Have to get yao more shots

You're right...We've got to get the big fella rolling.

It's been a struggle to get the ball to Yao the last few games. The passers must do a better job, but Yao also has to work on getting in good position. Kaman gave him problems last night in the paint. Pre injury Yao could do whatever he wanted against the Clippers.

Yao also needs to do a better job of hitting the offensive boards. Hopfully once he gets his quickness back we won't have to worry about Yao any more. I have a lot of faith in him.

 

there'll probably be a few more games before this happens. if the rox are in no range of catching Utah, it's time for sharpening Yao. right now, it's about home court advantage maybe.
but they need Yao at his best anyway, even with home court.

 

Be patient. Yao just doesn't have his stamina back yet. It was obviously that by 3rd quarter he was extremely tired.

Plus, he got double-teamed before he got the ball now (Suns discovered that strategy and Clippers followed it). He can break thru double team once he gets the ball, but not before he even gets the ball. His teammates have to do better to punish that strategy. O, sorry, JVG has to prepare the team to do better to punish that strategy. But, o, sorry, JVG is not know for his offensive creativity.

 

It's kind of hard when you have only one guy in your starting 5 who can create his own shot from the perimeter.

Why the perimeter? Because Yao is taking up too much space down low.

That single guy is T-Mac, and we can't have him do THAT much work each offensive possession. If Hayes can make that layup that makes the other teams PF pay for doubling Yao, then they will have to stop, but until then Yao will see double teams all day.

Rafer and Shane can't create their own shot on the perimeter and their man will still be on them because Hayes' man will be doubling Yao. T-Mac is the only offensive option then, and it's not good to bank everything on one player.

JVG doesn't have the talent on the floor to hurt teams when they double Yao, but he has to find a game plan for it.

I have a feeling we will see an adjustment in the offense within a couple games that works. Don't b**** at JVG for not finding a strategy against it yet. Give him a little more time.

 

Extra rest (taking a limited number of shots a night until his knee feels comfortable) until around playoff time will give him more momentum and energy when we will really need it. I'd hope he peaks through a 7 game series. Although T-Mac has got to be pretty tired having not played this often in the last couple years.

Is he not getting enough legs under his shot or is his release just getting Juwan-like arc again? It's too bad he's not a better pure shooter like Ray Allen. If he's saving his high risk scoring for the playoffs, the games wont be as fun to watch until then but at least we'll be watching him in the playoffs at all.

It's a pretty energy efficient system though if you're depending on defenses collapsing inside. I'd almost be as happy watching Head hitting uncontested threes and assists numbers going up, but shoot away, Yao, if you're feeling it.

 

I think our offense overall is fine with Yao in the lineup...We've scored over 100 points in the last couple of games. It's not like JVGs plan isnt working and making teams pay... We just need Yao to be a little more involved, because he needs his swagger back before the playoffs.

 

b/c we're not playing at a slow poke tempo like in the first 2 months. since yao went down, we've gone to a faster pace. since yao've been back, we still are playing somewhat at this pace. we might need to slow it down b/c obviously yao is not even a moderate tempo type of player and we should when we play teams like phoenix. we need to make them pay. but generally, our offense flows better when we are faster b/c it's more unpredictable.

 

I think we should stick with the slower tempo.

We execute in our half court sets very well...We're second in the league in threes mainly because of this. The spacing is good and Tmac and Yao are unselfish and find the open man. Once Yao starts hitting from the field again, we're going to be difficult to beat as long as we play the defense we're capable of.

Let's face it....We're not an up-tempo team. We can run if we have too, but to beat the good teams in the West we have to play our pace. We're not going to beat Phoenix, Dallas, or Utah by outscoring them. We need to stick to doing what we do best, and that's playing half court basketball.

I think we're equipped to slow games down, play great defense, and

 

The god damnit injuries ruined the chemistry this duo and the team should have had. Just imagine if only during the past two years both Yao and Tmac were healthy to play together all the games, what level of chemistry would that have been?

 

I agree with the OP. For some reason the Rockets are starting to ignore Yao in the post again. Certainly it is possible that Yao needs better conditioning to better hold down post position, but I remember at least a few times in the Clippers game when Yao had positions, but was ignored. Unfortunately Yao is less explosive than he was before, but he needs the touches to regain confidence in his moves so he can get back to where he was.

