[7seconds or mess] Analysis of faulty entry passes to Yao

OMG, did you even watch the video clip? Or you just don't know basketball at all?

 

its like once Yao has already gotten the ball and he kicks it out that the Rockets guards dont want to run the same play again and get it back to him....I dont understand this

 

You simply can't expect a 7'6" man with mobility. That would make Yao even greater than Shaq.

 

I think whenever the Lakers front, the Rockets should play Chuck Hayes with Yao some, and use interior passing to get Yao the ball. Chuck is good at two things on offense - passing and ball handling. The Rockets can use that to get Chuck the ball in or near the paint, and let him get the ball to Yao. And do it in positions where they can mix it up between Yao going up with it and running a give-and-go.

 

It's not Aaron Brooks...he's doing everything correctly- creating, driving, being aggressive. All the other Rockets are just standing around, not understanding how to play basketball. Aaron is being failed by his teammates here.

 

ProfessorJ- All I'm saying is, how many years of threads posters have made about guards not being able to get yao the balle Mobley goot the ball to brand. Rafer is getting the ball to howard. Artest got the ball to miller and o'neal. Its always the guards fault and i'm telling people yao has as much if not more to blame. When u can't reset ur feet or when you're slow as my grandma coming across the lane, it puts a huge strain on the passer. When la use to run that cross screen to shaq,4e used to set his man up, dip his shoulder,lower his center of gravity,and receive the ball in great position. He would make a quick move and that was it. Its understanble yao can't do what shaq use to do,but he can get his hands up when he crosses the lane. Also, when he gets the ball after all that, be decisive and make a move. What 7 mins of trash fails to show is yao getting the ball, waiting, backing down, small doujble, he kicks to shane,shane not even looking at the goal, passes to brooks with shot clock winding down. There more to a play or set than just a guy saying yao was open and brooks or artest not passing him the ball.

 

Von has been a good entry passer the whole year, I've watched every game and can only recall him turning it over one time trying to dump it to Yao. He just throws it in there while you see AB and Shane trying to measure it , making it more difficult than it should be.

 

In at least 2 of those clips Gasol was behind Yao but on the pass out to the wing he is shifting to the side and around Yao. I truly believe if the entry pass is made back as the announcer said, Gasol will lunge in front and tip it away. Ultimately you get a turnover and a missed shot, but the players are making a decision: Force it back into a likely turnover, or penetrate and see if we can get something going to the bucket.


I guarantee you if Brooks makes that reentry and Gasol takes it away all you whining about him not giving it to Yao will be whining that he cant make a good entry pass or he shoulda seen Gasol.

 

I really appreciate substantive analysis done on actual game footage.

That being said, the narrator is clearly not familiar with Yao, and didn't watch game 1 with the same watchful eye that he did game 2.

The number one adjustment the Lakers made from game 1 to game 2 is Bynum out of the starting lineup, and Gasol on Yao. Yao can't stop Pau on defense, and Pau is *excellent* at denying Yao the pass. And he doesn't have to front to do it.

In game 1, after Bynum got two quick fouls and went out, Gasol had to take Yao on defense. He played behind Yao and denied three consecutive touches for Yao. IIRC two of those lead to turnovers, and I think on the third the Rocks got the ball again but Gasol disrupted the play. He did not have to front Yao to do this. He was behind Yao, with Yao calling for the ball.

Gasol, along with several other defenders in the NBA, is able to get position behind Yao, but still react quicker and move faster to the post entry pass than Yao can. And he doesn't have to catch it; he just has to disrupt it or swat it. Then the defender who was on the post entry man usually picks up the ball. Turnover.

Yao, because of his lack of relative quickness and reaction time compared to his smaller defenders, is at a disadvantage when trying to "seal off" his man behind him (we aren't discussing fronting just yet). He can use his weight and strength to lean on the defender behind him, but the quicker defender can "pull out the chair" and still disrupt the entry pass as it's made.

All of this preamble is to address the video's second example. I'll break the video down here:

First example: AB was impatient. It was unusual that Odom was his defender, and was very late coming over. I don't know what he was thinking, but he probably saw an opening in the middle of the floor and could take the larger Odom off the dribble, who was late anyway. He was dead wrong and got swatted by Gasol.

2nd: Here I have to disagree with the analysis. The analyst says "there's a good amount of room for a pass." He's wrong. If Yao was a center with normal speed and reflexes, yes, it might. But Gasol, who at that point had more than proven his ability to create turnovers from behind Yao, was "shading" around Yao with one arm, ready to swat the pass. He was on his tip toes, bouncing, ready to pounce on the pass. Even though it was single coverage, with Yao's man behind him, it was not a safe context for the entry pass. This was true both in the initial attempt by AB and the re-post attempt.

