Sometimes I feel like some comments on ClutchFans imply that the rest of the guys can just be faceless role players as long as they defer to Yao Ming. This is the Houston Rockets, not the Houston Yao Ming. The apocolypse isn't going to occur if the team figures out how to play TEAM ball. The Earth wont swing out of orbit, the sun will still rise, and the grass will still grow. We NEED more team involvement. We wonder why we can't solve Yao being fronted... It's because basketball is a team sport. Guys should still be looking for their shots. AB, Artest, Wafer, and Scola all become confused and grip the ball too hard in the 4th because if Yao Ming doesn't get the ball, the sky is falling. You can see it in the way they hesitate before they do anything. We need to get OUT of that mindset We need to play naturally. Once the offense flows more naturally, a good pass to Yao Ming will just be an effect. This post was not an attack at you, it just happened to incite some old opinions.
I thought some of those layups were made easier because a big man had been effectively taken outside of the paint when trying to front Yao. This is how you hurt a team for fronting...swing the ball quickly and take it inside!
If a fronting defense by anybody can take Yao out completely, Rockets won't go too far in playoffs. The team's offense goes as Yao goes, I know we just beat Spurs, but that is mainly because of defense. Allow 81 points will win you a lot games, but score 83 points will lost you a lot games too. A championship team will need to be great at both ends. If the fronting problem can't be solved to a certain degree, the offense won't look too good. No team with their most effective offensive weapon taken out of the game will look too good on offense.
We scored 83 points because San Antonio is a good defensive team, it has nothing to do with the fact that they fronted Yao. However, they front Yao and we get 4-5 easy baskets in crunch time... you can't deny the coincidence.
Until that San Antonio game the Rockets had struggles late in games when the other teams fronted. It started turning around prior to that, but I honestly think San Antonio was surprised at what took place when they started fronting him.
From the Chron: Now, it says we made 3 of our next 12 shots, so we did struggle with the fronting defense. But it goes on to basically agree with what I said. The fact that they were fronting Yao meant no help defense on drives to the basket. Usually, Lowry can't just up and drive to the basket at will because even if he gets past his guy, the guy in the middle will rotate over. The guy in the middle was on the wing trying to front Yao. And if you rotate off of Scola's guy, Scola can catch a pass on the run and get the easy layup or be wide open on the wing for a jump shot.
Agreed! Swing the ball fast to the weak side when they front Yao and drive it in for an easy lay up! That's how teams will pay for fronting Yao.
Thats just one of the ways, and it only works when you have a guy like Parker that isn't this stellar defender. I've seen them get Scola an open shot at the FT line when Yao was fronted. Also, I remember seeing a play where Battier was trying to lose his guy by running in circles around Yao (the play eventually got broken up). It made me think.. I wonder if running a guy to the corner and using Yao as a screen would work. Because if the screen works, the guy fronting Yao is going to be the closest guy to contest the shot. If he contests the shot, then Yao is open right under the basket. If he doesn't contest the shot, then the screener has a wide open corner 3. If they successfully rotate to prevent both from happening, then Yao SHOULD have position in the post. And again, now that I think about it, maybe thats what they were trying to do with Battier running around Yao in that one play that got broken up. Perhaps not get an open 3, but Battier might've had an open cut to the basket... and again, Yao's guy can't help because hes on the other side.
Fronting can be defeated by an accurate lob by a point guard, but I doubt Lowry or Brooks is skillful enough to lob it or Yao is athletic enough to chase it down.
Maybe we'll see this with a combo Aaron/Lowry guard setup with Aaron coming off the pick for the baseline J a la Reggie Miller/Ray Allen. T-Mac was our best shooter coming off the pick, though Artest has hit a few of those recently. He seems to do better just catching and shooting..
Defeated? I highly doubt it. They denied Yao the ball all game long. Basically a non factor till the last moments of the 4th. That is a sign that fronting defense worked.
The whole Battier thing got me thinking about cuts to the basket too. Movement generally defeats fronting defense. If you can get something going to the basket... again Yao's man can't help. Pick and roll with Scola might work. Or some kind of screen/back cut move with one of our wing guys.
You can take anyone out of the game that you want. You could take Kobe out of the game by "fronting" Kobe, and doubling him every time he has the ball to force it out of their hands. But when you do that you give up something (an extra guy to defend/rotate on someone else). We've pretty much nailed down the fact that when teams front Yao, they lose the ability to rotate off of him and defend a guy that cut/drives to the basket.
You actually have 2 different plays here. This 1st play is when a player comes from the weak side and use Yao as pick, we usually have that guy curl up toward the top, this happens when the ball is at the top of the key. It works sometimes. Our guy usually does not run to the corner in this play because there is not enough separation from the defender plus if you run to the corner, you have to catch the ball, turn around 180% to get the shot off, not easy. There is a little snag here too because Yao has to face the basket/ the defender to be able to set an effective screen. If Yao faces the basket, his own defender would not front him, which means he is still closer to the basket than Yao. This is a different play when the ball is on the wing with a PG, Battier starts from the strong side corner, run past Yao as screen to the basket. From this angle, the PG can not pass him the ball. If he wants to pass to cutter, the PG needs to be closer to the top of the key.
Good point. In the time that Battier would get turned around, his guy would be on him. Although, Artest could screen off Yao and get an open shot. He's can make that shot. If his defender catches up to him, Artest still has his dribble and he can make a move to the basket, where again... Yao's man won't be in position to rotate. Yeah... we need to get Battier some scoring cutting to the basket. No reason to not take 3-4 seconds to try that out. If the play isn't there, move on to your next play.
