Yao hate thread]

So, the other players got wide open shots by themselves? Yes, Yao has holes in his game, but even without getting/taking shots, he still draw a lot of attention from the defense, and got a lot of rebounds today.

 

Yes, Yao must know that he has his part to do too.

 

almost automatic turnover

 

This is a love T-Mac post in disguise

 

I think if Wafer can develop better court vision and bball IQ, he can be the perfect PnR player for Yao. I couldn't see him beign a good entry passer however. Maybe that is something that Battier and Lowry can practise on when the fronting comes along.

The rockets are a very deep team now that our prospects have developed, and I think that we can survive even if Yao is fronted, however if we are fronted every single game, there is no way we can be an elite team. Games will always be tight, and our role players will tire out easily as they won't really be role players anymore if they are continually pickign up the slack for Yao.

In deed, the fronting issue is somethign for RA to ponder about, but I think we have the right players to overcome it.

 

Why not pass over defender. I know this hasn't worked much, but if they can work on it in practice, Yao may be able to get hang of it. It is a fact that no one in the NBA stands are tall as Yao, if they are fronting him, throw it up high and Yao has a clear path to the basket.

 

The OP is right about Tmac PNR, but what he forgot was that was during JVG's era. JVG played PNR ALL the time, and Yao's fronting was never even a problem.

Adelman, for whatever reason, just doesn't use that scheme, which is very very simple, and only need 2 players to do it.

 

True!

 

. . . and we'd still be scare sh**less that we would lose in the 1st round

Rocket River

 

O Really?

Rocket River

 

I see 3 problems trying to get Yao the ball when he's fronted:

- Yao himself, he is just not quick enough to get away from 2, 3 guys playing zone D.

(solution: more plays run for Yao, pick n roll where Yao would get open for a jumper, after a couple made basket, the pressure would eased up.)

- Teammate, they lose patience and try to create shots without Yao involved.

(solution: find different ways of getting Yao the ball, especially early in offense, many a times I see Yao springs up the court, our PG just does not have good enough vision to get him the ball. P n R would help.)

- Refs, they allowed defenders to man handled Yao, when Yao retaliated, he's immediately offensive fouled the defenders. When Yao tried to man up and did the same thing his defender would do, he's called for defensive foul on the other end.

(solution: complains and whines, I hate to say this but b****ing sometimes help.)

 

A healthy T-Slack still equals a first round virgin.

 

Protect your star or you lose him
Yao has refused to re-sign with the rockets TWICE! If you think it is not a WARNING, you’re risking losing him next year. He is not young anymore, he said he want success, and maybe fame as well. Yet in the games, he got punished by refs, by opponent teams. He got wrapped, wrestled, grabbed, and all kinds of illegal defenses. If he initiated the contact a little hard, or raised his elbow a little higher (naturally since he is high), that’s an automatic foul! He stands there still, any no-name guy just bumps into him intentionally, and that’s a foul on him! You hate Cuban, yet he won’t let these to happen on his star players, even role players. Stand up NOW, to support your star! Collect some clips, send some complaints, to the newspaper and TV and media, to all depts of NBA and stern. If you got fined, that’s perfectly fine. He has done anything he could to help the organization, now it is the organization’s turn to do something for him. If you don’t stand up for your star, he will find another organization that will. Warning signs have been there, do something NOW, or just keep some of your pennies and lose your biggest treasure.

 

Yao isn't quick enough to simply spin and reset, cause the defender can read this right away and refront.

Yao and his entry passers need to work on Yao going a seal-off discard of his man where he jumps up a little bit toward the basket and catches the lob pass. A few successful runs of this would alleviate the fronting. It's as if either a) Yao doesn't want to jump, or b) they haven't bothered to work on this in practice. As JVG pointed out last night, they never even bother to attempt the lob.

THe other solution is the high post or pick and roll. I'm not sure why Adelman doesn't try this. Maybe he's fine with using Yao as a decoy and having him get offensive rebounds instead. But, as other point out, this play can be run potentially with Von Wafer or Artest, or even Battier, if Brooks is being discounted in this regard. Hell, bring in Brent Barry and run it. Barry seems like he could get an entry lob to Yao as well, since he's rangey and likes to roll towards the basket himself.

This is all stuff worth trying. You'd think that the Rockets staff would be up at their respective kitchen tables well into the night thinking of these type solutions, but it's like they're fine with the way things are.