francis used to do this for yao, tmac did as well, but not in the past few years, it was more frequent in his first year or two here
I don't know why AB and Scola don't just run a simple pick n' roll. Yao's defender is sealed off, Brooks rolls in and either has an easy lane to the basket or Scola is left wide open at the top of the key from 15-20 feet which he makes more than 50% of the time. Refs aren't going to call fouls if we're not doing anything. I think this would be the best solution. It's simple, reliable, and easier thanks to Yao sealing off his defender. Perhaps Lowry should handle this actually. He seems better around the rim.
I'm not an insider with the team so dont know what play adelman draws for the end of 4th quaters, but seems to me 1st option is feed yao into the post. However, unlike practice or the first 3 quaters, yao is really tired by now, which shouldn't be new and his ability to muscle decreases exponentially compared to 1st quater. And when you waste 10 secs trying to force feed him and fail, theres not enough time to run a better play, leading to a low chance FG.
Exactly, once teams front Yao...it's like the other teams puts a clog in our system. Everything just stops moving. This is on the coaches to fix this for the rest of the season, not the players. Get it fixed, make teams pay for fronting Yao...and make them pay for not fronting Yao. Yao is trying to put this team on his shoulders but we're not giving him the team.
Well first off Yao's ability to muscle at any point is irrelevant because he'll be called for a foul. So that's not an issue. But I don't say you try to force feed Yao then use other options. As soon as you get down if they're fronting Yao you don't even try to give him the ball. Pick n' roll to the basket all night till they stop fronting Yao so they can defend the driver. Once they do that go back to Yao in the post. There's plenty of time to do that.
problem is Yao always plays like superman and toying his defender for the first 3 quaters scoring at will and changing shots on defense but fades in the 4th quater. Not only teams take advantage of his size now but also hussles him on rebs. And we are oftening talking about generating shots in crunch time and clearly at this point posting yao up is too predictable and ineffective when the score is tied late in the 4th. Maybe Yao should just focus on grabbing offensive boards at this point and let artest post up his man....
That's what I'm saying. You use a pick n' roll to burn the defense for not covering the basket. The only defender that could challenge the drivers basket is his own defender or the helper from Scola, in which case Scola gets a wide open shot. After we do this 5 times in a row without even looking at Yao they will finally move their center back into position to stop that. At which point we repost Yao and kill them that way. I see no reason to believe that Yao is too fatigued to do anything at the end of the game. He's just not allowed to do any man handling like his opponents.
I think posting artest up on his man is a better solution since he is bigger and stronger than most sf in the league, yao and scola should space out and ready to crash the boards. Thats how they beat utah in the double OT game, when yao is tired, his hands become slower, he can't jump and grab a board with any contact and his shots are altered.
Yao's playing under Coach Adelman's motion offense and he also needs to fight for positions in the paint against 2 front court players (totalling close to 500 lbs.) of the opposing team. With a body of 7'6" and 310 lbs, Yao can't play a full quarter without rest but I see him doing that quite often this season. Coach needs to give him a breather (2-3 minutes) in about 8 minutes of play if he wants Yao to have clutch plays in the last minutes of the game. I think the total effective minutes for Yao is 32 per game under Coach Adelman's motion offense. If he had already played 30 minutes in the first 3 quarters, he won't have the stamina to sustain clutch plays in the 4th quarter. He should play only 8 minutes in each quarter. Smart management of Yao's PT is a must if Rox want Yao to score in the 4th quarter.
