I know yao's weakness but I also see what cat did to yao

This is a very prescient observation Rockets2K. One thing I notice too is that Yao doesn't really use his legs well w/ respect to "sealing." Same goes for pivotting. He can take stronger strides to establish position and seal off his defender, but instead, he often chooses to move AWAY from the basket... and resort to fadeaways. With proper foot placement, Yao can not only "seal" his defender but also shrink small to go up stronger for a dunk or layup. To date, Yao plays very rigidly yet also demonstrates the flexibility to do other things. IMHO, it all comes back to the footwork.

Additionally, while his weaknesses becoming glaring to some folks during bad games like tonite, IMHO, the real problem is Yao not asserting his STRENGTHS. Everybody has weaknesses, but it's about the battle of wills of who's will is stronger. If Yao plays soft and uninspired, the Rox lose one big facet to their collective "will." Every game is really a battle of team "wills." (or synonymously philosophies or stratagies). When we can't get Yao integrated with our offense, we flounder. When Yao is ticking, so are we, more often than not. Yao has more strengths than weaknesses, IMHO. It's just a matter of whether or not he exhibits them early in a game to set the right tone.

But let's not give up on the big man, folks. He's got a bright future ahead of him.



theSAGE

 

Ever stop to think, "Hey, maybe wstar didn't include the author's name in his post because it's in the link?" Maybe if you did you would see that it was written by Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Lacy J. Banks. You want the date too? January 11, 2004. Anything else I can answer for you?

 

Wow now this just takes the cake! I'm well aware of who wrote the article. So are you saying the author, Lacy Banks is a NBA scout? The quote I was talking about was said by an anonymous NBA scout which was my point. But I guess you think that everything written in article has to come from the author's own mouth.

 

Forgot the required pic.

 

no, I don't think it's likely to be that case. not impossible, just not likely. if Yao knows he's used as a decoy and aint gonna get the ball, open or not, why would he bother waving his hand and asking for the ball? do you really think JVG would tell Yao "this play isn't called for you but you still need to act as it is by waving your hand asking for the ball to confuse the opponent."?? Yao's a very disciplined player. if the play isn't called for him, he won't ask for the ball. it's steve or cat that is the type of player I think would still ask for ball when the play isn't called for them and having defenders on them.

 

ill say it again and keep saying it until people wake up, yao standing there atleast 3 times last night wide open with his arms in the air and other times had good position but the guards were taking too long dribbling and yao was then fronted. If I were Yao why would I take the extra effort and battle for position after this? Its discouraging and wastes his energy just battling when hes not even going to get the ball. Theres a small window of opportunity to get yao the ball and we need a pure point to run this offense better.

 

CALM. DOWN.


Believe it or not, there was some encouragement in last night's game.

Forget the loss, the Celtics just shot the ball insanely well. That happens
sometimes, not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it. The defense
being played was actually not that bad.

However, what was interesting was that, for the first time that I could
really tell, the Rockets were actually running X's and O's *PLAYS* out
there.. nothing spectacular mind you, and still not with a great deal of
success just yet, but still, you could actually see that the team was not
only running actual plays, but they occasionally even ran them as though
they knew what they were doing, and as though they were not horribly
confused by the concept.

That, friends, is an improvement.

Why is this encouraging for Yao and his travails this seaon? Because
Yao is a TEAM-ORIENTED player, it's part and parcel to the very fabric
of his being.

Imagine that you are trying to hold two big handfuls of sand, and the
sand is running out, slipping through your fingers in several places.
You can close one gap, but others exist, and until you manage to close
the majority of the gaps, there will not be much visible change in the
flow. But the more gaps get closed, slowly but surely, the situation
changes.

That's the way it is with the Rockets. This team had (and still has mind
you) a LOT of 'gaps' to fill. Slowly but surely these gaps are closing,
we can see it if we look. Yao made an excellent, fundamentally-sound
and effective low-post seal-off move last night. That's good. Yao, apparently,
loudly used one of his newly-learned American Basketball Cuss Words
last night, if lip-reader Bill Worrell is to be believed. That's good.

The team as a whole is starting to visibly run an actual offense. That's
good.

