I don't know about the whole fronting thing, but the times I have watched Houston, you guys seemed to have the same problem we were having. No low post passing. It was like over and over your guys just didn't know how to pass the ball into the low post. Other times it was one on one ball hogging and throwing up bad shot(ron/wafer). Ironically it use to be like that with our guards Fish/Kobe. God they would just go into oblivious mode and just come down court and start throwing up shots,LOL. Anyways it seems that your team had that same problem, but hasn't shed that completely. I watched the 1st qtr of game 2 and I expected them to go back to Yao, since he was on fire game 1, but your team seemed to go into ignore mode. Not sure if that was the story for the whole game but it was obvious in the 1st qtr. I kept on saying "why aren't they posting up Yao?" I wouldn't worry though I'm sure RA is going to push that home for game 3/4. Just post up Yao with effort in games 3/4 and he'll get the calls and go back to PDX 3-1.
There are lots of things wrong with Yao, and he's far from perfect or great. So we just ignore him? LOL. Wait, who else on the team is great or perfect? Nobody? Then why do we go to them instead of Yao? Right, opponents want that, we are just being supportive? Great insight from you, as always.
hakeem was anything but worthless vs. the sonics. they held him below his ridiculous averages, but they didn't make him an after-thought. i'm not sure you actually watched those games.
yao was a non-factor in game 2 either. combine oden and 'billa's numbers and compare to yao's and see.
come on, man. you're arguing to argue now. yao is option 1 on this offense. when option 1 shoots 6 times you assume he's hurt or got in foul trouble...not that he logged a bunch of minutes as a decoy.
no crap you didn't see it...because he was denied the ball. because he can be taken out of the game way too easily. you've seen that in regular season games, too. you also saw the rockets lose game 2. if you're counting on everyone else to win you a ring, good luck. are you honestly suggesting that yao isn't the first option on his team??
do we have different ways of thinking? actually, i don't think we're disagreeing on yao SHOULD be the 1st option here. i just can't say he's taken out of the game "too easily". like i said, any player, especially post players, can be taken out of a game by any team at any time if they choose to.
and i completely disagree. brandon bass shouldn't neutralize a first or second team all-nba center. if great players could be so easily neutralized, they would be. if you could neutralize lebron and force everyone else to beat you, you would do it every time. if you could hold down the best players in the game as easily as you say, you would do it every time. but the best players are not denied. you might slow them down some...but they're not going to be so taken out of a game as we saw the other night. there's zero in the history of the league that will convince him you can simply deny any player in the league that you wish. that's why great players win rings, eventually. because they can't be denied. yao simply isn't that kind of player despite all the eggs the rockets have put in the basket. and pretending he is will hinder them going forward.
if we want to force lebron (or anyone) to give up the ball, we can. plus we did make him look like a scrub in our win in houston against the cavs about 2 months ago. post players are easier to take out. if you're saying yao doesn't compare to akeem, then i agree. the dream is the g.o.a.t. (not one of) in my book, after all. but if you say the inability of solving the fronting d sandwich style (illegal back in the days) is mainly yao's fault, then it can't be more wrong. yao share some responsibilities, but the majority of them falls onto the role players and adelman. not that a blame game has any meanings, though.
that's funny. when did I say we should ignore Yao, from that short of paragraph? Great insight from you? we can go to Hayes, Rafer, Ryan Bowen or any scrub because he is OPEN and in the right position, not because he is perfect, tall or Chinese. why should we give the ball to a double teamed , standing still, out of position, 'far from great' player with worst hands?
i think you need to differentiate between someone having a bad game and behind held down...and someone being taken out of the flow of a game, entirely. pretending you could hold lebron out of the flow of an offense...or hold a tim duncan out of the flow of an offense...is crazy to me. because if you could, IT WOULD BE DONE ALL THE TIME!!!! and it's not.
i think otherwise. i believe anyone can be taken out of a game if a team choose to do so. what matters is at cost. have we had another star player (being it a healthy mcgrady or not), the picture would be different. also, consider how favorable the rule is to the perimeter players today. and the treatment yao got from the refs.
Like this guy said: (READ IT) For those of you who don't play bball, you may not really understand it. It's been discussed, and discussed and discussed and discussed to the point it's nearly not worth bothering about. Only those who are casual fans and don't watch the game analytically still pose the question. First and foremost, Yao (in spite of his immense size) is a very small target, doesn't hold low post position very well and requires a nearly perfect pass into the low box. Secondly, Yao is too easy to front because his lack of athleticism locks him into a position where a lob pass is ineffective. The lob pass has to be nearly perfect as weakside help can easily pick off a less than perfect pass. Thirdly, the way to attack a fronting defense is ball movement NOT side to side dribble movement. This changes the angle at which a post entry pass is made and increases the effectiveness. Unfortunately and too frequently, the Rockets take this "Fool's Gold" the defense is giving and waste time dribbling side to side. Lastly, equally important and easily ignored is the fact that the Rockets have been successful without Grady. They have been successful because they acquired players who could attack the rim and finish (relatively) strong...Artest, Wafer, Brooks, Lowry....and they are moving away from the Van Gundy-esque concept of surrounding Yao with standstill shooters who can't finish and waste time with side to side dribbling...Alston & Head. Attacking players is what is required to beat a fronting defense. Therefore, less shots for Yao during these times cause we need other players to attack the paint and score to make them come out of that defense. (and portland played it all the time Yao was in the game) The last point is what has to happen when the opposing team places all it's marbles in one bag by saying..."you might beat us, but Yao isn't going to beat us". One day, everyone will understand these concepts and no more silly threads about shot attempts will be needed......in my dreams.
Hmmmm, because he's the best on the team. No, we won't go to Hayes or Bowen no matter how open they are, when they are 10 feet away from the basket. Even if the balls lands in their hands in those situations, they will pass the ball to someone else. Yao averages 55%, when he's defended tightly and he doesn't play well, he still shoots well above 40%, that's why you go to him, or even "force" it a little bit. Yao didn't play well in the Utah series, someone said he's abused by Okur, but he averaged 25/10. If we had anyone of Scola, Landry, or Wafer, we have beaten Utah. It's just that simple - pure probability. Instead of taking whatever your opponents give you. That standing still, out of position, 'far from great' player with worst hands is still the best and most efficient offensive player on the team. BTW, simple logic, if you are doing something your opponents want you to do, even happily, something is very wrong.
I never saw Dream, or Shaq beat consistently with fronting defense. Dream obvious had more range than Shaq, but Shaq was stronger. When ever shaq was fronted, he would wink and have the ball lobbed at the basket for an alley-oop. Yao is just not strong enough, and he does not have Ilgaskas range either to make the 12 - 15 footer consistently nor can he move quick enough for an alley hoop. We see CP3 breaking down defenses all the time and setting up chandler for the oop dunks. Yao is just too predictable and not strong enough. Hence players like Bass and front him and take him out of the game. We have a clear advantage over the blazer but if we cannot exploit it, we will see another first round exit, and I think at that point the coach should be fired.
you got the simple logic wrong, or very wrong. If they want Yao to get zero touch so much to use all 5 players around Yao, are you going to still force feeding him? the COST is the key. if they like to use their 2 big post defenders on Yao, that's a huge cost for them and Yao already beat them in a sense without doing anything. It is just how to take advantage of it. 40% or 44% for any center is unacceptable. abuse it is.
great. let us know when it's ok for us to discuss how our maxed out, 7'6", first option center is being taken out of the flow of the offense.