3rd: first, AB passed up the open 3 created by Yao; I think he should have taken it. He gives it back to Battier for re-post. Battier didn't pass in to Yao because he had longer, taller, faster Kobe directly in front of him. Kobe had already stripped an entry pass from Battier earlier in the game. Battier gave it back to AB for the re-post, and here is where AB's egregious sin occurs- Yao truly has his man pinned almost directly beneath the basket- a pass to him would have been an automatic 2 or FT's. AB should see that and have an uncontrollable Pavlovian response to pass in.

4th: I have no idea what Ron was thinking driving into the lane on that play. My guess is that since Bynum was fronting, he thought he just had to get around him and get the dunk. But there's no way he's quick enough. Even AB wouldn't have turned the corner on that one. If Ron had to drive, he should have gone to his right into the center where he could pick an open 3 for someone.

 

Yao is 7'6''. That's his advantage. You want to use his advantage, you have to accept his weakness, his mobility.

I said N times already, fronting is a problem for Yao himself, but it is not a problem for the rockets. Just like rockets-blazers series, when Yao was fronted, other rockets were open, and they needed to make shots. And, if opponets' ceter fronted Yao, it means he gave up the paint area protection, gave up rebounds. The rockets out-rebounded the blazers in the 1st series, this is a big reason.

 

Nolen, good points about Gasol. He seems to have the armlength to reach over Yao and poke away the entry pass. I wonder what his wingspan is compared to Yao's.

Yes, but the video doesn't show any plays where Yao was fronted. Gasol's behind him in every example.

 

My analysis is not to bash Yao, btw. I love him to death and never want him to leave Houston. But analysis that assumes he is as quick as a fast 7 footer is flawed analysis. Yao is an amazing player, the likes of which we have never seen in the history of the NBA. But he does have weaknesses in his game. We are all fans of Yao, but we can't go looking to blame everyone else for his shortcomings.

No single party is to be blamed for the difficulties in our post game. The blame can be shared. (And I simply don't look at it as "blaming" Yao; he is who he is. I don't "blame" him for being 7'6".) In this video Ron and AB demonstrate bad decision making skills. But in that is, in part, because they are faced with very hard decisions: even a good pass into the post to Yao with a quick defender behind him can result in a turnover. So, as the post entry man, you still have to weigh another possible turnover against the probability of a drive-and-dish or a drive-and-pop.

The only real solution I can see to this is having a point or wing player with elite court vision and elite decision making skills in one package. (Elite passing and elite first step would be great too, but hey.)

 

it is a problem because we're essentially playing 4 on 5 on offense.

it would be to our advantage if yao could grab an offensive rebound since his defender is out of position, but the problem is he's too slow. in fact, it's a testamant to how bad yao's rebounding is if he can't even get an offensive rebound with his defender now behind him, since yao is boxing him out now.

this is why the team suffers when yao's fronted. he clogs up the entire half of the court, and when we swing the ball, his defender is quick enough to rotate around him.

we seriously need to bench Yao when they front. our offense was at its best with our 2nd unit + Artest and Battier when we were running and gunning.

 

I don't see how fronting leads to other teammates being open. It happened in the Blazer's series because they always brought another guy behind Yao. As JVG mentioned in one of his broadcast, they do not need to do that as we would not attempt lob pass to Yao. The only advantage we have when Yao is fronted is that Yao need to capitalize on the offensive boards when this happen but this has not happened so far. We were able to mask the fronting problem to some extent in Blazers series because they are not as good offensively as Lakers are. As I see it, if Laker's are able to take Yao out of the game by fronting then we are not going to win any more game in this series.

 

Brooks is 6'. His advantage is his speed, his weakness is his court vision. He is the fastest pg is this league, but his passing skills is below average. Same thing, if you want to use his advantage, you have to accept his weakness.

 

False arguments!

 

from this video, it's clear to me that even i (a hefty 460 pound fatso and extremely immobile) could have passed the ball into yao from the laying position in my bed. sorry, i don't think you can't not blame AB or ron ron.

additionally, some of these could have resulted in passes to yao if the other players weren't standing around waiting.

 

false arguments!

 

Er, if fronting Yao gets him out of the game, why wouldnt the Lakers just keep doing it for a couple possessions til we take him out?

Not a good idea.

 

it gives me a headache when people get mad at Brooks for not passing the ball to Yao. In case you didn't notice, Brooks is 6'0. he's going to have a hard time passing over a defender to get him the ball.

All of you defend Yao's lack of speed for his height, well im defending Brooks' lack of accurate passing because of his height. it goes both ways. players have their limitations. Stop blaming Brooks for every little thing you hypocrites.