2nd to make a comment on this. height was a bad example. skill level would have been better. that's fair. i just see yao being the shiz if he could somehow pin his defender beind him on a regular basis. can you imagine his stats if he could? remember in the orlando game last year when he had the ball kinda at the left corner of the 3pt line? he drove the ball all the way to the hoop. i think it was over some guy name burk or something like that. but anyway, if he could develop some kind of a short dribble (kinda like that crossover that hakeem would do and then pull up for a faceup jumper) like he showed in that game, then that would be alternative to posting up all the time although that would be his primary position. the dude already has a outside j. did you see that shot today that he made from about 20 feet out that barely beat the buzzer? nice.
Yes he does need better positioning but alot of the time the guards couldn't even get a good shoot off when going one on one let alone shooting of a pick. Memphis did have a good game plan and this is a good time for our weekness to be exposed. The Rockets already knew this I'm sure but this should get everyone busy fixing the problem.
We played decent? Which game were you watching? To me it is no different than Rudy's team except a few newbies. Sucks! Do we have anybody on the team that can really pass? Forget about the lob.
Yao is a foot taller than any other player even in the US. In China if you are shorter than 6'3 you can't qualify as point guard on any team. The Chinese national team's average height is at 6'7. The fact is that Yao does not get ANY competetion in the NBA. Only two players can stop him, Shaq and Duncan. This is only two games but Francis is already showing that he does not know how to make his team better.
Exactly. More Yao shots, less one on one from the guards. This is solved by making sure the guards look to pass to Yao frequently and Yao making sure he is in a position to get a high %, uncontested entry pass. Its a two way street. The guards were ineffective at getting the ball up in a timely manner and Yao was ineffective at gaining proper post position in a timely manner. Result: Low % shots had to be taken/forced before a 24 sec violation. And since some of accused me of being biased, I would like to take this time to critisize the wing players need for the "fancy" pass on a 2-1 break when a simple one would do just fine. And is it just me, or does it seem the alley oop is becoming a very low % play for us??
SIMPLE, if somebody hate YAO so much or are thinking he is on YOUR road, just let him go! I am sure Yao will be more comfortable anywhere but here... with too many Excuses covering their true selfish and incapable...pathetic Surely, YAO need improvement in many ways(it's always true, even he is MVP now), but it's HARD for him to do it quickly in THIS team, so far. I know he will get through it sooner or later, but I will support and encourage him rather than blame him now. And I hope those OLD guys in this team or here could truely willing to help him rather than taking pleasure in his difficulties.
Well said. The team need to play their role and stop thinking stats. Someone or the team need to step up and let Yao be their main man with Steve. Some players are still not working into the system as PLAYING THEIR SUPPORTING ROLE. Some need to sacrifice stats to help out on defence or create plays. Players must agree but forcing thme to sacrifice won't work. they MUST volunteer to sacrifice their stats and be the supporting role.
This post signifies every reason why I've really regret that Yao's a Rocket. When the Rockets first got the top pick I was overjoyed, since there was a real good possiblity that they would draft Yao. It would bring a. A Chinese (which I am) to the Rockets (a team which I am a die hard for). I started to really pull for him before the draft even though there's a lot of doubters. After he was drafted I was literally excited. But that started to change when I started noticing how critical and divided this board has become. It's really wearing on me. The "old timers" that visited this site since the "clutchcity.com" days know that it use to be a site and forum for hardcore fans, dreamers, and basically, not afraid to admit it, homers. We love our team, and sometimes blindly, but we were true fans that were united by our unwavering, and sometimes unrealistic hope in the Rox. As much as I love Yao, it really pains me to see how divided this board has become after his arrival, and how it's now rampant with people that don't have the "Rockets" as the number 1 priority to the board. This is what happens when a board goes from being a close knit community to an international station. I almost hoped that Yao wasn't a Rocket, because then what ever team he's on would automatically become my second favorite team, and I'd be a Yao's only fan on the message boards of that team, while still cheering as hard for my Rox with people that love the team as much as I do. To the Yao only fans, I don't blame you guys. As I said, if Yao goes to another team, I would've easily became one, but because he's on the Rox, and pushing the Clutch forum to new appeal, it really hurts me to see the board divided, the team as a whole bashed by people who never really followed basketball until recently.
Man, I can not believe the lack of basic knowledge of basketball exhibited in this thread! I am certain everyone here played basketball before. If you played in the post, how are heck are you going to stop your defender from fronting you or at your back? What are you guys talking about? If a defender wants to give you a free path to the goal by fronting you, how are you going to stop them? Grabing the guy or give him an elbow? Ya, very smart way to get fouls! Put it this way, if the defender wants to run circle around you, you might position yourself so that he has to run a bigger circle, but you CANNOT stop your defender from running circle around you. Fronting is a gimmicky defense. It is seldom used because because it gives the offensive player a tremondous advantage IF he can receive a proper pass. But the trick is the pass has to be crisp and with good timing because the window of opportunity is always very narrow. You do it with triangle. And now you want Ming to physically stop a defender from front him? In addition, you want Ming to HOLD his defender (who is determined to front him) so our guards can give an "uncontested entry pass"? OmegaSupreme, just a question. How do you propose Ming do that all by himself without fouling every single possesion?
Yao probably played better than anyone else on the team tonight. He's to blame for the loss but no more than anyone else. I disagree with the Yao didn't get good position tonight that somehow is the focus of this thread. Look guys he's not going to always catch the ball in the paint. Shaq doesn't always get position in the paint. Yao's definitely getting better position in the paint but he's just never going to always get the ball in the paint and he doesn't need too. he can consistently hit the turnaround from 10 feet out. I'm not saying that he can't improve on positioning, but he didn't not do a bad job of getting position tonight.
I don't think an individual should be blamed. The Houston Chronicle said the team simply panicked when they couldn't get the ball to Yao and I tend to agree. Thus three things come to mind: 1/ Yao can't position himself out of a crowd. 2/ The guards can't drain outside shots. 3/ The coach has neglect to come up with a second gameplan. It's one game that we need to learn from.
BTW, I do agree that Yao should be much more aggressive. He had like 1 foul coming into the last quarter and should have taken it to the offence.
I was thinking about that along the line. Yao wasn't the problem. They got the ball to him more in this game then they did with last year. BUt the whole problem was the turnovers and players not making shots. JVG system works fine. They are going to need a way to get Yao out of thae situation. There was nothing Yao could do about it when Grizz gameplan was to keep Yao from getting more touches.
you know... that's a very good question and i have absolutely no idea to be honest. that's why i'm not on the rockets roster or laying down the x's and o's. i just don't understand why vg would take yao out of the game in crunch time, without foul trouble, if he's the rockets main offensive force (whether it be scoring or distributing the ball),and while he came into the game about five minutes earlier. any ideas? because he wasn't being used? wasn't doing what vg advised him to do or wasn't doing it the way that vg thinks he can?
