I watched last night's game with Spurs' broadcast. And let me tell you there are about a DOZEN times where one of the spurs color commentator were imploring the Rockets to get the ball inside to Yao. At least a DOZEN times!!! Can you believe it?!?! He pointed out that one big difference between the Spurs and the Rockets system on offense is that when Duncan get the entry pass and passes back to repost he always gets the ball back on repost and the rockets never do that for Yao Ming (at least in last nights game). He kept going on and on with this and wondering how come something as obvious as getting the ball to your most efficient inside presence instead of settling for the acrobatica parameter shots is not so clear with the rockets players. This type of comments kept up throught out the 2nd half of the game. Incredible!!! It pisses me off as a rox fan that something so obvious to an outsider, a spurs broadcaster is not obvious to JVG and rest of his players. Last night I saw numerous times where Yao got position on Nest and JJ/Mobes/MJ went the other way with the ball to MoT or settingling for the outside shots.
That Spurs' announcer kept pleading the rox to get to ball to Yao and had nice things to say about Yao almost made me think that he is Bill Walton in disguise.
These announcers said exactly what I was thinking. It was extremely obvious that Stevie Wonder and Cuturnover still dont get it. They still can not accept their role. Yao has some fault in this for not demading the rock. If yao wasnt as timid and humble as he is this would be a different team.
The repost has been there for the taking several times in each of the last few games, but the players are too impatient, selfish, panicky, whatever. They just don't seem to be able to execute such an obvious play. It's not just the Spurs that do this way better than we do. Watch a Lakers game...whenever Shaq reposts, he gets the ball passed to him immediately. His teammates wait for him to reposition and then zip it in. The rox still don't have a clue in this regard...either that or they just can't shake their selfish ways. I personally think it's a combination of the "gotta get mine" mentality and lack of patience and execution.
...I choose not to blame Yao for the team's ineptness...If Steve and Cat weren't so undisciplined this would be a different team.
Even though it is mostly true, Yao takes a little too much establishing position in the post, leaving little time on the clock. But Yao does need to demand the ball more.
The only player I saw out there that made it a point to get Yao the ball on a repost was Piakowski and maybe Jim Jackson, the rest of the team was very impatient.
half of the times duncan gets the ball he faces up. creates space and gets his bank shot off, or attacks the basket. i dont understand why we dont let yao face up every now and then. the two outside shots he took yesterday (im not counting turnaround-shots on the baseline) were both spot up shots. yao can attack the basket (atlanta game, he didnt settle for jumper, he sailed inside weaving between defenders and layed it in off the glass. and the laker game, 15 foot away from the basket, shaq was up on him, and yao took it to him all the way to the rim using his great footwork and nice spin move.)
What I see was Yao ming fighting for position in the paint all night, but our players ignored him and he has to step out the paint to avoid 3 sec play after play. In addition, our offense always go through the colded hand. MO Tay has 14 shots yesterday and made only 3, he is the second leading field goal attemps in yesterday game. Cat is 4 for 11, What is wrong with this picture? "We have open look, but our shots didn't fall" - stupid. Our defence is terrible when we face a good perimeter shooting team. They have better stats on outside shooting when they play against us. Our guards can't do nothing. This is why we always lose to King, Dallas, Spur when they can spot 3 with ease.
I watched all Rockets games via NBALP. With the exception of a few announcers from other teams, it's striking that almost all of them keep saying that the Rockets need to give Yao the ball much more. The Celtics announcers even went as far as saying that if he were the coach, he would make sure that Yao touches the ball on every single possession. His exact words were sth like "Gee, if he can make that kind of shots (outside jumpers) with ease, why should not the Rockets give him the ball on every possession?" Yes, Steve Kerr had lots of nice things to say about Yao last night and mentioned it on several occasions that Yao was among the best players in the league. The announcers for the Hawks, Timberwolves, Magic, Knicks, to name a few were absolutely nuts on Yao and questioned the Rockets strategy of not building the team around Yao.
So what's new? Honestly, this will make it all the more sweet when they finally get it and we start winning bigger ballgames.
What's the purpose of this comment? Bibby shoots better than Steve. That has nothing to do with the matter at hand. Why are you bringing Steve into the discussion? I'm not bashing Yao. I want Yao to perform well and I want the Rockets to win. I'm just saying that a lot of Duncan's looks last night came because he established position right beneath the basket. Why bring Steve up? Stop being an *******.
I didn't watch the game on league pass. Does FSSW has the same announers last night as league pass? That voice I heard was definitely older than Steve Kerr I thought.
