And another question is : How many fans here really believe they can pull off a game like 15pts down with 6-7 mins left? To me, if Rox has the situation like this, normally they lose. SF and Cat won the game for Rox, we appreciate their effort. But at the same time, people are worrying about the first three quarter they played and think if they played a little different way, they might not necessarily put them in this situation in the first place. What is wrong with that?
Please not another poll. We've seen what a 2 guard offense on this team can do. We can win about 45-50 games at best. There is no way this type of offense can consistently beat great teams. As long as we just throw our arms up in the air when we see these suffocating zones and say "oh well, let's take what the defense gives us", other teams will start copying the formula. Trends, fads, gimmicks, whatever you want to call them, will end when you figure out how to beat them. And if we don't figure out a way to prevent these zones, we'd better hope Cat and Steve become Kobe and Ray Allen.
This got to be the sarcastic post of the year! Trade Yao for Finley. Or Yao for Brand. Or Yao for Amare S. I am sure Cuban/Sterling/etc would love the trade. It will also rip CCNet clean of all the new fans after May 2002, plus all those crazy media people in Houston, plus all the annoying natitional broadcasted Houston games...
Man, Boston was shooting like crap in the 4th quater, less than 40%. If they could've kept up shooting 40%, we would've lost. Sorry, your theory doesnt hold itself. If Ming is double or tripple team, no we shouldnt throw the ball to him, we should move the ball to the open man. But was that the case yesterday? The sports center high light showed that we werent looking for the big fella, and that is what bothers me.
No, we were looking for him. He was being double-teamed and our guards made them pay. The problem I have is not that our guards don't try to pass it to Yao. They do. My issue is if other defenses start playing this zone all the time, Rudy better figure out a way to beat it because there's no way we're going to be able to do what we did last night on a consistent basis. And if the defenses start collapsing on Yao, and people miss their shots, we're screwed. We should at least prepare for that Anyone remember George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers. In 2 years if Yao starts developing a true interior presence, we'll see the zone every night.
All I know is, if I was a basketball coach, and you told me I would have a center who would almost always generate double and triple teams by the defense, and I also got to have a mad crazy scoring PG, a 2 who could spot up or take it to the hole, a 4 who can leap out of the gym and some seriously good depth.. I would have to respond, yeah sure, we'll win every game. So what's the catch? The only catch seems to be that it is going to take a couple-three years to get them all nicely fermented and working together like a machine. I'd take that deal. Yeah, we'd lose some games we should win, while we were still learning, but if I had a guy who basically made the opponent have to play 4-on-5 or 3-on-5, then 90% of my job would already be done. The rest is just getting the knuckleheads to learn how to win with the system, instead of believing that all you need to do is beat your own man. ciao
So it went into effect for the 2001-2002 season. So this is our second season with the zone rules. However teams didn't start really using it until this season.
Nero is absolutely correct. It is important that the Rockets make the playoffs this year, because it will instill confidence in them and create something to improve upon next season. However, it is probably more important that they learn how to play together, and form a cohesive unit as quickly as possible. Even if the Rockets make the playoffs this year, we're not going to do much, so it's not the end of the world if we don't make the playoffs. It's true that nearly all of the pieces are here, though. The Rockets rank very highly in the league for rebounding and defensive FG% allowed. Our problems right now are on offense and with turning the ball over, which are highly correlated. Once these guys learn an offensive system (this takes time), the turnovers will go down and the offensive efficiency will go up. This will result in more offensive possessions per game, and a lot more wins for the Rockets. It also wouldn't hurt to add a good 3 point shooter in the offseason. Give them some time together and good things will happen.
Zones became legal just *last year.* And this year is the actually the first year where everyone is running them. Zones were not as prevalent last year...not nearly as much. And previous to that, zones were made illegal 3 months into the innaugural season of the NBA (1946-47).
Your second part of the argument is true, but your example of LA doesn't apply here. LA lost most of their games with Shaq on the injury list, and some more with a poor conditioned Shaq. The zone's effectiveness on centers was not the major reason for LAs' struggling
These are excuses. We are talking about the thrice defending champions. They are only 25-15 with Shaq this year. That's not good for them. They only lost 15 games all of their first chamionship year. They only lost 24 games all of last season, 26 the year before that...each year Shaq had health problems, but only this year are they playing a 6th seed rate of .625 with him in the game, only this year is he getting the least shots in his career, lowest points, lowest FG%, since his rookie year. Shaq's conditioning was better prepared for NBA play than Yao Ming's conditioning. At best, your argument says that Shaq must be at tip top form to consistently beat the new zones. Shaq is almost 4 spg off his first two title years, this year. With better conditioning, you are saying he would be back at 21 shots per game, and I'm saying with better conditioning (not being tired) Yao Ming would be at 15 spg, and we would have no complaints around here. But when Brian Grant shoves Yao out to 18' for your entry, you know something is fundamentally different between Shaq and Yao. That is not an excuse for Francis; that is a true observation that Grant shoved Yao Ming out of his block, and Battie was too quick in the fronting game for Yao, with fast Boston help defense to boot.
as Yao said in a post game interview with a houston chinese media: " as long as i double/triple teamed, there sure must be 1 or 2 teamates open."
No, that is not the excuses. As I said in the post I agreed with you assessment of the zone's impact on the center's production, everyone knows that is the purpose of the zone. But I did disagreed with you opinion about the LA's struggling, because I don't think Zone was the major reason led to LAs' terrible season thus far. As you said yourself, LA is 25-15 with Shaq, which means a 51 season for them. Yes, its not good enough compare to previous years, but that wasn't too far away from last years 58 wins. Looking at Shaqs' stats from the past, you can see that he has been declining in all major areas of his game. His stats are very close between this year and last year. With the way Bryant has been taking the shots, the surgery Shaq had, I don't think your argument of "the zone impact on Shaq led LAs struggling" hold any water here. 1999-----40.0mins...29.7pts...13.6rbs 2001-----39.5mins...28.7pts...12.7rbs 2001-----36.1mins...27.2pts...10.7rbs 2002-----37.7mins...25.9pts...10.8rbs
Great start to a thread. Unfortunately most of the posts that followed it sucked beyond belief. I myself think Ming could've gotten more 'touches' if he would've been able to grab more than THREE rebounds.
Yes, Yao did not have the best game and he should have gotten more. However, the 2 teams combined for 63 3 point attempts. I know this may be a total shock to you but when people miss long periemter jumpshots, the person closet to the basket is the least likely to get the rebound. You think it's a coicedence that this was one of his lowest rebound games since the beginning of the season. And it may not have been applicable to last night's game with the funky defense, but if you expect your center to get their "touches" simply from rebounding, youre saying theyre not worthy to handle the ball. Of course simple logic like this makes this post suck beyond belief.
