You have mentioned this in a bunch of threads and it is an absolutely ridiculous idea. You dont sit your best player out because you won game 1 on the road. Should the bulls have sat our Derrick Rose? We very easily could have won this game. Same goes for the Bulls and their game 2 vs the Celtics. More importantly, the NBA playoffs take forever. Yao played the last game of the season vs dallas on a Wed. Didnt play game 1 until Saturday night, then game 2 was Tue and game 3 isnt until Friday.
The entire Blazer's front court devoted their defense to preventing Yao Ming from getting the ball. When two 6'11"+ guys are devoting their entire defensive effort to stopping one person from getting the ball, chances are that person is not going to get the ball very much.
again, i think this is overstated. this happened some of the time...but this was not the case throughout the game. and if it's that easy to neutralize an all-star big man, how the hell did tim duncan rule the nba for so long post-rule changes??
No need to repeat ... yet you repeated something which might be a good argument in other games but irrelevant in this game. 1) It was not a front, it was a double team. 2) Game over? Despite everything, if we made a few more FTs, we did not lose the game. In the stretch when we went 1-2, we could have built a big enough cushion that nothing else mattered.
this is just wrong. there were many times it was just a front. and players get doubled all the time. all star players..the kind who get max contracts...find a way to beat it. in all seriousness, that's the very story of the NBA...the history of it. and yes, even since the rule changes.
Forcing the ball to Yao = A quick pass back outside because Yao doesn't establish good position. A turnover. A low shot clock to work with. A bad shot attempt. The Rockets would of lost by a lot more probably if they tried to force feed Yao. He has a huge weakness and needs a star player who can create offense for himself and for others to be able to free himself up. Until then just have Yao run under the basket for the easy offensive rebound =)
i disagree. if he could find a way to establish position, he'd be fine...because he's ridiculously efficient. that's what frustrates the hell out of me. if i didn't trust him to make shots, i wouldn't be nearly as bothered by it.
Probably if Yao plays more physical and starts pushing opponents around and make himself a bigger, easier target to catch the ball but then again that Pryzbilla would of fouled Yao out by flopping maybe. We already saw how he fell over once and got the call.
I don't agree that is was overstated. Of course they did not double team him when he did not post which was more than half of the game, we were busy running other plays. When he did attempt to post, they doubled him most of that time. The times they did not come quick enough, the lone guy got called for foul, hence you did not see the end of the play. Speaking of Tim Duncam, how many times did you Timmy pass out of double team vs taking a shot?
I agree w/ the weaknesses of Yao stated in this thread and his responsibilities. He could certainly help his case to get the ball more. But last night in the 4th quarter we didn't even look at him. Despite all the difficulties, it doesn't mean you just totally give up on him. Yao touching the ball creates all kinds of new opportunities. We just didn't look for him. It's like how Portland gave up on passing in the first game and played iso ball, they gave up and played outside their game way too early.
Front Yao. Game over. indicating: A: Yao played poor, B: Yao played good, C: His teammate played poor, D: His teammate played good, ? no 50-50 such as none of them played good please.
Agreed, especially after Oden fouled out and Pryzbilla had 5 fouls. We basically conceded when we had a chance to knock out both their centers.
I don't think you paid enough attention in this game. In the history of the NBA, you are wrong that players get double all the time. You are also wrong that you think they go against the double team more often than not. In the days of Hakeem, they could not double before the catch. They only came after, Hakeem did go against the double some (which was more than most players), yet he passed out of double team a lot. Why do think Kenny and big shot Bob got open looks?
They did try once to go to him but it resulted in a easy turnover which lead for a fast break for the Blazers. Yao looked extremely exhausted and was just going through the screen motions.
WHAT?? great players have been doubled for as long as i've been watching basketball. you're right that before the rule changes the double came after the pass and not before. but great players were still doubled. so my argument with the rule change goes like this: 1. i don't care, you still can't pay a guy max money who can be taken out of the game so easily. this isn't something new, and it isn't just double-teams. he was removed from the dallas game by freaking brandon bass. you can't let that happen. and..there have been big men who have done just fine since the rule changes who don't find themselves so completely neutralized. 2. or, if you're entirely correct and this is just a product of the rule changes and any and every big man would be stuck in the same boat...then the value of big men as part of an NBA offense just went in the crapper. because if max dollar big men are only gonna see 6 shots in a freaking playoff game, then you're better of building small. (of course, san antonio has shown us that isn't true, but whatever) but in the end, i'm sure it's just that i wasn't really paying attention to the game.
Tim Duncan is a better player. Parker is a better PG. Ginobilli is a better player. Many people argue that Parker or Ginobilli lead that team, not Timmy. All down the line, they have better players than we do. We've closed the gap, but they were much better than us, that was why they won championships. They beat everyone else in the league, remember?
one big reason is rocket is too predictable to defenders; another big reason is rocket lacks super star players but a few think they are or about to be by next shot. when the time comes, the team falls apart and individual players start to shine. is this the RA's system?
