How are we going to address our deficiencies against perimeter orientated bigs??

Isn't that when you start playing zone? Have the smalls guard the perimeter and Yao play the. How did Lakers do it when they had Shaq?

I'm hoping something is really wrong with Yao (i.e. still not 100%) because he is looking awful right now not even a shell of his former self, like just last year. Anyone have any ideas?

 

We got Ron and Chuck!I don't know what was Adelman thinking recently that he put Chuck out of rotation which was unbelivable!!We could have used Wafer too but coach was donkey stubborn !!

 

they never addressed screen and roll Thats why guys like small guys like Troy Hudson, Mike Bibby, Damon Stoudamire, Iverson, Tony Parker, Billups, etc have always lit us up. We've always tried pressuring in the backcourt to suck up the shotclock and disrupt the opposing team into running their offense during crunch time

 

When I brought up names like tim thomas, sean williams, rony turiaf, chris anderson and guys like that, you know what many on this board said? We don't need anymore 4/5. We're stacked with scolandry,hayes and dorsey. We need to bring deke back. Those guys I mentioned, what do they have in common? They're all 6'10, atheletic, and multi positional. The problems that the rox have and they will continue to have is they have no versitility. Yao and Deke are lumbering types. Scolandry and hayes are all undersized and redundant of each other. So when the rox play a team with perimter big guys, they can't morph by lineups to matchup. So even with Yao, who is a lumbering paint type, his partner in crime can't defend the other perimeter big either. So now both guys are getting exposed. If you bring in the best perimter defender of the 3, now you've killed any offensive flow. I've been b****ing, and people keep telling me to be quiet. Well, we see what happens.

 

use ron artest.

or tracy mcgrady. oh wait..

 

Morey's answer: Sign Deke.

 

Shaq fouled them all out because he played physical.

 

It happened in the playoffs the last time they faced each other. Height is totally overrated when it comes to 1-on-1 defense on the perimeter. Ever watch Joe Dumars defend?

Too simplistic. You should add general basketball IQ on the defensive end. And we should distinguish different types of "speed". Some guys run from one end of the court to the other really fast -- you like to call them "greyhounds", I believe. Some other guys are really good moving their feet in a half court defensive set, and that includes making the proper coverages in a team defensive context. Lateral quickness, communication, and anticipation all come into play there. Having end to end speed doesn't imply all the rest.

Often a perimeter shooting big is getting his shot off a PnR. That means you need a defender who employs the proper technique defensively, will communicate with his teammates, etc. In the grand scheme of things, height means very little. If you can close out on the shooter and get a hand up in his face, that's enough to impact the shot. You're clamoring for guys with more height, but if you're sacrificing defensive IQ, speed, lateral quickness, and good instincts for it than you're not necessarily doing yourself a favor.

And, again, the problem here is Yao's inability to guard away from the basket. Unless you're asking for Morey to replace Yao with a player who has your requisite height and speed, we're always going to have one front court player on the floor who can't guard jump shooters. As usual, you're trying to fit our weaknesses into your "$Ball is the root cause of all our problems" theory. I just don't see how that's applicable here.

 

this is how you address the issue.

 

We both know that Yao is going to be playing the majority of the game. That's the problem. But setting aside that, let's focus on the "partner in crime". Please tell me why you think Tim Thomas, Sean Williams, Rony Turiaf, Chris Anderson, etc. would be better at guarding perimeter bigs than Scola, Landry, or Hayes? Tim Thomas I can see, maybe, because he's played a lot of minutes at SF during his career. But the rest?

Landry is the worst of our three in guarding perimeter bigs. And it's not because he lacks athleticism or the ability to get in the air and contest jump shots. It's because he makes too many mistakes and he doesn't understand the nuances of team defense yet.

 

Durvasa- You know your my man, but I disagree with the height thing. This is basketball, not baseball or soccer. Height, does matter a lot as well as speed,agility, and recognition. It all counts. What I've said 4-eva is they have no way of adjusting because of the lack of versitility.

