Reggie Miller certainly did not get paid what T-Mac gets paid and along the way, the Pacers assembled a very very good cast of role players. Del Davis and Antonio Davis made for an imposing front line that could score from either wing or center position. They also defended very well. Miller forced opposing teams to defend him because he was so deadly from 3 point land. Derrick McKey and Travis Best were very good role players but about the same as our Battier and Alston. We don't have the Forwards like that Pacers team nor do we have the deadly outside shooting. We have in fact one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA. Pacers Eastern Conference Champions 2000 - record and players on the way to the championship. 1997-98 The Pacers selected Larry Bird to coach the team in 1997-98 and they posted a new franchise record, finishing 58-24--a dramatic 19-game improvement from the previous season. Chris Mullin joined the team in the offseason and immediately became a valuable part of the Pacers lineup-- and their starting small forward. Assistant coaches Rick Carlisle, in charge of the offense, and Dick Harter, who coached the defense, were key in getting the most out of the Pacers' role players such as Dale Davis, Antonio Davis and Derrick McKey. Reggie Miller and Rik Smits both made the All-Star team that year, and in the playoffs, the Pacers breezed past the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks before falling to the Chicago Bulls in an epic seven-game Eastern Conference Final. 1998-2000 In the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, the Pacers won the Central Division with a 33-17 record and swept the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers before falling to the New York Knicks in a six-game Eastern Conference Finals series. The Pacers traded popular forward Antonio Davis to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for first-round draft choice Jonathan Bender, which remains to this day a subject of controversy among Pacers fans. But in the Playoffs, after a 56-26 regular season, the Pacers survived the upset-minded Bucks in round one, handled the 76ers in the second round and finally broke through to the NBA Finals by virtue of a six-game East Finals victory over the New York Knicks.
It shouldn't be a mystery how to "build around Yao." You just take the 50+ win Rockets rosters of the past couple of seasons, and improve on the clear problem areas: Point Guard: Someone who's not utterly incompetent at running the offense. He doesn't need to be Jason Kidd or Steve Nash (and their fast break style doesn't even suit Yao), he just needs not to be a complete idiot. As problematic as Rafer is, +/- numbers show that the team has dropped off when he's not on the floor. The PG on this team also needs to be a deadeye 3pt shooter, because he'll get a ton of those shots. Shooting Guard: The team already has this one position set, with T-Mac. T-Mac is not the ideal superstar wing player, becuase of all his ill-advised long jumpers and inefficient scoring. However, when comparing strengths and weaknesses to other teams, T-Mac is definately a strength. Just not as much of a strength as say, Kobe or Dwyane Wade. Small Forward: Deadeye 3pt shooter. Like the PG, he'll be getting a ton of open long shots off of Tracy and Yao being double-teamed. Power Forward: Offense doesn't need to be anything special, because of Yao. However, he does need to be offensively competent, both in efficiency and the in the ability to put up a decent number of shots. Ideally he can score with a mid-range jumper to space Yao, but also be able to take it inside (since even good jumpshooting is low efficiency compared to layups). Defense and rebounding needs to be good, because of all the good PFs in the West. Juwan Howard had the jumpshooting, but nothing else. Hayes brings the rebounding, defense, and high-efficiency inside shots, but also rarely shoots and can't stay on the floor because of his tendency to foul. Center: Yao, of course. Somewhere among the PG, SF, and PF positions, there needs to be a true third scorer. Not just an efficient jumpshooter, but someone who can create his own shot and put up an above-average number of FGAs and make them. The team's weakness on offense is that the opponents don't really respect anyone other the T-Mac and Yao. When the stars are off, or when the 3pt shots aren't sinking, this team's offense is ugly.
i totally agree with you, but sorry pal, your trade suggestion is not realistic. i'd like a package of M.Redd and C.V. for the former is a excellent shooter and penetrater.
I think you can build around Yao the same way you build around Pierce-- by adding Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Yep, that should work. More realisticall, though, the Rockets first priority would be to sort out McGrady's situation-- get him healthy and, if he is indeed unhappy, find a way to get him right mentally and buying in. He is too good to waste. The second thing I'd do would be to pull out all stops to try and land Ron Artest, either this season or this offseason (Ron will be a free agent). Out of all the free agent stars this offseason, Ron Artest is the only one who may be crazy enough to actually accept an MLE-type contract (there is also a S/T possibility if the Rockets are willing to give them a pick and filler contracts). I would also look for good 3 point shooters at every position. Spacing has been an issue all season. If the Rockets can actually surround Yao with 4 guys who can punish you with 3 pointers, it should put a stop to some of the heavy attention he receives. I don't really knwo what other established stars the Rockets can realistically get. However, there are some more minor but still significant moves out there. I'd fill the roster with another significan big man (Kurt Thomas? Nick Collison?) since all three of our main bigs are prone to foul trouble. I would also look for a large PG who can bang the likes of Baron Davis around a bit even if they do score. Rafer and AB are both too skinny and are not good for banging.
