No one wanted Yao to play 38 minutes against a mediocre to bad team the night before we play in Dallas, but I don't have a problem with that. It's just the way Adelman's used him in the last two games that has me scratching my head. I posted here after the Sacramento game that there was no way Adelman would have played Yao the entire 1st quarter and 3 minutes into the 2nd during the regular season (mea culpa durvasa), but lo and behold Adelman did the same thing in both halves tonight. Yao was 4-6 in the 1st half tonight and was 1-7 in the 3rd with most of those shots coming late in the quarter when Yao was clearly laboring and barely getting any elevation on his shots. He was left in at the start of the 4th and hit an early shot (one of the few strong offensive plays tonight), but I thought Yao's play late in the 3rd was going to cost us the game. And why? Is Adelman so concerned with our lack of height that he's going to use Yao to negate other team's substitutions? It should be the other way around - Yao's too potent an offensive force to be exhausted dragging his 7'6 body up and down the court without rest merely for defensive purposes(???). Whatever happened to the tried and true practice of sitting your big man down in the last two minutes of the quarter so he can benefit from the stopages and timeout wrap-around to end quarters? I've almost never criticized Adelman before, but I'm not happy with Adelman's idea of "getting Yao going". Having said that Yao played ok tonight, but we'll have to see how he responds tomorrow.
He's still figuring out the rotations because of all the players that have been in and out of the lineup. It seems like he wants to play the bulk of the 2nd and 4th quarters without Yao. Morey said we were most effective last year when we played smaller in the front court. Maybe Adelman wants to make the 2nd and 4th quarters the "small ball" quarters. But who knows. It could change when we get Brooks and Battier back.
i'm befuddled with adelman's use of yao. yao started out like 4-6 and ended up shooting 6-14. rest the guy. didn't he learn from last yr? furthermore, we won a lot of games playing small last yr. what's wrong with playing that way now and let yao rest and regain his energy? adelman really doesn't know how to use yao it appears.
Yao does not have to shoot when he is tired. He does not have to plant under the basket all the time. There are many other ways to help the team. I hope yao can figure it out.
I honestly didn't notice Yao tiring that much at all. He seemed very comfortable throughout the game. I thought he played well. Those shots he missed -- they were good shots. Sometimes they don't go in.
I think morey has done a good job with this team, but the lack of a guy that can protect or attempt to protect the rim when yao is out makes no sense. I don't care if its steven hunter or calvin booth, the rox need some size. As good as a defensive player chuck is, no players go in the paint and think they will got a shot rejected. As a result, yao has to log more minutes. The lack of size off the bench forces adelman to play yao big minutes.
look the last 3 yrs, yao's minutes have been above 35 and he's been susceptible to injuries. today he played 38. and the other thing is, we played extremely well with scola/landry together. they weren't on the floor much together tonight.
Adelman had Mutombo last year. Yao still played big minutes before he got injured. I'm not sure that would change things.
If Yao didn't play 38-39 minutes tonight, the Rockets lose. That is the only reason why coach played him so many minutes. The team needs Yao to play these types of minutes if we want to get a top 3 seed and contend for a title. I think the game plan is to limit Yao's practices and workouts on off days.
As I've said before, you've converted me to your logic (though I still think Scolandry can more than offset most, if not all, pfs). But if Les is trying to save approximately 2 million in luxury tax by overplaying Yao in certain situations then he's not thinking straight. This is just one game, but it could possibly cost us one tomorrow night.
Dorsey = Dikembe If Dikembe was on the team, he would be sitting on the bench too for most of Oct-Dec That's what JVG did and Adelman last year.
we've won 66% of our games without yao the past 2 years. let's not get carried away and say we can't beat a memphis team without him. scola and landry together would have been something to watch.
Not in Oct-Dec Tmac plays well after the New Year Yao has carried the team the last few year early in the year and Tmac in the 2nd half Dikembe doesn't practice in the offseason and comes to camp completely out of shape. He becomes a baller again after a couple of months of practices
Agreed. No idea why Scola sat out the fourth quarter while the kid was dominating on the boards. His hustle is beyond comprehension.
scola freakin' got 12 pts and 13 boards in 25 minutes. like you said, i'm befuddled with adelman. it seems like yao has to be injured for him to play other combos of big men. he needs to cut tmac and yao's minutes to like 32-33. i'm fine with artest playing big minutes b/c he can.
