[CBS SPORTSLINE] Sura, T-Mac spark Rockets victory over Jazz

For this team? It's arguable that Dikembe is better for the uptempo pace than Yao because Dikembe can board like a monster which allows the team to get out on the break with the guards. In the slow-down half-court, Yao undoubtedly has to be the centerpiece to which the offense is focused around. However, Yao's hook shot is absolutely Cato-like in shooting percentage.

I don't think it takes a genius to see that the Rockets in the uptempo pace maximizes TMac's skills. TMac is the reason why the Rockets are staying afloat this season. This is why there were major issues during the Rockets' anemic offensivive slump when the team tried to go through Yao a lot in the low post. Yao needs to get that hook shot and and fadeaway up to a decent shooting percentage. I'm not exaggerating when I say the percentages are Cato-like right now.

 

Let me add that when Yao is taking those hook shots and fadeaways, there is almost never an offensive rebound if it misses because Mo or Juwan will always be outboarded since the miss usually falls right around the basket. When TMac misses a shot, Yao or Dikembe is there for potential putbacks. Also, the rebounding-proficient guards like Sura will have an opportunity to rebound the long caroms.

This means Yao has to be very accurate on those shots, or else the team will not have another chance to score on those possessions.

Take for example last year in the playoffs. Yao missed 95% of his hook shots against Shaq last year. How many of those misses went to the Rockets for offensive rebounds? 1 or 2? Maybe none. Yao misses a shot, and the Rockets immediately have to get back on defense.

In other words, Yao needs to be proficient like Tim Duncan or else, this low post stuff isn't going to work.

 

don't mess with our Karma

Yao will be OK

We are starting to gel

 

Charvo, I admire's your hard work trying to get CD to offer Yao a less-than MAX contract extention so Lakers can jump in and lure Yao back to Rudy T. But as dumb/inept as CD has been with those bad draft picks, he is not dumb enough to give up 24 year-old 7-6 all star starting center with skills/global marketability. Even if CD was dumb eough, Les would fire JVG/CD before he let them do anything even to add 1% chance of Yao not resigning with Rockets.

Just won't happen.

 

Yao's shooting percentage on his little hooks and jumpers has gone down but the thing with him and the reason why he is very valuable (on most days) is that he demands a lot of attention on the court albeit not as much as someone as duncan or garnett but much more than someone like mutombo or cato...this gives TMAC more space to work with and makes his offensive life easier...also if our team attempts to pull of a fastbreak sequence that is thwarted by good transition defense by the other team for example, our offense will be forced into a halfcourt set and then yao is our best option...yao does need a lot of improvement tho and if he can improve his little hook and jumper and add some more moves to his repertoire our team will become that much better and we can win games in which our fastbreak offense fails

 

yea yao is staying in houston no doubt in my mind about that...i think CD wud trade TMAC first unless it becomes clear that yao has reached his potential

 

Every team in the league would offer Yao the max if they could. Aside from being one of the best big men in the game he's arguably the most valuable (in financial terms).

Just because we run more now, that does not mean we're a fast break team all of a sudden. No team in the NBA runs on ever single possession, even the Suns end up in a lot of halfcourt basketball. With that said, we end up in a half court set the majority of the time and when that happens Yao is our #1 or #2 option.

 

I have to agree with munco on this too Charvo. Take this next game against the Suns for example. I don't think the Rockets will stand a chance if they play run offense against the Suns. The Rockets are gonna have to take them out delibrately in a half court set to take the Suns out of their run style rhythm. Maybe the Rockets well end up as a team that has two speeds....

 

It took me a while to figure you out - that you a Fakers fan trying to find your place here.

I have often found your take out of line and sometimes misinformed before now. Not anymore since I understand where you are coming from. How much sense really can a Fakers fan make? I have lowered my standards (considerably) for you and you are meeting them effortlessly.

 

1. strong half-court and transition defense
2. uptempo offense

Those two characteristics do not have to be exclusive of one another. I never said the Rockets should not try to go to Yao in the half-court, but I would immediately switch to the TMac-focused offense if Yao is ineffective (misses and turns ball over frequently). I've seen it too many times where the offense will get killed when this happens.

 

What I don't understand is why everyone has to resort to meaningless classification of fans.

At least try to add something to the argument rather than just saying I am a fan of another team.

