I have a theory that will be put to the test tonight (possibly). I think that the Rockets' guards (particularly Francis) only like to run the "Yao Offense" at home. They know that that's what the home crowd came to see, so they give them what they want by dumping it in to Yao as much as possible. On the road, however, they try to be showboats and do it all themselves in front of the other crowds. It seems to me (and I have nothing to substantiate this other than what I seem to recall from watching all the games) that Yao doesn't get the ball as much on the road. Francis and Mobley would never "try this at home", because it would piss off the home folks who are only showing up (albeit not in large numbers) because of Ming. Let's see what happens tonight at Minnesota. I hope they prove me wrong, of course.
Freak, Not sure about your theory. Yao averages 8.6 shots at home and 7.5 on the road. Only 1 shot per game difference. Also, he averages another minute played at home than he does on the road. Not enough to fairly conclude that the guards involve him any less on the road than they do at home.
I didnt mean to burst your bubble. You mean cc.net actually pays people to seak and destroy threads? And here I am doing it for free like a sucker!
In Yao's first 7 games (just up to his breakout game against the Lakers) he only averaged 3.4 shots a game as he was adjusting to the NBA game. Five of those seven were at home, so that would kind of skew the stats away from proving TheFreak's theory. I actually think you might be on to something, Freak...
Taking this a step farther, I calculated out his averages (home and away) starting with that Lakers game so as to remove any skewing the first 7 games might have on the stats. Home: in 8 games he has averaged 11.9 shots a game Away: in 11 games he has averaged 8.5 shots a game That's a difference of 3+ shots. I don't know if that is enough to prove anything or not, as it is still a very small sample size...but it will be an interesting theory to follow along with for the rest of the season to see if it holds out. If true I certainly hope it isn't Rudy that is instructing Francis and Mobley to take more shots on the road and is just stubborn headedness rearing its ugly head.
Somebody do Yao's stats for every game including and since the Spurs game on December 3rd (?). That's when Yao truly broke out and became a bit consistent. I think it's too early to tell whether TheFreak is right or wrong...
Pretty weak theory when you consider the road opponents. LA (Clippers) was the first road game after his start against Washington. He only got 4 shots, in large part, because Olowokandi has the size and wingspan to negate his physical advantages. It's why Yao had to go to the headfakes, with some success, in the rematch at home. The next road game was at Portland, and something that needs to be said that is being disregarded is the idea that 2 free throws should be interpreted as 1 fg. He was 3-4 from the field, but 9-10 from the line, adding up to 9 shots in 18 minutes. You can't really complain about that ratio, especially considering how Sabonis and Davis were handling him with relative ease throughout the game. Another thing to note- Mobley didn't play in the West coast road trip. That naturally had an effect on Yao and the entire team. Golden State was next, and he got 8 shots, and would have gotten more, if it wasn't for Kelvin Cato having a great game, pulling in 12 rebounds to go along with 22 points. The Seattle road win followed, and though he only put it up 7 times, anybody who watched the game knows he was orchestrating the offense in the decisive fourth quarter. The blowout against Sacramento was the only game where there was a case for your argument. He only shot it 3 times, but his minutes were limited since the game was out of reach pretty early on. Outside of tonight's game, they've faced Memphis, Miami and New Orleans on the road. The Hornets and Miami did a good job of denying him position in the post, especially Miami, and in the Memphis game, he did get 13 shots, but his level of play should have prompted more than that. Conclusion- the Rockets are just a poor road team. They're good enough at home to be a 40+ win team, but if they have aspirations of 50+ wins and a top 4 seed, they'll have to start valuing every possession when they're away from Compaq.
For the 10 games after the Spurs game (inclusive), Yao averages 11.8 shots on the road, and 13.2 shots at home. Not a significant difference so far.
Thanks lancet. What you'll also notice is that Yao is also getting double-teamed almost instantly now. He's passing out of that double-team. He doesn't seem to react as quickly, but is passing out of the double team. This will taint those statistics to the point that you can't rely on the "field goals attempted" stat as an indicator of how much the offense is run through Yao or how many opportunities he's getting to shoot.
The best numbers to indicate how much the Rockets offense is run through mean would probably be the NUMBER OF TOUCHES INSIDE/NEAR PAIT. Too bad no one is keeping that stat. ESPN kept the number of touches Yao got on the Pacers game, and it was something around 35.
I meant the NUMBER OF TOUCHES INSIDE/NEAR PAINT would be a good indicator on how much our offense is run through Yao.