Is it all perfect yet? Of course not. A lot of the 'gap-filling' also is left
to be done by JVG himself. I don't think he himself has yet managed
to divine the best way to utilize Yao in this offense, or, perhaps instead
stop trying to force Yao to be something he is not yet ready to be, a-la
PEwing redux. Maybe instead we should see, as one poster wisely
suggested, more of a high-post passing presense for Yao himself. It
has been gushed many times about 'what a great passer Yao is'.. well
maybe instead of trying to break Yao completely down, and then build
him back up from the component pieces, which is clearly what JVG has
been trying to do, maybe he should just let Yao be what he is,
and utilize his existing strengths more, for the time being.

We do see some of Yao in the high post, up near the corners of the lane,
and have been seeing an increased number of outside shots for him,
which seem to be deliberately planned plays. Fine, but we really
yet to see this great passer, especially from the high post. If Cato is
playing alongside Yao, then this would seem like a natural fit.

But don't be so discouraged. They are nowhere near yet where they
need to be, but the encouraging signs ARE there.

 

I'll put $100 in the tipjar in anybody's name if they just give xenogears a good, swift kick to the nads...

 

You're proud of inventing the "Boki Pokey"?

 

Hey Xenogears,

Where is the NBA live screen shot of Yao in a Mavs uniform getting dunked on by Chris Mihm??

Where is the NBA live screen shot of Yao being fronted by Walter McCarty???

Where is the NBA live screen shot of Yao laying the ball up when he underneath the basket??



And finally, where is the NBA live screen shot of Don Nelson benching Yao in the 4th quarter when he obviously is not helping the team on the court????

 

Oh and why has Dallas, with Yao at center, only scored 2 pts with 7:08 left in the 1st quarter???

 

C'mon codell...get serious. You know Nellie didn't bench Yao 'cause he wasn't helping the team. He benched Yao so Yao could could hit the oxygen tank. All that up and down, early transition offense trying to run with Nash, Dirk and Walker takes a huge toll on ones' lungs!

 

Heh. Yeah. Dallas would just have to strap an oxygen tank to Yao's back and hope that he can keep up.

Plus, that oxygen tank would be a good way for Yao to clear his man out when doing a spin move.

 

Have you ever considered that maybe the defense is sagging off from Yao on purpose so that someone will foolishly try to make a pass to him knowing Yao is as slow as an elephant and that the defender has enough time to run and snatch the ball away from Yao.

It’s just like a defensive back in football giving some room to the receiver so the QB will pass to him. The only way to get the pass to Yao before the defender can sneak by and take the ball away from him is to throw a bullet pass. The only problem with that is Yao can’t catch no bullet passes.

 

Hee hee... ha.. hahaaa.... please stop Codell... I keep seeing Yao running up the court with scuba gear on and can't seem to stop laughing...

 

This is exactly why even tho I get frustrated with Yao...I refuse to even consider getting rid of him.

You are totally correct in that when Yao is playing hard...our offense is working. In games like last night, when Yao is uninspired and being bullied in the paint...nothing seems to go right.

I am not convinced that this is a problem that cant be worked thru..and there aint no way in hell you get rid of a big man with skills, even if in his second year he is looking a lot more like Smits than Dream.

It appears to me that when Yao is a nonfactor, the rest of the team gets out of sync and has to resort to quasi-iso basketball.
Which of course is much easier for a marginal defensive team to defend against.

the keyword for this season is PATIENCE people..it will take all season for these guys to build the chemistry and fully learn how to work with each other...
If they dont click by the end of the season......management needs to evaluate and make moves based on that evaluation during the offseason....

 

Can somebody do one thing - COUNT the times Cat passes to Yao in the next few games? That would make it clear enough.

 

Also, make sure they count the # of times where Cat is the designated entry passer in a set.

Thanks.

 

Ok, in an attempt to save face after going back and reading the article, just because the author of the article didn't name the scout doesn't mean the scout didn't put his name on it when he wrote it.

My apologies.

 

which is very pertinent to this discussion since it is normally SF and JJ that do the entry passing.

Not that it really matters at this point since even if this fallacy is proven wrong...people like zenogear and the thread starter would not acknowledge it and would claim that we were not giving accurate numbers since it doesnt agree with their world view.