First let me put in the disclaimer that I'm speaking as a fan that mostly watches casually, in fact that's why I'm posing this question here because I thought it would help to better my enjoyment of watching Rockets games to get some more informed takes from some of the more astute/knowledgable observers here. When was the last time Yao was fronted and we had trouble getting the ball to him? From what I can remember, Doleac/Miami in the last MIA game was the last guy/team that gave Yao trouble by fronting. From watching the subsequent games, it seems like fronting defenses are no longer a problem. Is my observation correct? Have teams stopped fronting Yao lately? If so, why? My guess: Our offense is no longer pound-it-in-to-Yao. We have plays where the ball could go to either Yao or T-Mac, keeping the defense guessing, preventing them from keying on Yao. Case in point, the winning play vs. the Lakers. We ran our pet play, where we run T-Mac across the free throw line, sending his man through a Yao pick then a Juwan pick. The PG, who has the ball, has at least two options: First option, pass to T-Mac if he's managed to get open by using the Yao and Juwan picks. Second option, pass to Juwan, who pops out making himself available for the pass after setting his screen. If the PG passes to Juwan, Yao immediately posts up on the left block and calls for the ball, Juwan gets the ball to Yao. Yao's defender was not able to front because he had to hedge guard the lane because of the threat of the first option of getting the ball to T-Mac. Is this right? By running plays like these, have we finally solved the fronting problem w/ Yao? Any corrections are appreciated. My apologies if this is obvious, or if this has already been addressed in another thread.
Moomoo, Good post. I wonder if that is the case, or that it is more a matter of the teams we are playing. Some teams have more athletic Centers and PFs and those are the ones that front the most. Personally, I think that Refs have made a huge improvement recently in how they call Yao, he is getting a lot of other Centers in trouble for things they were doing early in the year and were not getting fouls called about. Either way, it is great to see the team play these days. DD
Well said... Yao still has fronting problems individually (like DD said). It depends on what teams we play. But....(like you said) we have OPTIONS that allow others to get involved when Yao is fronted. Sometimes -- and this is a designed play -- Yao will get fronted, but knowing that his defender is on the outside, will switch to the weak-side for an open shot or give and go pass. This works as long as the guy fronting stays with Yao. If someone else switches on Yao then the fronting continues (although, I've seen times that the swich is on the inside post; and Yao's no longer fronted by his new defender). I've actually seen JH pick Yao's fronting defender so that it forces a missed assignment on the switch. Also, we seen Yao allow a front, but SEAL his defender off so that Sura or Tmac can drive baseline for a lay-up/dunk! I know you've seen those, right? So, fronting has been at times used against defenders. But it requires a lot of movement on Yao's part. Physically he still has problems. But the offensive system has allowed us to open the floor for other players if Yao is not available; and Yao is still part of the play since he's setting picks sometimes off of those "fronts."