 

Charvo, you make lots of strong points, but this is probably the only one point or assessment that I disagree with. I love the Rockets up-tempo offense, but to phase out the half-court offense focused around Yao, I think that's too strong of a statement to make at this point. I think that the Rockets need to go 2 speeds. When Yao's out of the game, go as fast and as quick as you want, but when Yao's in the game, look for the big-man to get his, but at the same time don't be scared to run or set plays for T-Mac as well. In the beginning of the season, all we fans saw was the half court offense....slowly but surely T-Mac and company have been allowed to finally run. I just don't see both methods can't be integrated and mixed together.

 

Like all places Charvo, there are people who are ignorant.

 

I think a team that can play both half court and fast break when the opportunity becomes available is the best mix. The championship Rocket teams were like that. They would setup in the half court and get the ball to Hakeem. But when the defense would cause a turnover the guards would get down the court fast and convert a lot of fast break opportunities. I remember the 1994 Western Conference finals. The Rockets ran the Jazz out of the gym in that series. But when it got to the finals the Knicks slowed things down into a half court grind it out defensive battle. Which the Rockets were still able to win because they were a good half court team.

 

I agree. That's really what the Lakers did back when they had Kobe and Shaq. When Shaq was on the court, it was heavy in the half-court. When Shaq was off the court, the Lakers ran a lot more. The same goes with the Heat now with Wade and Shaq.

The main difference I see with the Rockets is that the tempo should be dictated by TMac being on the floor or not. It should not be dictated by having Yao on the floor. If TMac isn't on the floor and Yao is, the offense definitely should be run through Yao. If TMac is on the floor along with Yao, the offense should be always uptempo and going through TMac unless there is a severe matchup that the Rockets can exploit at the center position like when the Mavericks played Calvin Booth for a few minutes against the Rockets.

To be honest, I'd much rather see the offense be dictated by whether or not Yao is on the floor because I think that the big man like what the Heat and Spurs use is really the best way to win a championship. It depends on Yao. I think JVG said it best when he said he didn't know whether or not the alert, aggressive Yao would show up for a given game. An alert, aggressive Yao with a good hook shot is a killer in the half-court. A passive Yao with a bad hook shot is offensive plague. It spreads to every Rocket.

 

Not much to say, but I mostly agree with you! Nice Post.

 

Stop whining. Your duplicity has been exposed. "Wah, wah, Yao and Tmac can't coexist." And yet you revel in your wet dream of a Yao-Kobe combo.

 

pwn3d!

 

Let me repeat what I said in the past. I said the Rockets might be best off trading Yao in a Herschel Walker-type trade. If you are familiar with NFL history, the Dallas Cowboys came out on top in that trade with I think 4 championship rings. I've said in the past that the Yao marketing machine is probably half what it would be in Los Angeles, and Jerry Buss (likes money a lot) knows that. This guy would throw the entire team except for Kobe at Yao.

I think this fantasy about Yao becoming a top tier BIG MAN should stop. I put a lot of faith in the 3rd year of development in any athlete. It's the 3rd year in which the dominant players in American sports history showed themselves as being able to carry their respective teams. What I am seeing with Yao this year should be what everyone else is seeing. Yao has allowed the torch of leadership to be taken away from him when it was clearly up in the air after Steve had left the team. Yao is still doing whatever he did last year and that was his desire to go a be sidekick to Steve and now TMac. Look at his stats. They are pretty much the same, and I think they will go down even with the increased scoring from the team because JVG is phasing Yao out of being a primary scoring option.

Read TMac's comments as of late about his comfort level and the pace of the game. I find them to be striking in how he has implied how the old offense centered around Yao was badly affecting the team.

Yao's role on this team now has been minimized to the point where Dikembe is doing the same stuff.

 

charvo a lot of what u said i agree with but i think ur being a little too harsh on yao...first of all the guy is already a "top tier" big man and he still has a lot of potential to improve

u shudnt compare him to other american sports stars and say oh its yao's 3d yr and he's not a dominant force yet thus he must've reached his potential...give yao a little longer time to grow because remember he moved to the country a few yrs ago not even knowing english...this has been a HUGE transition for him culturally

anyways, what could we possibly want from LA for Yao? Mihm and Odom? Not worth it...