We all know that he is tired, guys are sort of figuring him out etc.. But I attribute alot of his subpar performance as of late to our DAMN OFFENSE. We put Yao in a bad position. When he gets the ball, no one moves. He has no option but to shoot a difficult fall away. One of the plays that clearly shows this is when Yao had faked Lafrentz out of his seat and drove to the hole. Great move!!! BUT there was 3 guys helping out which caused Yao to get blocked. Nash, Nowitski and Griffen were all there. It is clear that teams are sagging in on our big guy which also caused many of the turnovers. Unless we cut and move around, things are not gonna change. We could be headed for a long season. I just wished that Rudy would force the team to watch some of the Utah game tapes. There offense is beautiful (even though I hate them). We need to learn from them. My fear is that it will take 2 years for this to realize that THIS ONE ON ONE/ISO/DRIBBLE THE HELL OUT OF THE BALL/STAND AROUND AND WATCH style of b-ball doesnt work.... It may work 1 game if Stevie makes 90% of his jumpers but it wont in the long run.....
You're 100% correct. I thought from the beginning that it was wrong to ISO Yao on the low post. He doesnt have the strength to back in his opponents right now. Besides, Yao is a MOTION payer. He grew up playing basketball the right way, and he knows how to pass to players who are moving. It is a joke that we are wasting his passing skills. And Posey is also a great motion player- he slashes and does a little bit of everything.
I can agree somewhat, but lets be honest as much as the problem is with offense, another likely problem is he's not hitting those same shots like he was when he had those breakout games. For the month of Jan he's only shooting something like 40%
hikanoo49 and Mr. Clutch I totally agree. Bill Walton pretty much said the same thing on 12/18/02 during Indiana game. "If you play with Yao Ming, like playing with (Arvydas) Sabonis, like playing with Vlade Divac, you have to learn to move, learn to expect and anticipate that you'll get the ball in perfect position." Poor old big red. He prolly turn purple with black veins popping out his neck whenever he sees Yao being utilized improperly.
I don't like the way the Rockets' offense is running, but I don't think it's fair to blame Rockets' lose on their offense entirely. Yao is just as guilty as the offensive scheme. I agree with your point that everyone should keep moving after Yao get the ball in the post, but the truth is Yao hasn't commanded many double teams to create opportunities for his teamates. Yao's offense has been very inconsistant when single covered. Until he can consistantly score against single coverage, there won't be much benifit to keep feeding the ball to him in the post. Contrary to the popular notion of their high-power offense, the Rockets' strength has been their defense this season. If you look at the wins against the quality teams, the Rockets have been able to play solid defense in most of those game. They are a good rebounding team with some very good shot blockers inside. When they bring up intensity as they did against the Lakers, they can be a GREAT defensive team. The problem is that the intensity is much hard to keep when you are on the road, or play against a so-called "weak team". This explains the problem we have seen so far, bad road team, play down to competition. The true identification of a good, or great team is that you can win on the road, consistantly. The Rockets are a young team, they are a long way from getting there
well since I don't live in houston, i get to hear all the competition's announcers. They continually press that Yao must run the offense, not Mobley, or even Francis. They all see that at 7'5, Yao can hold the ball far enough that it could not be knocked out while looking around for a good pass. I even heard a suggested offense. Like Yao posting up gets the ball from francis, francis cuts behind him the usual way, while mobely or posey run behind francis and stops, yao hands the ball off to posey and cuts across the rim, clearing the way for posey to jump up and lay the ball in or alleyoop it. this could be easier than handing the ball off to francis since 2 things would happen: 1 the guy guarding yao is watching francis and then he notices yao cutting back and quicky follows yao keeping an eye on francis. It's sad when there are so many strategies for using a 7'5 guy with passing skills and a shooting touch, but yet Houston continues to lose ground to the lakers.
ONe thing i noticed is that SHaq runs down the court alot ...on his own fast break and gets the easy two!! Yao should do the same. Shaq did it a number of times against the rocks and then against the clippers the other night. Yao needs to hussle more. move those trunks boy.
hahaha.. to tell you the truth, I would not mind... maybe we can hire him as a consultant. thus far, I think all his comments are right on the money about our Rox...
