The debate does not revolve around Yao. Its about taking HIGH % shots. Even if Collier is wide opened 2 ft from the basket, you give him the ball. Instead, I saw numerous plays where Yao was wide opened and we opted to shoot long jumpers or force the ball somewhere else which led to some turn overs. Granted, many of the jumpers fell today, % wise, the dunk by Yao would be a much higher % over the long term. That is one of the reasons as to why we are not a consistant team. The chances of Cat and Steve BOTH having those types of #s on the SAME nights are 1 in 10 IMO and we still only barely won against a so-so Boston team.
all i know is, if Posey would learn how to shoot, this wouldnt be a problem. we swing the ball all the way around to a wide open posey, who pumpfakes and tries to drive againts the whole defense. The problem with our offense is the only guys who can shoot are the ones starting the plays with penetration. Sometimes i just wished rudy would play rice and yao at the same time, but he hardly ever did.
MacBeth, well/clearly put again! Heroics are great. But Rockets should blow out Celtics if they played smart and utilize the big man. True, Yao was double-teamed most of the time. But even he was wide open multiple times, guards didn't get him the ball. They weren't even looking at Yao's direction!
I'm still failing to see how Yao absolutely has to get the ball in the low post... *he has a frickin' jump shot*. If nothing else, letting him take it from 15-18 feet away opens up the middle for penetration. Sometime, look at how the Trailblazers used Sabonis in his (American-days) prime. He'd take it in the post sometimes. But he'd also get a lot of touches where he could open things up. More creativity is necessary here. BTW, I don't just "hate" Francis. Steve has made significant progress this year. Before now, I wondered if he could ever be a team player. Now, I'm sure he can, but think he needs more work. Mobley... I dunno about.
Are you kidding me? Everyteam is going to look at Boston's defense to see how they limit Yao to only two shots in the entire game. Especially in the playoffs. Send a guy to front Yao, and the guards don't want to give Yao the ball. There goes your inside presence. Kings, Mavs, and Spurs will clearly do that in the playoffs, cuz they know Yao can burn them in the inside.
Oh, one other thing (I miss the edit feature!)... ...Yao doesn't complain because he's not an *******. Come on... just because he isn't getting included enough in the offense doesn't mean he's going to have a Pippen-style blow-up. He's a good guy. And if you read closely enough... you get the feeling he doesn't like the offense. After some games, he's said things like "this is what happens when we pass the ball well." Nothing that definitely means he's angry... but when you read it, you wonder if he left unsaid "as opposed to that stupid 1-on-1 isolation crap."
Francis still turns it over too much for my taste, for sure. Be fair though, how many times does Francis dribble into the defense to launch an extremely high precentage slam for a baseline cutter. Also, how many times in other instances is it actually a guard penetrating a seam in a zone to make the zone shift, which is one of the most fundamental ways to attack a zone. Penetrate into the defense and kick or dish to get the zone to move. It is simple, fundamental basketball. Sometimes they are looking for a way to create a seam in a one-on-one situation. This is a very common method in the NBA to use good dribblers to get inside the defense by creating spacing to allow a good dribbler to attack. This is not an isolation game. It is simple bball--space properly and the guards will be able to get inside the defense. How much of a problem is this, still? Francis's midrange shot is hardly ever contested. PGs often don't even jump. How many times do we see Francis get a yard separation on the pseudo-Yao pick-n-roll and jump for an 15-18' uncontested and very controlled jumper? How many times? And Mobley's constested shots have gone down, noticeably. I don't think that's arguable. We do not isolate much anymore, especially as a first option. I don't agree with that. Now, I do agree that our weakside is often merely spacing, but that is common to many teams that use strongside attacks. How many times do you see the Laker's weakside moving at all? Spurs? Dallas? Orlando? Boston? Philly? They wait for the defense to move before the weakside cutting occurs. There are many offenses that do this. We will not be getting much more complicated anytime soon, because we are not the best decision makers out there and the entire starting front court is brand new at starting for the Rockets. I want more well-timed weakside picking without the ball, but simple basketball is to let the strongside 2-man games or low post games draw the defense and the weakside gets passes and cuts into seams. All I want, and what is effective, is to use Francis and Yao in a two man game and to continue developing our double high post. The former is a matter of the strongside making quicker decisions when to swing it to the weakside and the weakside penetrating and cutting and flowing off of that, to include catch and drive and getting it back to Yao/Francis (as you say, simple basketball). More complex basketball is to work weakside options off the double high post...I don't expect that to develop overnight....and it is new for us, as it wouldn't work without Yao. Yes, I think you manufacture these as expectations not met by continuing to list them and giving them too much play. You are not listing sets that the Rockets have never run before. You are not listing Mobley's contested shots are going way down. You are not listing that Francis midrange game is a very simple, uncontested shot, and that Nash, Murphy and Stockton are/were reknowned for taking early shot clock shots when you step away from them, and they can't jump like Francis. Francis's midrange game ... take it when they collapse on Yao ... has to be part of any "basketball is simple" philosophy about the Rockets. Francis just needs to have a better feel for when he shouldn't attack too aggressively, but we should not downplay the value of Francis burning the defense with an 18'er in a two man game with Yao. [quotte]Basketball is such a simple sport [/QUOTE] I don't get this comment. What? Baseball is more difficult from a team strategy standpoint? Guys just line up and take their swings, right? Do footballs players make more reads than basketball. How is hockey, Ultimate or soccer any different. I don't get it. Complex offenses are very difficult for a team to master good enough to beat defenses designed to beat them. If bball offense is simple, then bball defense is too. So who has the simpler time at it?
