You got to be kidding me. I hope your not making this thread based on 1 game. Yao can be a 20 and 10 guy easily. Dwight is a 20 and 10 player and so is Duncan. If your telling me that's not dominating a game then I don't know what the word dominate means to you
They can if the other team decides to guard them with one player, but neither can if the other team fronts them and has a help defender on the weakside too. Being able to double team a guy without the ball is crap defense...IMO. It forces the team to put 5 scorers on the floor to counter the over committment on Yao.... Which is why AB is starting..... DD
well basketball is 5 on 5 not 1 on 1. These guys made it and are in the NBA they should be able to know how to adjust and make things easier for themselves.
One try to dominate the game doesn't mean he has to take 20-10 all the time. Just think wider, if Yao was double team and other ROXs got open shots, that was still great. But I fully agree with the opinion that today's rules make BIGs weak...
i wouldn't mind seeing this for a stretch to gauge how effective it is. i mean struggling for 18 seconds to get Yao the ball resulting in a turnover from a bad pass, or a rushed shot from one of the other guys doesn't strike me as maximizing ANYONE's skills. it pulls yao away from the basket, but yao doesn't rebound his own miss very often anyway because of his lack of mobility. and it also pulls his defender away from the basket leaving scola to battle it out for the offensive board. and yao is a good mid-range shooter, so at least you have him contributing. i think it would also give him a good view of the floor for passing, hitting cutters, etc.
Its the defensive changes. You can thank Shaq's prime of his career dominancne and NBA marketing's desire for more high-flying guard/sf dunks for that.
While I think the impact of the defensive changes on centers is overrated relative to the fact that most centers these days just aren't as good as there used to be...BUT, it can't be ignored. There's a reason the Rockets of old, and Hakeem, had trouble against the Sonics. George Karl was practically playing defense according to modern rules...even though it was illegal then. Here's an article, that, short of the margin of loss, seems like you can just replace Hakeem with Yao, from the 96 series against the Sonics. N.B.A. PLAYOFFS;Sonics Swarm Olajuwon And Make It Look Easy Some highlights:
Fascinating, JayZ...good find! I didn't remember it being that bad for Hakeem. The value of a big man has truly diminished in this league.
I'm not sure what you all think what dominance is. To me, dominance is when a certain player changes the game and distorts it. If an opposing team has to change it's WHOLE game plan to stop you, then that is DOMINANCE. If Yao can take 2 to 3 opposing defenders to him, that's as good as a PG delivering an assist. A PG might be able to deliver a great pass to an open guy but if that guy misses the shot, that's not on the PG.
Being a decoy isn't dominating a game. They're game-planning for him....and kept him out of the flow of the offense...mission accomplished. The rest of our team shot 50% and it still wasn't enough.
DD, I don't know if you're trying to be funny or what. So dream would struggle, but limited skills howard can avg 21-14-3? I got u. BTW, they do care about shaq because his numbers actually were consistent with and without amare. Back to this old beaten horse, what hurts yao today more than anything is his mobility. He can stop and restart his feet quickly off a front, he doesn't run the court, and up he can't dribble penetrate for a shot. He's a limited range player which is what he probably should be because of his size. The only thing yao need to do is continue to show confidence in his jumper and everything would be cool. Back to dream, he would dominate today just like shaq and robinson would also. Yeah y could sandwich drream, but what happens when he steps off the block 13 ft and faces the man up? What happens when the ball is opposite and he jabs steps and back door for a alley? What about when he runs the court with the guards and either finishes or gets great position right under the goal? What about that double down screen and dream would curl off and hit the 15 ft jimmy like ray allen? That's the point is dream, shaq and guys like that were big skilled athletes vs a big skilled player. Even in their era, dream,shaq,zo,shaq,ewing, and guys like that were really good athletes. Even among the jordans, drexlers, and wilkens, those guy were athletic, just bigger. When you have ralph sampson in the dunk contest, that should tell u something. Even kareem in his day was one of the best athletes in the league. That's the difference. Would yao play better back then, maybe so, but u have to also think about the competition and the iso. That still have nothing to do with domitating. Deke dominated seattle and he avg 12 ppg in that series.
One of the reasons that junk defense worked was because thorpe, as good as he was could only extend out to 12ft and rudy insisted on running dream to the same blocks play after play. When they traded for barkley and had another guy that would cleanup the boards and force a duoble, they kicked the sonics ass.
It depends on the team around them. Take the 93-94 Rockets, in the playoffs, if every play the opposing team puts a defender in front or Hakeem and one behind him, and dares the other players to beat them, then ya, I see a much different outcome than what happened. You take the 94-95 team, with a hungry Clyde, who'd punish teams for doing that (Artest can do that now, but is not effectively), and I see a title anyways. I can also see Shaq struggle a little in the 90s with zone if he didnt have Kobe, Penny, etc. Not saying struggle as in 19 ppg struggle, but I dont think him, or Hakeem would average 30. Maybe in the regular season. Not in the playoffs when the other team will scout who to leave open etc and double w/o them having the ball. In the end, the zone would not have the biggest impact on Hakeem, Shaq, all dominant centers, but it would have some impact. That's for sure. Yao struggles more for obvious reasons. And yes, Yao would be more dominant without zones, at least on offense.
Wait, so now the defense WAS effective on Hakeem, like you just went to great lengths to prove it wasn't effective? ROFLMAO !!! At least you are right about Thorpe etc...and Scola struggling with that midrange shot last game really hurt. He is the key, if they double off him, he has to make them pay.....usually he has been doing that..... DD
The best point he made...which I totally agree with...is that Hakeem was versatile enough to pop out and face up with you...because you could shoot over you OR dribble by you. And I think if Howard and Yao can put up these numbers in today's game, Hakeem could and then some. As could Robinson....Ewing...etc.
I am not saying Hakeem would not find a way...and Yao should to, but when other teams commit 2 guys there are so many other options to beat it. And I would like to see Ron on the block, Shane on the block, and Scola too, invert the offense. DD
I guess we differ in our opinions. I have my NFL glasses on. When I watch teams play the Patriots, the opposing team puts so much emphasis on covering Moss that it leaves the whole field for the rest of the offense. Moss might have a terrible game stat-wise but everyone knows that his team DOMINATED just from his presence. In the Rox case, shooting 50% is nice but not only scores are equal. I would rather have the Rox keep exploiting the wide open lane and out-of-position defenders to draw fouls and get to the line.
they did beat it...the rest of the team shot 50%. but there's no way to get around the idea that when the focal point of your offense becomes nothing more than a decoy, it's a bit distracting....particularly when you only have 24 seconds.
they did that...they didn't make their FT's though. look, at the end of the day, your option 1 has to step up. the history of the nba is all about big players hitting big shots at key junctures. and i don't mean one big shot from bob horry in a game...or one big shot from mario elie...i'm talking about the consistent shots that you keep going back to down the stretch of a playoff game that allows a guy like mario elie to be in a position to hit a shot that big to begin with.
If the team wins how is it distracting? If they are going to over commit, you have to be willing to go to plan B, it is why JVG was fired, he had no plan B. DD
