I don't care if he goes 5/25 for the rest of the season or if he has to force shots, hook, turnaround, fadeaway, whatever, take 25 shots a game! All others on the team work to make his 25 shots as comfortable as possible. SF, Cat, Rice, EG, Posey are all terribly inconsistent shooters! Relying on them is hopeless. Rox has to go thru Yao and let him take most shots. The season is over as much as most fans do not admit. Why not use the rest of season to practise new offense. Until Yao takes 25 shots a game and make 50% of them, Rox is going nowhere. NOWHERE! OK, maybe not 25, that is like AI and Kobe. Take 18 shots please. 10 is just not enough.
Yao is God and he should take all the shots. Also hire his parents as coaches too. [ QUOTE]Originally posted by canoner2002 I don't care if he goes 5/25 for the rest of the season or if he has to force shots, hook, turnaround, fadeaway, whatever, take 25 shots a game! All others on the team work to make his 25 shots as comfortable as possible. SF, Cat, Rice, EG, Posey are all terribly inconsistent shooters! Relying on them is hopeless. Rox has to go thru Yao and let him take most shots. The season is over as much as most fans do not admit. Why not use the rest of season to practise new offense. Until Yao takes 25 shots a game and make 50% of them, Rox is going nowhere. NOWHERE! [/QUOTE]
I knew. What I don't understand is what fun there is to make. Obviously Rox is going nowhere until Yao becomes the #1 option for offense. He needs to learn to do it and what is better than real games for him to learn? The season is over, so use the rest of the games for practice and hope for next season.
25 is too much. But Yao has to be more aggressive and take more shots!! Right now he is only averaging 10 shots, that's too few. I would say 16-18 is good enough, like what Duncan and Shaq are doing.
the season is NOT over, and u should never give up! we were 45-37 w. younger steve and was much better in the first half of the season!
The way they are playing now, the season is over, so what is the harm for some change? Do you mean you should also never give up on something that is not working? BTW, The schedule for first half was easier.
He is not, but he will be and that is where the hope is. I don't see the difference of missing playoff by 40-42 or 35-47. Work on the future. You never know, maybe when Yao gets a couple of 14/25 games, everyone else will get wide wide open shots, and we get a shot for the playoff this season.
I think this opinion of this writer reflects what many people here and around the league thought: "Here is a 22-year-old who at 7-5 can pass, shoot and run better than many NBA small forwards. Once the rest of the Rockets figure out that Yao should touch the ball on almost every possession, his numbers will inflate." http://www.freep.com/sports/pistons/rosey4_20030304.htm
No, Yao is not ready to take that many shots a game. If you guys follow the game closely, you know what I'm talking about. Yao's current physical condition only allows him to provide 25+ quality minutes. He has been slow/late in many occasions in recent games when played more than 30mins. He often got pushed away from the paint, got blocked repeatly by guys 6'8", making TO at critical moments. He is just not ready yet. This is a team sports, the Rockets are in a slump now. They will come back, but may not be enough to make the playoff, though.
Funny, sounds like you think Rox are playing team games now. I think that idea is only on Yao's mind. Taking shots or not, Yao is going to get tired. He has to fight for position, wrestling, bumping, etc. Taking more shots won't make much of a difference to his energy level. Being so tired, he can still make 6/10 tonight, let him take more shots.
By run better do you mean faster or better on the break??? Yao is a great center, but saying he is a better runner than most NBA small forwards is exageration in its purist form.
Francis has been struggling lately since that back injury. I think if he simply provided some perimeter scoring and spacing for the rest of the team, we'd have won many more games by now. I mean the last win that the Rockets had, Francis almost exploded for a triple-double, and scored 33 points I believe! Right now he's struggling to score 20, and is getting those 20 at the expense of the flow of the offense and at the cost of ill-advised shots. Earlier in the season he was taking those same shots, but was atleast making them. Right now, it's costing him, and the team the game.
