Another Yao interview: JVG is practicing 1-3-1 zone defense

Well, the advantage of zone is that you can switch from man to zone or from zone to man when you need a defensive stop. Since most of the PGs in the league are not that real PGs anymore, most of them will not know what to do with the zone initially.

But if you play this zone all the time, people will figure it out eventually. But who says JVG will play it all the time.

I think it is a great idea to mix zone with man-to-man defense, Rox will get a couple of defensive stops at the end of the game easily.

 

I think a 3-2 zone would be more effective for today's rules.

 

Forget about Babelfish.....

HERE YOU GO for a full translation !!!

This is an interview of Yao Ming by the Basketball Pioneers (BP) , the new sports newspaper that his buddy Yang Yi works for. I guess this could be an interview done by Yang Yi over phone.

 

go Yao just hang in there

 

not to disagree with you DD - but I have run the 1-3-1

it is a little tricky, but if run correctly - it is VERY difficult to break with traditional penitrate and pass methods.

I think that Yao would be in the middle basically keeping people out of the lane. He wouldn't stand in the paint, more match up and float all around that area depending on the ball movement -I think that the P.F.B.C. (power forward by committee) would run the baseline to provide support for drives and also getting rebounds (since that is the most physcially demanding spot - it would seem logical that they could just plug those guys in and sub for one another throughout the whole game

 

That explains why Van Gundy was a little surprised that T-Mac said their conversation changed him.

 

Your coach might be an idiot

the Zone D is like the Wishbone in football.

it takes perfect execution

it ain't pretty

but if you run it right, most nights it will keep you competitive.

 

Indeed. Zone defense is like blitz defense in football. It is risky but highly effective especially with the 24 second shot clock. No wonder more and more football teams use blitz.

 

A very big thanks to prlen for the translation.

 

Not to mention the fact that a high school teacher can get himself in a lot of trouble using "gay" in a perjorative way.

 

Dear Yao,

Please go back to practice. Basketball is your job.
You can become a PR once you retire. Then, you can give a lot interviews.

And if you don't practice more, you'll probably retire soon and you don't want to do that.

 

You can also run the 1-3-1 with the middle man in the 3 as the chaser instead of the low post 1. Run this way...you want someone tall and long to play this spot. TMac would be the best option for this guy but we would more likely use a PF (Padgett would be the next best option as he hustles) Yao, on the baseline, would rotate from box to box following the ball. So it would look something like this...

Sura
Tmac, Padgett, JJ
Yao

The advantage to the 1-3-1 is that it clogs the middle of the court, puts pressure on teams to hit outside shots, stops pick and rolls, and if we rotate and rebound correctly... we are in positin to run with our point up top and our two top finishers on the wings.

 

Maybe his coach just used the word 'gay' to indicate you should stay very close to your man, rather than as a pejorative.

Ok, thats' far enough off topic... nothing to see here, people! Back to work!

 

Dude this sounds pretty damn good. I sure hope it works out the way you're saying it will, cuz if it does, it sounds like its gonna make our team a lot more exciting and efficient.

 

It sounds good, but I'm still skeptical.

First, there are a lot of better shooting teams out there in the NBA. A zone is an advantage if you expect the other team to miss, which won't happen frequently enough against the better teams.

Second, an inherit weakness of most zones is that it makes it difficult to tell who to box out and where, leaving yourself open for less rebounds.

I'm not saying that a zone can't work, and, I think by default because the rule is in there, every team should mix in a zone at least 3-4 times during a game, as it is an effective way to "confuse" the offense periodically.

Generally, in the NBA, players are so good, that a zone defense only works with long, athletically gifted players. It works for Minnesota because they have these, and they have the ultimate one of these in KG. I imagine it would be decent for Phoenix this year, as an example.

All that said, I wouldn't mind seeing more zone by the Rockets, but not in the next two games.

 

Please please don't forget that rebounding is one of the biggest issues with any zone, and especially one with only 1 guy underneath. This team is already terrible at rebounding, and even worse at boxing out their men. When you throw a team in a zone, as the shot goes up, everyone has to find a man to box out and really get a body on them even moreso than usual. This is something that's difficult for a lot of people to get the hang of...and possibly even more difficult for our rebound-lacking big men to grasp.

Although, you could say...we can't get any worse at it =P But still, there's a chance for improvement...and I think we'll set our reboudning backwards with this change.

 

I disagree... the advantage to a 1-3-1 (and I coached this defense to junior high and high school teams for years) is that you rely on zone boxouts and you always have 3 guys (two of "3" guys and the guy on the low post) in rebounding position. Your weakside wing will almost always get the rebound and because it is a zone defense... the defenders are already inside of the offensive player and in rebounding position.

Sound too good to be true. Yes and no. It is a great defense for teams who aren't good one one one defenders and it is a great defense for teams who aren't good rebounding teams. And it is a great defense to run the break out of.

Bad news... if a team is slow to rotate and they don't play with their hands up and out at all times... a good passing team will eat the zone up. Players have to commit to moving on defense and playing 24-7 with hands up and out or the defense will not work.

 

I like this idea very much.. teams were drawing Yao out of the paint way too often for my taste and im all for anything that will keep Yao close to the paint (comfort area) to rebound and block shots.

- wanted to mention we are not that bad regarding rebounds actually pretty good at getting defensive rebounds really poor at offensive rebounds resulting in lower overall rebounding numbers.

J

 

Now who is that season ticket holder took Yao to gamble?