What are you talking about. Yao still gets doubled. True he was fronted more in the playoffs but even there he was still doubled. Fronting is a hard thing to do for 36 minutes... it wears a team down. So most teams will limit it to crunch time. You saw this in the playoffs and the end of the season. Yao will still get doubled and will still get fronted. Fronting is effective but won't be nearly as much with Martin and Brooks and Arizza and Budinger slashing to the basket. We didn't have that ability last year accept for Brooks is was just coming into his own. Also slashing and dishing out still works whether its Yao doing the dishing or Brooks and Martin.
trugoy, you need to spend more time learning basketball. Although Knote rebuffed you bogus theory, I want to add a few things. Good defensive teams give different looks. Philly would use dalembert to dront using his size and quickness. By your theory, the rockets should have quickly swung be ball opposite. In theory, thats sound good untill u notice battier has the ball. Now this isnt about that, but his man can stay later because battier is a zero threat to beat someone to the rim. Also, your flawed logic talks again about just swinging the ball from side to side.Well, when teams front, they play a psuedo zone or shell defense. That basically means they put their feet on the boxes. When this is done and if the offense doesnt't make a penetrating pass (a pass inside the defense) then they just continue to rotate. The idea is to break the defense down from the inside either from dribble penetration or penetrating passes. Of course, anyone that has played basketball past jr high would know that.
What are you talking about The whole point is the get the defense rotating so that people can get to the rim, take someone like trevor ariza who is not a good 3 point shooter nor can he take someone off the dribble, but he would be very effective with YAO because he could get past "ROTATING DEFENDERS" to the basket. Same with Brooks, Same with Lowry, and Martin, and Chase. The whole argument stems from the fact that people always parrot the myth "Lowry cannot play with Yao because he is not a good 3 point shooter", this is bogus because a good slasher like Lowry is invaluable against a fronting defense.
I didn't say they fronted him all the time, I said that fronting was their MAIN defensive strategy, that means that it was the defense that they used more than any other against YAO.
Yao's mere presence on offense demands extra attention and it opens up opportunities on the court, especially for shooters. Adelman has made numerous comments about that. I recall him saying before that the way to beat fronting defense is good ball movement. Why? because it shifts the defense - they need to react. so the defense is always given choices; like whether to give up an entry pass into the post to Yao or (with good ball movement!) give up an open shooter because of the attention needed to denying Yao the ball. This is why i find that shooting the ball well is at a premium for a skill in the NBA ,generally however, the more versatile the players on the court are the more options there are on offense. and that's what good defensive's are all about. It's a strategic game of chess, so to speak, because the defense cannot deny everything but they can try to deny the best option i.e. giving the ball to Yao around the post. But better offense always beats good defense because a team can always have more options on offense the key then become execution. That is why i don't think it is exactly accurate to say that a team's main strategy is to "double-team", rather, it's to deny the best option with execution and live with the result. To address your argument more directly. IMO it depends on the Philosophy. Having said that, most coaches in the NBA value surrounding big men who demand attention with shooters. because it WORKS! It spreads the floor because the defense needs to respect the shooters gives more room for the big man to operate in turn, increases the effectiveness of ball movement opens up more options for the players whom can "shoot" i.e. pass off to the PF or drive in on the other side [there are many!] anyway, the point here is that it doesn't necessarily follow that if a fronting defense is effective at denying Yao it becomes a bad idea to surround Yao with shooters. Going back to my main argument, it's Yao's presence that opens up many ways to beat the defense. I will say this though, the dominant C + shooters [NOTE: lets not just limit most NBA players skills to that] model has been historically proven to be sound in the NBA.
They don't merely front him with one defender and leave everyone else covered. Are you kidding me? Our greatest offensive advantage last season (outside of Yao) was getting the ball to the uncovered wing shooter who could nail the open three. We killed teams because we took and made a good number of 3 point shots. Yao is absolutely double teamed. Even when he's fronted, another defender is sagging off someone and floating in the paint behind Yao. This usually leaves someone open to nail a shot on a catch and shoot. Battier's only offensive value to us last year was making the stand still three pointer when he got the ball while his man was sagging to cover Yao.
What team have you been watching, bud? It ain't a myth. How do you think we got past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in 10 years last year?
True. Yao set up the tune for the whole series in the first half quarter - Let me kill you, or double/front me and let my teammates kill you.
I agree that Yao does not draw CONSISTENT double teams. Fronting has proven very effective against him, and it limited his point totals throughout the playoffs last season when used. I'm interested to see how the team offense will look next year with him in the post.
i said it before in the poll: would you trade Yao for Gasol thread Yao can be neutralized simply by fronting defense so i agree; shooters do not help us by this way
where are you getting 4 shooters? If you want Lowry to start, that means you get 1 shooter in Martin on the outside which would be dumb as ****
Fronting requires one and a half man without Yao getting the ball. It opens up for Scola's mid ranger jumpers and for Martin to attack the rim from another angel. We'd see a lot less fronting next year since both Ariza and Martin can get to the rim much quicker than Artest/Battier.
so what would you call it when he's fronted and another man sneaks up from the weakside behind him? i'm pretty sure fronting just inidicates the defense starts in front, that can easily turn into a double team, and it has.
