hey, this is just an ideas inspring article ... maybe we can have a SWORD day every now and then (SWitch Our Roles Day) in which, plays normally run run for yao.. it will be run for steve.. and yao will play the role of steve that day.. so steve has to fight for position.. yao got to bring the ball up.. steve has to set pick while yao run the pick and roll... that way.. steve may understand the frustration of fighting for position then not getting the ball.. and yao may understand how difficult it can be to have an effective entry pass.. that should help team member understand better the problem their teammate faces.. and maybe when they switch back, they will do better to play together and help out each other. moochie can switch his role with a fan.. so the fan will find out it is not easy to dribble the basketball in front of 18000 people.. and moochie will realize that maybe he should just be a fan.. like that commerical.. maybe it is better that you just watch.
If Yao is 6'7", I'd do it. But when you are 7'6", you should be parked underneath the basket as much as the ref will allow you. Instead of experimenting with Yao being the PC, how about we just go out and find a pass-first and shoot-second true PG.
The number of those kinds of pg in the nba is limited, and the rox has no good price/performance players (except mobley) to trade for one of those pgs. The only semi-realistic option i see is for the rox to somehow acquire brent barry from seattle. I think barry would be perfect for this team. but I have no idea how salary thing works, and I am not suggesting trading away anyone... I just like to bb in this team, that's all.
I just thought yao mentality is best for a pg and steve mentality is best for that aggressive center everyone wants. So why not play to their strength, instead of play to their weakness.
Actually, I think pchan has a point. Not that what he suggests will actually work. Innovation is not JVG's strong suit. But with special players like Yao and Francis, who defy conventional basketball roles, you need to think outside of the box. Don Nelson is the best in terms of defying conventional wisdom. Sometimes that makes him look foolish. But sometimes, he is ingenius. I'd like to see more of them having Yao drawing the other team's big man out and post JJ down low. Believe it or not, he is a better post player than Yao.
Yes, this was the concern. Defense is pretty much as promised, but it's the same old Van Gundy 80 point offense. I don't know how it's so hard to realize you don't have to have Yao bring the ball up the court to run the offense. Guard can bring the ball up and give it to Yao at the top of the key. Then Yao can be point center. That's what we all envisioned when Rudy was supposedly workign on some new offense. It still hasn't happened. I wonder how many years it'll take for them to finally try that out. Probably not this year.
Wow. Cool yet scary to see how much Jeff ( Van Gundy, not our very own, who disagrees ) and I agree on this, in terms of what a 'win' means and doesn't mean when you see bad patterns in the process. I think it was apparent before the losing started that we weren't playing right, and that losing would follow if we didn't fix it. Moreover, if you win by playing the wrong way, and reaffirm people's faith in the wrong way, it might cost you a lot more than one game in the long run. That siad, the reverse is true, and losing might be a positive thing. Losing makes players question the way they're doing things, unless their idiots, and we might gain more from these losses, long run, than the games we lose.
I think JVG will make a trade this year, but this team is so close to being very good, it won't be anything dramatic. I could see Cato, Cat, and EGriffin (if he ever comes back) as expendables; they are important to the team, but not at the disruptive level that Yao and Steve are. By that I mean that moving either of the big two could completely disrupt any continuity, meaning that we would be back at square one, and in the lottery. That is not what I consider any kind of progress. What I can see is a deal similar to the one Chicago just made with Toronto. Substituting Rose for Mobley, I would like to see the Rocks pick up veteran role players like ADavis and JWilliams to fit in around the big two. It's not as if the team is terrible. They have improved dramatically on defense, and they have proven to play very well against anyone, that is until the 4th. That is why I think we should be looking for proven, clutch, playoff-tested role players like ADavis. I do not want to see them bring in someone just for the sake of making a deal. If that is all that is available, then I would rather wait for the offseason, playoffs or no playoffs.
