In the words of the infamous Doc Rocket, get the ball to Yao, get the ball to Yao and then if that doesn’t work get the ball back into Yao again. He said as much over a season and a half ago. It’s a simple strategy, dominant players draw double and triple teams and when they are double and triple teamed someone else is open. Last night I watched to many times when Alston and Bogan and even Howard where trying to create to much on there own. Yes they are getting the ball into Yao more than ever but it is still not enough. JVG needs to stop his stupid tirades b****ing at Yao and start b****ing at the rest of the team for not gettinghim the ball. How hard is it to understand the offense must go through Yao almost every position. We can win games that way. And don’t tell me we are undermanned, all the more reason to get the ball to Yao everytime down. Who do you want shooting Yao or Howard. Yao or Bogan, Yao or Alston. We have scrubs in their with Yao and we still almost beat the Spurs and we might have won had they got the ball to Yao in the beginning of the third instead of trying to create their on shots. Don’t get me wrong I am not b****ing because we lost the last two games. I am b****ing because we didn’t utilize Yao enough. Too many times he worked to get position in the post and too many times they tried to score on their on. Last night I saw several times where two players were on the same side as Yao clogging up Yao’s space and making it easier to double and triple team him. Clear the damn court out to the other side, behind the arc, hell behind the half court line, but give Yao some space. Someone has got to slap our players in the face and say wake up, Yao is the most dominant player in the game right now, yes more than Kobe or Lebron or Shaq, Noone demands the double and triple teams that Yao does and he still can’t be stopped. So anything less then getting the ball into him 90% of the time is inexcusable, make that 99%. Let him get the ball and then when he gets his triple teams and pitches it out back to his guys pitch it back to him and if he throws it back out swing it to the open man behind the arc. And don’t tell me we don’t have any 3-point shooters. Head, Alston, Brunson and even Bogan are adequate enough. And they more they shoot it the more comfortable they willget at it. Just tell them if they are wide open they better shoot the three or they are out of the game. And if they aren’t open move it back around the horn and get it back to Yao. In order for us to win games now Yao needs more touches. It took Van Gundy forever to comprehend this simple basketball rule, Players that can draw triple and double teams open the court for the other players. To his credit at least he is finally getting it although he’s still not grasping it fully. The funny thing is with all of the b****ing and complaining about Rudy’s offense being so boring and outdated, Van Gundy is attempting to copy it albeit poorly. JVG go back and watch some Rocket tape while Rudy was coach. See how hard they worked at getting the ball into Hakeem. Rudy knew if something works keep going out it until it stops. We won championships because Rudy utilized Hakeem completely and went out and picked up the right role players. When you have a dominant inside player like Hakeem and now Yao you need spot up shooters like Kenny and Elie and Horry. Come on JVG if we are going to lose let it be with our best man at the helm. Give Yao the ball and give us a fighting chance.
IMHO, they are giving Yao enough touches lately. But there were some instances last night where there were too much hesitation in the post entry pass. It seems to me the quicker you pass the ball to Yao, the quicker Yao makes his move. If you hesitate, then Yao hesitates in make his move or pass it out. I feel when our players pass it to Yao, either on the move or quick pass into the post, Yao senses that his team wants him to shoot and not pass it out. Bottom line others gotta make their OPEN shots.
How many shots do you want Yao to take last night? 25, 30, 40, or 50? In theory you can have Yao take 50 shots last night, and say that he made 25 of those we would have won. However, it will never happen in game situation. The Nuts were basically doubling him the whole second half and dared the Rockets to beat them with role players. And the Rockets role players suck as a whole. You just can not expect us to win big with only Yao or TMac along with a group of scrubs, especially in the league.
Very good observation there. THere was even a 3 sec violation because ball was not passed as expected. To the credit of Nets defense, they mixed up double-no double with Yao, and that affected our passing into the post.
What's the point of opening the court for your teammates when they cannot make shots with no defenders within 10 feet?
You don't get it. It's not the number of shots it's the number of touches. I don't care how many shots Yao takes but Yao needs more touches. Good things happen when Yao touchs the ball teams double and triple him and leave other players open, he is a great passer out of the post, they foul him and get into foul trouble, and he scores at a much higher percentage than anyone else on the team. So it just make sense to get the ball to him.
There was an instance in the 4th where Rafer had the ball near the 3 line looking down at Yao who had his man locked down relatively deep in the post in single coverage, Rafer looks at Yao for a couple seconds then drives to the lane in the middle of traffic and then proceeds to clank a shot. That pissed me off. Yao is the best offensive option we have on our team including T-Mac if Yao is being covered 1 on 1, and then Rafer thinks hes MJ and challenges the whole of the Nets interior D.