heypartner: Good posts. I don't agree with you, but your posts always make me feel better about the Rockets. It's nice to read something that's realistic and optimistic. Just want you to know you are appreciated... even from people who think you've got too mush sunshine in your brain .
Mavs did that in the second half of the first game, when they couldn't stop Yao. Then they got a simple victory after that.
Oh my God Haven, what stupid 1-on-1 are u talking about??? We have repeatedly tried to get Yao the ball the last couple of weeks, as soon as he got over his ROOKIE WALL. The fact is, Boston wanted to test our ball movement and perimeter shooting rather than have yao shred their inside defense w/ his post up moves and his passing out of the double teams. Obviously they had seen more than enough tapes of him doing this to other small teams in the <b>3 </b> days they prepared for this game. Their goal was leaving weak side (posey) open. I thought posey did a great job not shooting the 3 ball too much, and instead faking the shot, penetrating, and then dishing the ball back, resulting in at least a couple of 3s by the Cat. But see, thats the concentration, test our ball movement, test our shooting, test our penetration and dish. But dont let Yao touch the ball. Even steve said to gene peterson yesterday, 'we used yao as a decoy the whole game.' He was very much part of the offense last night, even w/o getting the ball. So dont be surprised if yao gets about 20 today. And yes we used a little iso yesterday, it just didnt work. Face it, Cat iso'd a few times against Memphis, and burned them for easy layins. A few isos is not bad for our team. But it didnt work yesterday. It got them into the 15 point hole yesterday. But the thing we gotta take out of this is we recognized it, started moving the ball around, played good solid zone, started running, and <b>won<b> the freaking game. What a game!!!
Damn! What heypartner said (thanks for being more rational than I could be). Just as an aside from SportsCenter: <i>A wink was enough. A glance, a nod, a twitch. If the Rockets raised an eyebrow in Yao Ming's direction on Monday, the Celtics charged him. They fronted Yao with Tony Battie. They came from the foul line. They came from the weakside baseline. They blitzed like he was a slow-footed quarterback with no protection and kept on coming. The Rockets kept hammering on that square peg no matter how many times it wouldn't fit...They ran plays designed to get Yao the ball 35 times, including 14 in the first quarter when he could only touch the ball twice. In 40 minutes, Yao took two shots, none in the first half. He had nine points, the first time he failed to score in double figures since he had four against Detroit on Jan. 24. "They did a pretty good job in Houston," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "But this time, they were all over him. "They did a tremendous job. They were in front of him, behind him. When we did get it, we were anxious. But we kept our cool." With the Celtics twisting their defense in knots to keep Yao's hands off the ball, the Rockets finally began to knock down the shots and cut through the seams left open for them.</i> That was from the Chronicle and a guy who watches them on a nightly basis, not a SportsCenter highlight reel. Yao is young and not fully mature physically in this game. He cannot simply throw off defneders and bull his way to the basket the way Hakeem did. I think he eventually will and he will absolutely destroy defenses like this. But, as heyp put it, he isn't a hall of famer yet. Making comparisons to Hakeem or Kareem is insulting to those players who, at the peaks of their repspective careers, were two of the best to ever put on sneakers. It is also insulting to Yao who is just beginning a career of his own and simply does not have the strength or experience to match those guys. This is about one game where the Rockets did what was necessary to win the game.
