[HOUSTON CHRONICLE] Rafer Alston: "Yao should have had 50 points tonight."

We all know the importance of McGrady to the team, but do you have to bring him up in every single one of your posts even if it is not directly relevant to your man?

Yao plays well, team looses. ShadyMcGrady: Yao can't carry the team like T-Mac

Yao plays well, team wins. ShadyMcGrady: Yao played well but he is still no McGrady, imagine if McGrady was playing...

Our role players shoots bad. ShadyMcGrady: They can't shoot like McGrady (obviously ), we need McGrady

Discussion about why Yao has improved. ShadyMcGrady: Because McGrady entrusted Yao to lead the team, but we still need McGrady

Yao cures cancer. ShadyMcGrady: McGrady's lazy eyes gives Yao magical power in doing so, but he still needs to team up with McGrady to cure AIDS.

Obviously the last one was sarcastic, but I agree with wnes, your love for McGrady is a bit too much especially when you have to put the rest of the team and Yao down in order to prop him up.

-G'day-

 

Getting the ball to Yao's hands can be addressed over the time. Head hesitates even a lot more to post and re-post Yao, probably due to his inability to make a post pass. The only thing he could do is bounce pass, and once that is not available, he'll fake the pass for 5 seconds then shoot a 3. The biggest problem I am having with our guards, especially Rafer, is, that every single screen Yao set for them was wasted. He will have his first step, gets open, and dribbles back. I understand he tries to drive to the rim, but once that option is not available (most of the times), Yao's screen is simply wasted. Why can't he just pop up a midranger jumper, as Sam always does? So is Head, I never see them try a short or midranged jumper, only desperate 3s. Eric Snow is a bad shooter, he knows that, he never tries 3, even he's open. He would get a step or two closer to shoot his ugly 2, but with a high percentage. What's up with those bricks? Can't they shoot a 2 instead? Since when basketball becomes so boring, you are only allowed to shoot 3 or dunk?

Jumpers and freethrows can be improved by practicing. I just don't see any improvement.

 

Funny how Alston can lament about not getting Yao the ball AFTER the game is over but seems to forget all about Yao when the game is going on. Maybe, JVG should have pasted a "Pass the damn ball to Yao!" note on the ball at the beginning of the 3rd period to help him to remember.

 

Do the players not learn? Seriously! It should take ONE, just ONE game where the team doesnt get Yao involved, see the result and LEARN from that. After that moment they should NEVER, EVER resort back to not getting him the ball. It should be programmed in their mind. Throw the ball to Yao. If he throws it back to you, you then let him "re-post" and throw it back. If Yao doesnt have the shot again then you can think about perhaps shooting or driving. But everytime down the court Yao has to get that ball. Especially with the unit we have on the floor right now.

I am getting tired of players lamenting not getting Yao the ball when it shouuld be obvious!

 

That's why he openly lobbied for the Rockets head coach position 2 years ago but somehow Les decided to go cheap.

 

2 years ago the job wasn't open, as Van Gundy was the coach and among the very highest paid coaches in the NBA. So yeah - "cheap"

There's also little evidence that Jackson, all talk aside, is willing to do anythign besides hang out in LA and bang the bosses daughter. I wouldn't be surprised if that talk was more aimed at laker-fan wet dreams of Yao going to LA.

 

Actually, this kind of stuff happened on the Shaq-Kobe Lakers as well.

Shaq would be on his way to a monster game and suddenly his team (read: Kobe) would stop passing the ball to him.

Of course, when Kobe freezes out Shaq, he is trying for his own 40 point game. When RA forgets to pass to Yao, RA is on his way to a 16 point performance (if he's lucky).

 

i don't think that is the reason for yao's jeckle and hyde performances. no team starts the game with a tripple team on yao, or even a double team. yao scores at will one-on-one. in fact, he has said (and proven) to be comfortable scoring over a double team as well.

after a first half where he scores 20 points through a double team the opposing team decides to tripple team him and force others to score. sometimes they double and tripple team him before he can even catch the ball. he still manages to score 10 points, sometimes 15 through this, but of course he cannot repeat his first half performance since the defese has adjusted to stop him.

our main problem is that with tmac out there is no perimeter scoring. with tmac in the game, yao cannot be tripple teamed for fear of tmac being left open or even one-on-one. another problem is that even with tmac in we don't have enough shooters.

the key for next season is tmacs health and adding shooters.

 

I see your point of view but you must also consider the opposite might also be true. Yao Ming having scored well in the first half doesn't want to seem greedy and defers to his team mates rather than demanding that the ball be passed to him. This is more likely the truth of the matter as I have often seen him deliberately move away from the play to avoid receiving the pass.
But I agrree that Yao Ming overall does not get enough touches, especially from our playmaking point guard. Possibly with more quality players, Yao Mings contribution will improve.

 

so the pass first pg didn't keep getting yao the ball. interesting.

 

Yao should be like Dream back then IF YOU DONT PASS HIM THE BALL when he has position


B*tch them out at the next timeout and let them KNOOO!!


"PASS ME THE Fking BALL!!"

 

So you are saying after trained so hard to overcome all the double teams throwed on him , Yao have to deal with triple teams now? I guess when he finally learned how to overcome all pentuple teams, Yao will be able to carry the Rockets to win games.

Tough luck for Yao.

 

Enough with the overreading. Look at the whole quote again. Jackson wasn't trying to praise Yao. He was trying to goad Brown.

 

Heh, I love it. Jedi Zen-Master Mind Tricks!

 

This is a classic example that talk is cheap.

 

Same old story. Same old Van Gundy personality coming out of the players.


This team and its coach this season is pathetic.

All they do is talk about problems and never make adjsutments. Just like that coach of theirs.

 

Do we need PJ to tell us before we know? Amen!

 

I agree with RA. Much of the blame for the 3rd quarter falls on Luther Head, who started to jack up shots, sometimes before Yao had even crossed half court. It's understandable since he was getting destroyed by Kobe on national TV. Hopefully someone talks to him and he learns to stay within the offense, even when Kobe is embarrasing him.

 

One thing I notice is that Yao started to give more comments on how Rockets should play in his post-game comments recently. Like in a few games back he mentioned when he threw the ball out, the guard could re-post him, shoot the ball or drive to the basket, they are all good but they have to make the decision fast. I don't recall he did that before. I think it is another subtle improvement he has made since he came back from surgery.

 

I dont think it's the greed that our mimis didnt want to pass the rock to Yao in the 3rd. They just gave up too easily. They need to realize that they are no where near a half starter on any other contending teams. Until Bogans can prove he can finish a layup or Head can knock down a running jumper 50% of the tome, they need to keep their azz moving and upsetting about not finding Yao. To them they need to realize that feeding Yao is a at worst +1 point compare with their shooting in the whole game. JVG or someone needs to let that group know where their shots are. Bogans going to the hole, bad. Him shooting wide open 3, good, even he is not a good shooter, but he will take that. Head cross over shooting jumper, bad. Head feet set shooting open J, good. And Rafer needs to quit playing angry, maybe that's too much to ask.