?? my word! That is the poorest explanation of man D that I have ever seen. I'm simply astonished. Are you talking about football or basketball? man is just you and your man with no bigger picture? what? so, there is no switching on man d? there is no rotations on man d? there is no help defense on man d? there is no concept of help the helper? I honestly believe zone is easier to play, and that's why HS and college coaches use it more than the NBA. Because it is easier for kids to learn zones than a complicated rotational man defense that Chuck Daly invented.
Now I see what kind of an expert you are! The kind of Man D., you and your man, nothing else matters, is what you play at the park. Pros do a whole lot more than that and then some. Zone D is played in many high schools and colleges, don't tell me the players are smarter or have been together longer or have more time to work on it than the pros? There are many variations in both defenses and both can take time to learn. Maybe more important is the personnel you have to play them and the people you have to play against.
Its a simplistic explanation. The basic premise of it is that you d up on your guy and follow him thgouh whatever screen or picks they set, whereas in a zone defense, those things aren't as much a problem. Again, we have a fine defense, I said as much in my prior posts. I just think that when there is a dangerous PG and decent PF or C who can hit an outside jumper, this will kill us especially in a 7 game series. If the PG isn't blowing past Rafe to attack the rim or dish it out to the guy left open when someone steps up to pick him up, then he's picking and rolling Yao to death. We saw what happened in the New Orleans game when Jackson took those jumpers, Yao was out of the paint consistently and wound up with only 2 rebounds. Okur is a much better shooter and smarter guyw ho wil make the extra pass to a cutter once Yao is out of the post. If we don't adjust look for Yao to be a non factor defensively on a lot of possessions against Utah.
All of the problems you just mentioned would be much worse with a zone. Outside shooters would get more open looks, Yao would often be out of position for rebounds, and quick PGs would run circles around the big guy in the paint.
Outside shooters would get more looks, yes that I agree with. I disagree with everything else though as Yao would be down low in a zone and would spend more time near the paint. Yao would be out of position on man D PnR right now since the Rox like him to "show" on the switch. As for the PG in the paint, thats the point of my second point of Yao not putting the fear of a physical hit on people going into the lane. How many times did we see Chris Paul or barbosa take it right at Yao without any fear whatsoever? He goes out of his way to not hurt these guys. I'm not saying go kill someone, just lay a hard hit on them in the beginning and make them think twice.
