I know everyone is down, because of the news of Yao, but we have to move on. I am anxious to see how JVG changes his strategy now that Yao is gone. Will he play small ball and let his guys run, or will he try to run the same offense as if Yao was here. I personally hopes he goes small, rotates his bigs so they won’t tire out and open the lanes so Tracy, Luther, and everyone else when they come back, can penetrate. I think he needs to take a page out of the Sun’s playbook and make everyone match up with us, instead of matching up with everyone else. Think about it.
Keep the scores below 85, we can't keep up with most teams, just check tomorrow night, if the Rockets get into a track meet with the sorry ass Raptors they will lose. Keep the scores low and close with defense and slow offense and let T-Mac close the games out.
Our defense is heavily dependant on Yao and Deke in the middle, without them our D will likely such, since quicker guards will continue to penetrate and once they get by our backcourt it will be a layup drill. If we had Deke still healthy and able to contribute, I would not be panicking, but as things stand we have ZERO interior defense and no real Centers to play the position. Unless Baxter or Stro turn into solid defenders, we're going to be out of luck. Yao or Deke, IMO, are what stabilizes this Rockets' team on both offense and defense.
we can't let the opponent score 90 if we want a chance to win. 80 would be safe. on top of that where can we find 80-90 points? we only have 8 players. tmac stro wes head jho baxter bowen mooch we need everyone to score. we also need to defend the crap out of teams to keep them under 85. one way of doing that is slowing the ball down. make a limited number of possesions in the game for both teams, then hope you out execute.
I'm afraid Stro will try to pick up a lot of that slack and get into foul trouble. I hope my fears are unfounded. I really hope the team will step up and show why you can never count them out. having only 8 players suiting up definitely sucks... Although running and gunning would be more exciting, i think it'll tire out our players faster. We need them to show as little fatigue as possible down the stretch since we are shorthanded. Foul trouble is my biggest fear with such a short bench.
I've felt all season long that the way Van Gundy has structured the offense ("inside-out") has forced the team to depend on Yao more than they should. I'm hoping this injury will be a blessing in disguise and he'll adjust to make this team a more guard oriented offense like most of the league.
That's exactly what I was thinking last night. Run and gun has to be the name of the game. There's no way this team can score consistently in the half court set with no inside presence. Just put the ball in T-Mac's hands and let him attack the hoop and set up guys like Wesley and Head on the perimeter.