We know yao will struggle with mobile type as did Hakeem had trouble against Seattle when they had Perkins and Brickoski shooting 3's, but what really hurts is Yao not punishing their interior defense and no one making up for his shortcomings defensively. Once teams pull yao away from the basket, they have no one that can react and protect the basket. That's why in trade scenerios I like Camby and in the summer I liked Turiaf,anderson, and williams from nj. If the rox had anyone of thoe 4 instead of either scola or landry, then they would be a better defensive team against those out on the floor types. If they had a guy like tim thomas who can put the ball on the floor from the perimeter, then he could help negate a guy like barginaini because he could get by him or shoot the 3. Styles make fights and the way houston is constructed, they can only fight 1 way.

 

Height does matter a lot. It matters for interior defense and rebounding. It matters for finishing strong at the basket. It matters for getting shots off over the defender. It matters for being able to see the court and make passes over the defense.

And, you know what, all things being equal it would help for perimeter defense too. But, unfortunately, all things aren't equal. If you give up a little height, you can often make a lot of gains elsewhere. And what you want is the most effective players, overall. When we're talking about perimeter defense, I think height happens to matter a lot less compared to other attributes. If you can stick to a guy, take away his air space, and get a hand up in his face when he takes the shot, you've done your job as a perimeter defender.

 

I remember a certain play where Yao had low post position on Barganani(sp), and he bumped him and Barganani stood still (like he wasn't even hit) and Yao ended up fading away for a shot. I mean come on man! Give a hard bump and go up strong big man!

 

That's true to a point, but honestly when a guy is 5" taller, you can't really contest his shot unless you have very long arms or you get off the ground quick. Just like in the 94 finals and they played Mason and oakley on dream so ewing could be weakside shot blocker, dream said I can turn and shoot on them all day. He said its like a layup. Scola , Landry and Hayes are try hard short guys for their position. Chuck will always get his hands up while scolandry doesn't so much. Scola lacks footspeed to stay in front of agile players, and sometimes landry goes for punp fake.So when guys get around them on the perimeter and yao is upper ft line, there is a path to the rim. When the reverse happens and yao is out of his confort zone in the paint, it doesn't have to be a dribble drive for a buckets, it can be a pass going to the bucket. When that happens, who can contest the shot at the basket.

When u talk about camby,turiaf,anderson, and even williams, you're talking about mobile,quick reacting,shot blockers. Now camby is probably a dream and hard to aquire because the clipps are having frontline injury issues, but turiaf,anderson were availible. When I was talking of letting Landry walk or trading scola, I was doing so in context of giving this team some versitile atheleticsim. I mean when Turiaf started for the lakers and playing 30 mins a night, he was 10-6-2.25 blks. He's big enough to play center and quick enough to guard 4's. Anderson for as crazy as he is, he's 5ppg,5rebs, and 2.5 blks in 16 mins. Now many will scoff at that for both he and rony and I've heard how people claim camby is overrated, but what those guys can do is guard a big away from the basket and protect the basket.They can all play with yao and sub for yao, but there was a idea replicate the same type of players. That was a problem then and has been a problem. Yao isn't the problem, the problem is the guys alongside of him.

 

need to switch and have your guards, ahem...Mcgrady, make the effort to hustle over and contest the three. You cant expect a lumbering giant to run out on three's.

 

ZONE!

 

The Lakers had the same troubles defensively when Shaq was playing, and this was when there was Zone defense so Shaq really had to run around. But no one notices because he punished them on the other end. The solution is that if Yao's abilities on offense would be the equalizer. No matter how good of a jump shooter the PF is and how much of trouble Yao has guarding those guys, a shot under the basket is much higher percentage than a jump shot. In the Utah series, Yao shot 44% and averaged 4.7 turnovers. I'm gonna say that's a outlier bad series for Yao (I hope) and that in the playoffs, his offense will more than offset opposing perimeter big.