We already have the personnel, except for shooting guard. Brooks breaks down the defense, shoots well, and is a good passer. A platoon of him and Rafer is plenty good enough. Scola and Landry are the answer at PF. Scola continues to get better. Has a nice 12 foot jumper and is a great offensive rebounder. Landry with experience will be the same. He has an even better shot than Scola and is a good rebounder. Battier is a good shooter and decent defender at SF. I think he struggles with his shot when he feels pressured to be the 3rd scorer. Yao. The problem is at SG. We either need Mcgrady to go to the hole consistently or we need to trade him for someone who will. If one of those two things can't happen then we will have to find a sharp shooter for head, bonzi, etc. Head, Snyder, Bonzi, and Hayes can make up a good bench. We solve our SG problem or we are first round fodder at best for the next 2 years.
I made that Rik Smits reference earlier and people thought I was crazy. I agree with you that David Lee would be a great fit in our system but I fail to see how we can get him without trading away another one of our pieces. To the op who started the thread.... HOW IS ALLEN IVERSON going to make us better? He takes more bad shots and is way more of an isolation player then Tmac ever wil be? If you said, chris paul, deron williams, nash - fine.... throwing in allen iverson indicates that you know or watch very little basketball..
Yao is a horrible comparison to Shaq. In his prime, if you fronted Shaq, they anyone (particularly Rick Fox) would just throw Shaq a reverse lob for an easy dunk. Yao is limited by his quickness and by fronting him and playing behind him completely negates his height. THe rules regarding ZONE defense in todays NBA makes the matter worse for Yao. If you don't think Yao is a jumpshooter -you're either blind or don't understand what a jumpshooter is... Lets examine his 3 favorite moves.. a: Yaos main move to the left is a fadeaway jumper. He does this constantly from the left baseline - or at least much more so then his up and under move to the basket. b: catches on the right baseline and shoots quickly with a turnaround. c: his hook shot in the lane. As somebody else indicated in a post... Yao shoots 51% of his shots as jumpshots. Do you think Shaq or even Dwight Howard comes even close to that?
WE need Ellie, Hory, Smith, Drexler, Maxwell, Cassell!!!!!!!!! SEE THE DIFFERENCE TO WHAT WE HAVE KNOW????????
How to build around Yao? Add 1 t-mac. With T-mac, Yao shooting = 53% Without T-mac, Yao Shooting = 39%
I think Deron Williams Hedo Turkoglu Bruce Bowen Udonis Haslem Yao Ming Will do great as a team, a lot off the ball players and a great PG to go along with Yao probably i would insert a Manu Ginobili or Jason Terry to spark us off the bench. That is in no way a high payroll team.
I think we need two types of players to complment Yao/TMac: 1. PG/SF/PF who can either consistently shoot 3 pointers or penetrate. My impression is that in many Rockets victories they shoot 3-pointer pretty well (in other words, inside-out was good). 2. PF/SF who can protect defensive rebounds (Hayes is OK but not good enough). We're burned in offensive rebounds in so many games that we lost (for example, last minutes in game 7 vs Jazz). Yao's not good at protecting defensive rebounds in clutch time when he's worn out. I think Rocket management has been trying to solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, what they've got are players like washed-up MJ and SF.
i think most of your point are right on. to me the main problem is the 1 position. battier should be fine if, and only if, he shoots his 3's more confidently and posts up when he has a mismatch. scola will eventually replace hayes as the starting 4 and for the most part he fits the description you put out there. the real problem is the pg, which imo has always been the 2nd most difficult position to fill in general after the 5 spot (and even that is due to real good bigs are more rare). we don't necessarily need an allstar pg, but one with more decent shooting % AND slashing ability. if we keep mcgrady, our pg does not even have to be a great assist man; he just has to be able to control the pace of the game in our favor a bit. now here is the real question. ideally who should be our pg amongst active nba-ers? i can't think of an ideal one for the moment. billups? iverson? bibby? but these are all allstar-caliber pg's.
Exactly. The way I look at it, we need athletic slashers around Yao, instead of stand still one dimensional shooters. Screw the inside outside game with Yao, it's a fact that the Rockets have never really gotten past the zone defense against post entry. I don't care about pinning the blame on Yao, his teammates or the coach. All that matters is that the inside outside game has been inconsistent to build around. Stand still shooters, who maximize the inside outside game but minimize other approaches, shouldn't be the main focus to build around Yao. Time has changed, Yao would be a beast back in the old days without zones, the hay day of inside outside game has passed. Yao needs the low post to score for himself or create for athletic cutters from the weak side, not waiting for double teams and kicking out to stand still shooters. Pairing Yao with athletic slashers that likes to attack the basket is way better than stand still shooters. In that mode, either it's Yao who's attacking the basket in the low post, or it's Yao in the high post or elbow and the slashers attacking the basket. Athletic penetrators who can hit mid range Js on the run are needed to maximize Yao's impact, we need more Brooks, with more size.
I would think that with more dead eye shooters in the team, opposition will be less likely to run zones. Which will help Yao immensely.