We had Barry but Van Dummy couldn't see that's exactly what the team needed and got rid of him. But even with the players we have if you just demand that they shoot, You give them the greenlight you will see an improvement. If they are open they have to shoot it's as simple as that. Yao works to hard to break down the defense and if a player is wide open they have to shoot. If they can't make it then fire them and get someone else. People who can hit wide open 3's are not as hard as you think to acquire. Once you tell them that is their role and they cannot pass up an open 3 unless someone is more open. Posey is tops in the league at 3 pointers and the Rockets just let him go.
Precisely what I saw! There was another instance where Yao was right near the basket and instead of Bogans dishing the ball he tries to make the basket- and guess what happened? Van gundy even benched Rafer- in the San Antonio game- for not passing the ball to Yao ( and he has strange ways of showing that by inserting RyBO!). The funny thing is if you look at stats without watching the game- Jho, Dwes and Rafer look great. But if you see what happens and how momentum changes- it is obvious stats dont mean a thing.
I kind of agree with getting Yao more touches. With rest of the team shooting under 30%, you would think Yao should got more touches than he did from last night.
Even if they want to get the ball to him, they simply can't... with the execption of Rafer, they do not have the caliber to pass the ball to Yao effectively... You don't want to get a turnover right away since Yao has been constantly double and triple teamed. Opponents already know that the rest of the team only shoot bricks...
The problem is that most of our players can't make a simple outside shot. This allows the other team to easily sag in on Yao. So Yao is virtually double teamed before getting the ball. Even if he makes a good passout to the open man, that man (*cough* Bowen) cann't make the outside shot. We need players like Robert Horry who can drain the three and make good entry passes.
JVG thinks 3 point shooting is a myth. Thats why he lets go of anyone on the team who can shoot the 3...Mike James, Padgett, Barry.... Thats also why he never designs plays to guard other team's 3 point shooters. We are getting raped both ways, front and back.
Everyone seems to agree the problem is that other player couldn't make the shots, which in terms make it hard for Yao to get ball to operate. I think the bad shooting is not simply just the guys inability to make the shots. Anyone who makes this far to NBA has talent, I'm sure they make majority of their shots during the practice. Guys can have a bad shooting night, but when they consistently shoot badly game after game, then there is more to look at than guys missing open shots. Many of us here have played competitive organized game, and we all know shooting is mostly a rhythm thing. You can make the shots during the practice, or shoot around because you are comfortable, you have your rhythm going for you. However, the game situation is different, the opposition will try to disrupt your rhythm, make it hard to shoot comfortably. My impression of the Rockets is that our system doesn't have much a flow within it, which makes it hard to get into rhythm to shoot the ball. I think it's a combination of players' inability of getting comfortable, and the system's flaw to get the players into their comfortable postion to shoot. There is a reason most of our players have a worse career shooting % now.
BINGO!!! JVG's players struggle from the field because he disrupts his own players rhythm. Its funny how scrubs go to Phoenix and all of a sudden they are lighting it up from everywhere when they are left wide open. Its psychology. They have been given green light to shoot from their coach and he wont yell at them if they goof up. Its a free flowing game. In Houston, everytime a player does something, he has to think twice about it. Players are trying more to rememeber the set plays everytime instead of just playing freely. No rhythm = brickmania.
You're wrong, OldManRock. The problem is that we don't have anybody else on the floor who can shoot. Look at last night's game - in 35 minutes, Bogans (a starter) was 1 - 12 and scored 2 points. Two lousy points in the whole game. Juwan Howard was 3-13 in 31 minutes. Altogether, Bogans, Howard, and Head (three of our five starters) combined for a whopping 20 points. From three starters!!! Throw in a lousy 7 points TOTAL from our bench and it's pretty clear what our problem is. Bogans, Howard, Head, Bowan, Brunson, Swift and Hayes (that's seven players) combined for 27 points. They were 11 - 46 for 24% shooting (they missed 35 shots!). That's is absolutely aweful. Yao's getting a LOT of touches now. But he can't do it on his own. He has to get help from someone else. Remember when T-Mac played for Orlando and scored 60+ points? The Magic lost that game. You can put the ball in the hands of a hot player and let him score all night, but if the other players can't play worth a damn, you're gonna lose.
I'd rather have Yao get the ball at the top of the key and shoot jumpers all night then watching brick after brick by our guards. Seriously - I think Yao could have shot at a better clip from the outside than those guys last night.
No. No. No. Read my post. The answer isn't for Yao to score more. The answer is for our other players to actually make their shots instead of throwing bricks.
Yao made 90% of the FTs last night. Cannot imagine that he shot worse than 28% from the top of the key, even on a bad day.
