The most important physical asset necessary in basketball is quickness. Quickness when jumping, and quickness to the ball. I've seen most of our games this year, and our lack of quickness is being exposed in numerous ways. It starts with Yao losing every jump ball to start the game - he may be 7'6" but every other center gets the tap because they are quicker jumpers. And his lack of quickness shows when defending pick and rolls, scrambling on defense, and coming up with rebounds. For all his incredible offensive assets, his lack of foot speed is being exploited. (Charles Barkley was the antithesis of Yao - short, but quick and an explosive jumper...and he was a dominating rebounder.) This is why Yao will never be a rebounding machine. That being said, Yao is good and will be great - we just need the right players around him. The McGrady trade has resulted in quickness mismatches at all but his position almost every night. And it shows up in rebounds, 2nd chance points, very few steals, and few fast break points. And so, to compensate for our slow feet, we've got to do a lot of things right: be smarter, switch when we should, anticipate well, don't turn the ball over, block out, set perfect screens, and knock down open shots. It's a big mountain to overcome! I have always liked Bobby Sura and I don't know how much difference he will make - but he can't get back soon enough. I will say that Lue is a helluva better backup PG than the Mooch..........and SHOULD BE THE STARTER, at least for the time being. Yes, we will improve and may creep into the playoffs, but the team as assembled has an Achilles Heel - lack of essential quickness, that is going to render us hard-to-watch too many times. D R
You are right. Only TMac and Lue have some quicks. Everyone else is slow. To compound this lack of speed, JVG has one of the most intense man man defenses in the league. He tries to have everyone running around all the time on defense. It is killing the team on the offensive end. Maybe it was a contributing factor to Steve's demise on the team last year. Maybe it's just being exaggerated this year due to the age of the team being higher.
I said this before the season started. The only quick players on the Active roster are Tmac, Lue and Boki....the rest are average to below average. We will have a very hard time with athletic teams. DD
The lack of a system that suits are players is our Achilles Heel. I don't want to blame it all on JVG, because it isn't ALL his fault. But his philosophies on the game do not suit the personell on the floor, period. There is no valid explanation of why we lost to the Raptor/Hawks/Knicks. We built sizable leads against the Hawks/Knicks and didn't keep on attacking, instead of pouring on more points, we decide to just try to keep them off. They score a couple baskets and then we can't get our offense generating, and we're screwed. I just don't know that many coaches that would have to squeeze 90ppg from a team that has Yao/TMac.
By the 4th quarter, the Rockets are dead tired. That's the coaches fault. He needs to devise a different defense.
Another problem is that when the Rox do build a sizable lead, we just let up, we don't keep on attacking. I can't read minds, but I bet when the Rockets build a good lead-JVG goes back to his defensive specialties and just tries to hold off the other team, instead of attacking more and more. For instance, in the Nets game-we had a 22 point lead and we just stopped attacking. If we had stayed on the offensive, Yao/TMac could have sat out most of the 4th, instead they had to play til the end.
Charvo, Good point. An amoeba zone, from time to time, might be more effective than watching our slugs try to chase quicker players for 48 minutes. I do think fatigue is a factor and rears its ugly head down the stretch. D R
Just watched the game and I agree wholeheartedly. Yao is slow obviously and that's not going to change, but since the other players are also slow, there's no possibilities to run a fast break ever. Mo Taylor is slow. Charlie Ward and Jim Jackson are a million years old. I'm not a Lue fan but he played great last night, creating baskets by moving. He was the old person I saw who actually cut hard to the basket when Yao had the ball. I can't understand why the other four players just sit at the three point line and stare when Yao has the ball. Cut to the basket! The Lakers used to run this play to perfection with Shaq. The opposing team's main shot blocker will be busy with Yao and won't be able to contest your shot.
I agree. Look at Jamal Crawford. The guy is a young player who can run like a horse. JJ was guarding him on the last play. Come on. JVG needs to minimize the wear and tear that is happening throughout the game that is causing all these 4th quarter collapses.