 

First thing is the brace on his knee, it has to be removed. It is limiting Yao mobility. With that thing out of the way, Yao can be explosive as he ought to be as the best center of the league. I think one more week and the black brace will be gone. Just be patient.

 

Let's be patient. His shots will come back once he gets out of his current "black hole".

I'm currently in process of translation of a few latest articles on sina.com/tom.com interviewing Yao Ming and David Macha, right after the game with LA Clippers and will post them for discussion once they are ready.

But in summary, this is what Yao Ming and David Macha had to say about Yao Ming's inconsistencies in the 6 games he played so far since coming back on court.

Yao Ming said he is currently in a black hole, as he could not find his stamina and physical strength. He was totally exhausted, completely drained of his energy right after the games with LA Clippers, that he even had difficulty to scoop down to tie the shoe laces. He said his 70-day forced rest due to his knee/leg injury had completely used up/depleted the phsysical strengths/energy reservoir he stock-piled during the summer.

He said he needs at least another 10 games or so before he can return to his competitive form and shape. But he is confident that he will get there by then.

David Macha also agreed with Yao Ming's view point, saying Yao Ming is improving day on day on his conditioning and playing at 85% of his old self, but severely lacked of physical strength, speed and stamina.

 

Well JVG know that Rockets have to get Yao more shots. It is a matter how to do it as teams are going to double team Yao before he get the ball.

The Rockets expect to see more defenses like that of the Phoenix Suns, who positioned two defenders on Yao Ming even before passes came inside, taking him from the game.
"We're facing the 'disregard Ryan Bowen' Dallas strategy with Chuck (Hayes)," Van Gundy said. "It's happened to us before. You don't want Chuck's shot opportunities going way up and Yao's way down. You're playing to the strength of the other team.

"Every team is going to start playing us similarly. We're going to have to adjust and adapt a little bit better."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4636099.html

 

I can think of at least 3 ways to get around this problem, but unfortunately right now they are all imperfect. One is we can try to get Yao to create offense off offensive rebounds, like Shaq does so well, but Yao is not great on the offensive glass. They can have Yao quick flash into the paint and have someone immediately feed him the ball, which Shaq also does with great effectiveness. Unfortunately right now the team is not in sync, I've seen Yao try this, but the ball doesn't get to him until he's been in the lane for too long and he just has to jack up a shot immediately as he gets the ball instead of dropstepping like he wants. They can also get Yao involved in P&R action, but Yao's speed and stamina are limited so running is not good for him, and the chemistry just isn't there right now between him and McGrady.

If they rely on straight post-ups, it is very hard to avoid the off-ball double teaming.

 

The problem is, Yao doesn't have his entire arsenal back yet. In fact, he doesn't even have half of it back yet.

When Yao is able to extend the range on his jump shot again to about 10-15 feet with that little turnaround he used to do, it's over.

They can't guard that, they can't even double that. Yao just needs time to work his arsenal back in. Until then he'll see the double teams as long as the other team can afford it, and sometimes when they can't.

So i'm sure JVG will morph the gameplan around this problem soon, but he needs to try out a couple different strategies first.

Just wait though, 10 more games according to Yao, and it's going to REALLY FUN to watch the Rockets again.

EDIT: Oh yeah, don't forget the brace. That's probably giving him a lot of trouble moving. I don't know if they'll take it off this season, but even if they don't, Yao will work around it. If they do...

 

I've recorded this morning's interview on 610 with Dennis Lindsey and he answers questions on Yao's re-integration. If somebody would please create a new thread for me, I'd be happy to post it.

Thread should be titled something like: [610am] Interview with Dennis Lindsey.

 

OK, I'll do it for you but it better be good

 

Once Yao stops playing like a hard-on as his playing shape/comfort level/strength improves then he will be less of a stiff in the lane. We all know he's way better than he is at the moment.

Before the injury he was demanding the ball and dunking mercilessly but this *&&%^%% has really set him back. Hopefully this is corrected by the playoffs.