1 Potential turnover is worse than 5 clanked prayers. That's your definition of smart. I am glad you call my post dumb.
Pick and Roll with AB always ended up in AB trapped at the corner with 2 long defenders got him covered - a forced prayer or someone else came to the rescue as the sideline.
Those are plays called for Yao? I thought we are talking about, even though Yao is not great nor dominant, still by far the player with best FG% on our team, so that we should call a few more plays for him? If I tell a guy how I am going to develop him and promote him with extra effort, after everyone else around him got promoted while he sits in the same cubicle, I should then proudly pat that guy and tell him - see, I told you so?
Yes. The play starts on the strong side, the Rockets are trying to enter the ball into Yao. He's the first option. The Blazers front, their weakside defenders sag, and the Rockets swing the ball to the open man. Just because Yao is the first option and he doesn't get the touch in the post, that doesn't mean the offense didn't execute properly.
How about use someone else as a decoy, and get Yao involved? How about a high-low? How about a drive and dish? We lost game 2, we barely win game 3. In the past, we have hundreds of games to prove, that Yao's scoring has a strong tie to our success. Yes, Portland is committed to shut Yao down. But that doesn't mean we should just give up. When he's doubled, we are 4-3 elsewhere, but when he's single fronted, we are still 4-4 elsewhere. If we try different ways to get him touches in those situations, it will open up for others. It's not just about Yao to get shots for the sake of it, it's about the team's better chance to win.
They should just have the PF set a screen down low for Yao at the post to open him if he's being fronted. It'll open him up to score or draw the foul. The PF can box in for a rebound and it'll open open someone to shoot the 3pt if they collapse on Yao. Why have they not run that play at all?
