not to mention one of the fastest of not the fastest power forwards of all time along with Coop and Nixon/Scott. Kareem was surrounded by 4 gazelles.
Exactly... surround Yao with 4 gazelles and you may well get a running game going, too. Kareem is certainly shorter and lighter than Yao, but he was pretty old in the 80s... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember seeing him finish too many fast breaks. It was Scott, Worthy, Magic, even Rambis and co. out there on the break. Kareem did his scoring damage mostly in the halfcourt.
if things go well, those two guys wont see enough floor time to get worn down. we now have two other guys who can play the 4 for different situations, reducing the amount of time Jho has to play. and god willing, Yao will get enough time on the floor so that Deke doesnt have to play very often.
Tell Isaih we will trade him Haryasz,Abu,Padgett and Jacobsen for David Lee and Nate Robinson so he can make his first cuts and shave some of the stubble off of his payroll. I wish
So for the first half of his first year with Orlando, the Magic were a great fast break team. Gotcha. I heard there was this one week where Moochie Norris was a stud.
My goal, were I the coach, would be to (as another poster mentioned) to push the ball with our quick guys to probe for weaknesses in transition knowing that you have the best center in the league running down the court if an easy bucket is not available. Yao would be devastating as the final trailer in a fast break style offense. Use the transition game to set up the initial offense. I would go so far as to practice getting into all offensive sets by running towards the basket as if on a fast break, creating mismatches to take advantage of as defenders match up in transition.
i love steve and i've allways defended him (unless he was wrong). however, i doubt seriously that his bball iq is high enough to say "you're teammates can't run with you, slow it down." because if his bball iq could figure that out it would've also figured out "it's easy to hit a 7'6" guy in the post." he is a fine slasher, but doesn't have great ball controll which makes it hard to push a fastbreak. nor does he have great passing skills. he can't lead a fastbreak, he's a finisher.
Isn't this statement tantamount to saying that you were always right about Francis? I mean, tell me what you liked about him and I'm pretty sure we could debate just abount every part of his game while on the court with four other players. Steve Francis is a talented, gifted player with no "game." And by game, I don't mean all of that And-1 b.s. I am talking about basketball IQ, or the lack thereof, and the ability to contribute on the court as a teammate. I know that I am being harsh, but for all the wows that Francis brought to the faces of fans, there was always the WTFs that, in my opinion, outweighed the wows. I hope that he resurrects his career and becomes a star that helps his team win.
Mr. Van Gundy's teams in New York and Houston have been consistently near the bottom of the league, despite vastly different rosters. Despite the 49-point first half ("Wow! The Rockets were almost on pace to score 100 points! Amazing!), there is the little matter of the second half. Nineteen points, a ten-point quarter, and a nine-point quarter. No McGrady? Sure. Scrubs playing? Absolutely. Still doesn't excuse such a pathetic offensive performance, and the gameplanning must take a significant chunk of the blame.
Why must the gameplanning take a significant chunk of the blame in the 2nd half? Did you see who was playing? Mostly a bunch of players who will thankfully be out of basketball very soon. Hopefully some cuts will be made soon so our real team can get some floor time together.
As I mentioned in another thread, at one point, we had a grand total of 20 days of NBA experience on the floor. I don't care what your gameplan is, if you don't have players on the floor who can execute that gameplan, you will not do well. Look at the first half from Tuesday night and tell me there was not an effective gameplan.
The way Yao ran the court from coast to coast in the world championships and stone cold charged into Shane? Yeah i'd push the tempo. After a few of those I'd doubt anyone will still want to take that charge. That was worse than taking a shaq charge.
Anyone thinks Isiah is gonna succeed in this "running like the Suns" deal? Remember the last guy who tried to make Marbury run a Suns-style attack?
There's a difference between pushing the tempo and trying to run a fast break. JVG wants them to push the tempo so they can start their half court sets earlier, not to try and score in transition. I think one of the biggest problems with our fast break is that whoever gets the rebound never gives an outlet pass, they always hold it for the PG to come get the ball. If JVG wants the team to fast break he needs to make sure the guards run early and the rebounder passes down court.
I was just gonna post this, the difference between fastbreaking an pushing the tempo. and every coach would want to up the tempo bringing the ball up the court, it simply gives you more time to run the play.
Rockets will never be confused as a fast break team. There isn't enough horse to run. The game plan revolve around Yao and TMac. And while it's great to get to the half court faster, it's still a half court attack. You guys are correct in that the rebounder is not looking to outlet up court because by design the PG is waiting in the backcourt for the rebounded ball. Besides, if the outlet passer isn't very good at it, it's a turn-over waiting to happen and that's not how JVG teams play. Is Yao a good up-court outlet passer? That remains to be seen. Is Hayes? But the bottomline is that the plan has the PG in the backcourt for bringing up the ball and that, ladies and gentlemen, is not a fastbreak set-up.
i don't think it's fair to say my statement is tantamount to saying i was allways right about him. i worded it poorly for sure, but i meanst that i judge him with a fair eye. i'm not for nor against. i defend him when people are too harsh and i blame him when he's wrong. i know steve can't pass, shoot, or dribble. he can't really play defense either. he's not the best decision maker since stockton. i still like the fire that he plays with, the fight that he brings everygame. remember when he elbowed amare in the neck for dunking on yao? the rockets could use some of that. not at $14M a year though i doubt steve will ever regain his all-star level. no one wants to play him at the 1 anymore because they know he can't pass, shoot, or dribble. he's a slasher. but he can't guard 2's, and he can't catch and shoot. he needs a team to build around him to succeed and i doubt that's ever gonna happen again.
