I think this is great! THANK GOD we are taking this approach. Earlier in the year my wife and I were just talking about this tactic. Time to let Yao lead this team. Sink or swim. Put the onus on Yao to produce. I think Yao will rise to the occassion much like he did for his Chinese National team when that team was depending on him. DD, I think you are right in terms of the refs. There is going to be some presssure on them. I dont see them fouling Yao out a whole lot. What is going to happen is "over time" the refs will give Yao more leeway in his shot blocking at taking charges. Those "ticky tack" fouls wont be called anymore because the fouls will have to be saved up for the OBVIOUS calls. Time to unleash the Yao! ;-)
This is good step. Calling out Yao and the refs at the same time. And at a key time in the season. Risky but the only way to address the problem, I fear.
I've never understood the idea behind sitting guys in foul trouble. Each minute of an NBA game weighs the same in terms of importance. A bucket scored in the 1st quarter counts the same as one scored in the 4th. Why in the world would you limit the minutes of your best player until "crunch time" at the expense of getting screwed in the time before then? Looks like JVG finally got it. If Yao's going to be in foul trouble, then the way to maximize his minutes is to simply let him play until he fouls out. If he fouls out early in the 4th, but plays 25 minutes, it's still better than playing 20 minutes and finish the game with 5 fouls.
Great move, I hope Yao fouls out about 10 games in a row, then maybe the league will take a long hard look at how Yao is being officiated.
Well, its obvious that the other way isn't working to well so we might as well try everything we can.
There are reasons to do with matchups which could promote benching players when they reach a quota of fouls. (1) since he has just fouled, the player may be in a bad current match, in terms of picking up fouls. So take him off. (2) if players foul out then they are no longer an option so the opposition can design their play to exploit his absence. In addition there are a whole lot of "human" factors. The guy may need a rest/think. May be picking up the fouls because he is tired "Crunch time" may also be more important than the rest of the game if players ease up when they are in the lead. In this case it seems clear that the rest/think isnt doing Yao any good. Match ups will probably be a problem but if JVGs move didnt have a potential cost, it wouldnt work.
He made similar statements on one of his 610 talks. I made a thread about it that is now a few pages back. Sometimes I wonder if the other players mostly consider using Yao as a decoy for themselves...........sometimes.
Good points. That's exactly what I am thinking. Nothing will change to those refs unless Yao is fouled out, say, in 5 of 10 games. Then let's wait and see...
Brilliant! Smart thinking by JVG. Who woulda thought, eh? I like this idea and hope JVG sticks to it, but he might not go with it too long after Yao sets record after record, such as... fastest time to foul out, only player to foul out in the first quarter, consecutive games fouled out, that sorta thing... Seriously, though, I hope JVG will go with it even if it does suck at first because eventually, it'd have to get better. Right, right? This could really bring on a significant change in his game. It'll be good to see.
I am glad he is doing this. Like he said the other way has not been working. Besides as others have said, this will put pressure on the refs to foul out Yao. Hopefully this sparks the team and Yao and we can get back on track.
I can understand a coach benching a player right after picking up too many fouls. The point is that a player should play less minutes because of foul trouble. What you normally see when Yao pick up 2 quick ones in the 1st quarter is that he sits out for the rest of the quarter. Or sitting out for the rest of 2nd quarter when he picks up 3 or 4 fouls. And Yao lots of times will end up with 20-25 minutes while picking up 4-5 fouls. That's just wrong. If Yao's playing less than 30 minutes, then it should be because he fouled out of the game. Not because he sat on the bench for too long in the middle of the game. As for the importance of "crunch time", you could be right. But the Rockets aren't exactly piling up leads game after game with Yao sitting. Generally they end up behind or be in a close game. And in the playoffs, they sure as hell isn't going to get any leads with Yao sitting on the bench for long stretches.
Thats true with all NBA players that take defense seriously. I think this is a great move by Van Gundy, Yao may foul out of some games after 16 minutes but hell, Yao will learn to stay in the game one way or another. This way, the learning curve, I believe, will produce quicker results. Stuart