First off, the Mavs got simple victories in every game. All you are saying is proving that when you front Yao, it becomes difficult to get him the ball; otherwise, Yao can burn you, and does. Secondly, we responded to that Dallas game and introduced a double high post PnR that prevents simple fronting. Further, the Mavs did not front the last game, right? Who has fronted us recently? IV) Battie is very quick to front in situations where other defenders can't. Lastly, Boston is doing more than fronting. They send help before he gets the ball, and Boston relies on defensive speed that many teams don't have. In summary, as you pointed out, Dallas's simple fronting of Yao can stop him, and did. Rudy responded and Dallas didn't front again, and few teams do. No one has complained about Yao not getting the ball since the All-Star game, but Boston did it again like they did their first game against us. Boston is doing things other teams don't or can't, and it is a risky defense.
A couple of observations: The celtics actually played very good defense last night denying us the inside threat. They did double yao ming quite a bit down in low post. This strategy had worked for them for most of the game. They just simply choked away the game after getting that 15 pts lead in the 4th by jacking up so many threes early in the shot clock. (That of course was due to our zone defense from the middle of the 4th qrt) Other teams around the league are trending toward using a similar type of defense against us. You saw it with Miami, Dallas, Boston and most likely will see it tonight in New York. What's our answer to this type of swarming defense in the low post? Swing and rotate the ball to our open man, of course. Last night our open guys didn't produce enough to punish the celtics for their doubles down low. Another solution is having better quality and more varied entry passes. Why not have yao move from side to side and swing the ball around the horn, set some picks to free him some space, quick entry passes early in the shot clock, etc. Last night most of our entry passes were very obvious and slow and gave the defense enough time to adjust and recover. Ball needs be delivered the instant yao's open and that's when he can do the most damage. I did notice that each time when yao got the ball down low he's either fouled immediately or produced points. As a comparisoin, I watched some lakers' game on league pass and sometimes even the lakers had trouble getting the ball to shaq. What's different though, the lakers would make multiple attempts within the same possession to get shaq the ball. And I don't see that happening with the rockets. It's much easier and we'd win more games if we played the game inside out. I'd rather see us ahead 15 pts early in the 4th by playing team ball and involve all 5 players on the court than watching us playing catch up late in the game that would require last minute heroics.
(1) Hakeem was able to hold his position better than Yao currently can. (2) They were not allowed to play zone when Hakeem played. Back in the day the Sonics played a type of zone that killed the Rocket's inside-out game.
Actually, if you actually watched the game, you would have noticed that Yao was being fronted. And also had two Celtics on the weak side ready to jump on Yao if the ball was thrown to him.
Hopefully coaches can design more effecient plays during summer time and show it next year. Now I can see one of the reason why Lakers declined the Robert Horry--Sam Cassel deal. Without Horry, Shaq's effectiveness will go down and that's gonna hurt them big in playoff. If eddy can make good entry passes next year, Yao will be a lot more effective too.
It's important to note that it took Hakeem a long time to figure out defensive rotations. He was not particularly adept at picking up double and triple teams because he had always just gone through them. The Sonics always frustrated Hakeem because they doubled from so many different angles. But, as you pointed out, those were man-to-man defenses with pretty stringent rules on when the man could double and how the doubles had to be executed. Yao is way ahead of Hakeem in recognizing defenses and hitting the open man. But, he's behind him in terms of strength and getting position on the block.
Miami Heat did the same thing. You can count on more teams doing the same thing. If that happens than its really going to get frustrating because I believe if your smart and patient and can burn them for fronting Yao just one or two possession most teams will stop doing it the rest of the game. I hope other teams dont pick up on it. heres my take on last night game: It looks to me that this team is to set/designated play oriented. Like Rudy saying in the paper they had 35 designated sets to get Yao to get the ball. Screw designated plays, just pass the ball to him when he's open near in the paint or open for a face up jumper, instead of dribbling through the entire Celtic defense. When I watched the game, I see Yao open, but it doesnt look like a designed play, but he's still open. Is he ignored because its not a set play? Is Yao coming off the pick open and being ignored cause, "well, uh, its not one of Rudys 35 designated Yao plays" Is he flashing in the paint and being ignored because thats not one of his slow and methodical post plays? I seriously hope this team is not that stupid. Set Play or No Set Play, if you have a 7'6 man with that kind of skill and he's open you pass him the ball no matter what. I dont care if touches the ball more or less than his 35 designated times, if the man is open for a more than 3 seconds, dont look away, pass him the damn ball! Now some of this I put on Yao. He's needs to stop being a p***y and demand the ball. And go to the glass alot harder. And maybe get in a skirmish or two to earn some respect out there. But with that said, it be nice to see his teamates make it easier for him on offense, which they are not doing at all. Great win last night, but we wont get lucky like that for awhile.
