Familiar Problem Returns w/ Yao: Fronting the Post

What yao really needs to do is adjust his game to his physical condition. That's what jordan did in his old years where he learned the spin fadeaway moves that were impossible to stop. He's playing the same way he was as if he was his peak which led to his expected poor performance. He was doing spin moves and drives to the hoop when he should have been less physical and more finesse moves like using hook shots or finding positions to do short range jumpers rather than banging inside with dwight or gortat.

 

PF with range
Attacking the basket
Problem Solved

 

If we reduce Yao's minutes to 24, it reduces the problem to only 2 quarters. If we take him out of the 2nd game of every back to back set, there is no problem at all in those games.

 

Yao was never aggressive enough to fight through a front to catch the lob and then dunk the ball. Hell, he spent every year under Rudy T and JVG shooting layups 2ft from the basket. The Rockets now have the ability to shoot outside and slash inside and play-off the ball. Never had that in the T-Mac Yao ear. When TMac or Yao had the ball everyone just stood around and was painfull to watch our only other shooters (Battier and Head) come up short.

The current team has more similarities to the championship Rockets. They can shoot outside, shoot off screens, they can slash, run the court and play team defense, all with the best defensive center in the game.

 

Reading quotes of Dwight discussing fronting brought back bad memories of Yao being taken out of games offensively because of it.

Dwight almost seems to relish the idea of teams resorting to this strategy.

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/news-and-notes-asik-returns

very encouraging

 

Yeah Yao's legs probably weighed about 80 pounds each. He wasn't very fleet footed. The Dwightmare is a whole different animal in this respect. He can move.

 

Actually, I find the situations MUCH, MUCH different. For much of last season, with the Harden/T-Mac comparison, I said I thought T-Mac was the better player, but Harden was the better fit with Yao(hypothetically of course) because he attack the basket. And you saw this in the preseason. When Howard gets his fronting and in general drew the defense, the Rockets punished the other team by getting to the basket.

So is there still the issue with entry passes? Of course. But in term of offense, the Rockets are MUCH, MUCH more equipped to deal with Howard's attention. Think about this. The Rockets had Tearbrick Rafer, 20 footer T-Mac, and 3-and-D phenom Battier with Yao. Now with Dwight, the Rockets have Harden, Lin, and Parsons all capable of attacking the rim at any given moment.

I do understand that over the course of the season, you gotta feed the big guy so he'll try hard on defense. And if we operate a little less efficently, I don't mind. But when it comes to the playoffs, and teams are fronting/semi-doubling him from behind? It's going to be layup drill every time down the court.

 

I started off a YOF, the year he was drafted. Now I'm a diehard Rockets fan.

 

Tmac stopped driving because Yao was in the way....he didn't even allude to this, he outright stated it. Yao would have been much better suited to someone like Kobe, with his high % jumper everywhere except around the left block. T-macs blow by was a sight to behold, his jumper not so much, whereas Kobe is happy to live on a diet of 18 foot jumpers.

Dwight is much better for Harden, and would have been for Tmac as well, because his speed means his defender needs to always worry where he is.

 

You obviously don't remember Tracy like I do. He would live on the jumper, he just wasn't that good at it. He avoided the rim after his back injuries like the plague.

 

T-Mac Jump shot % of his total FGA by year, as far back as I can go based on basketball reference.

2002(Orlando) 66%
2003(Orlando) 80%
2004(Orlando) 80%
2005(Houston) 84%
2006(Houston) 79% Suffered yet another injury
2007(Houston) 88%
2008(Houston) 88%

T-Mac stopped driving to the basket even back in Orlando when he had no bigs. Perhaps he just stopped caring, perhaps it was injury related. But whatever it is, it's definitely NOT because of Yao Ming. If he said, then he was basically making an excuse, which wouldn't be anything new.

 

In 02-3, he got fouled a lot (by far the highest of his career), as a byproduct of his relentless attacking.

In 03-4, let's just say we aren't the only team who complained he quit on.