With the current group of Rockets, it is obvious that Rudy T can innovate his offense in so many ways. I was curious to if he would use Yao Ming as a point center as times. From what I've seen, Ming is a decent ball-handler for a big man, plus he has a nice outside jump shot for whenever the Rockets want to use inverted post-ups. This would also confuse opponents' defenses a lot. I think the Rockets have the potential to be the best offensive team in the league with as many weapons as they have, plus by using Ming at point center it would enable Steve Francis and Mobley to create havoc on the wings. Just a thought, but what do yall think?
i think that's a stupid idea. why the hell have a 7'6'' guy handlin the ball when you got Franchise and Cat there? Sure he can have some outside touches and maybe a few outside shots, but having him playing the point is a stupid idea IMO.
I wasn't talking about playing him at point for the whole game, just some stretches where it can throw the defenses off. I admit myself it'd be stupid to play him at point the whole game, but playing him during some stretches will relieve Steve of some of the ball-handling duties for a while and enable post-up situations for Rice, Boki, etc. if they have mismatches.
1) Apparent top of Yao Ming's reach while standing: 9.5 feet. 2) Apparent bottom of Yao Ming's reach while standing: 4 feet. Conclusions: 1) If you want someone to hold the ball high, out of the defender's reach, while looking to pass, give it to Yao Ming. 2) If you want someone to dribble the ball without giving the defender 8 feet of ball-traveling distance on each dribble (hand to floor and back to hand) during which to steal the ball, don't give it to Yao Ming.
Shooter, I do think you took this shot from about 1,583 feet out, but maybe this is a patch for you: we should occasionally bring ming out to the high post where he can pose an awesome double-threat. 1) He can shoot from the top of the key. 2) Having the other center come out on him opens up all sorts of cutting lanes inside, and Ming appears to be an excellent passer. But no, I really never want to see him bring the ball up. I think it would be like watching a pig mate with dog and I would just start screaming "NO NO NO NO NO!" uncontrollably and rocking back and forth.
i wasn't responding to him playing the point the whole game either. i might have been a little rude with my bluntness, but i guess i never got my point across even by doing it so bluntly. As Will said: Yes, it is effective to inbound to Yao because of his height, but to let him handle the ball out there would be straight up stupid. He is a good ball handler for his height, but definately for handling the ball at the point. I think you should let Stevie run the point and let Yao work on his inside game (while of course demonstrating his shooting range a little bit).
The Whole pull the opposing center out philosophy is not as great as it seems. The defending player is not likely to foul. For Yao, that is a key disadvantage as his defense is weak. Here is lies the crux of the problem this creates lets say against centers from Shaq to Robinson to Big Country. They will not get fouls. They will be able to go strong on Yao on the other end and send him to the locker room early. Yao has to learn to play in the deep post. If he gets in the habit of shooting outside jumpers...he's never going to develop the game that will make him stay in the game for long streches. He may be a Sam Perkins type player in that scenario. I would think Rudy T has higher Aspirations.
Why? You have the Franchise and the Cat back there. Besides most guards in the league are bigger than they are, so they probably could not post up anyway.
I always thought the idea of a point forward was a bad idea, so you know I how would feel about a point center.
oh my goodness. the worst idea ever used to belong to "bringing back hakeem to mentor cato/ming". used to. you, my friend, have blown away all competition with this one.
Da-yumn, this guy's getting beat up. Point center? No. Ming can put it on the floor from time to time, but he can pile up the assists with Passes From On High. As soon as he tries to dribble the ball, Rudy's sphincter will pucker so hard that it'll swallow the chair in which he's sitting. So I don't know if we'll have an Antoine Walker-style dribbler in the 7'5" Yao-za Ming Dynasty.
Um, I think you missed the word "occasionally" in my original post. Otherwise, good points concerning playing Yao at the high post for significant stretches of time. And amen this is the longest off season evuh!
NYer, there are some centers (ahem Shaq ahem) that simply won't get into significant foul trouble regardless of how many people he clobbers in the lane. There are also platoon centers that have plenty of fouls to give and it doesn't really matter which is on the floor anyway. Relying on fouls won't always much help you. But drawing open the lane will help in getting Mobley and Francis to the rack. Besides that, I'm not sure that the rate of fouls drawn would actually go down. Yao wouldn't draw as many to be sure. But, improving the conditions for our guards to attack the rim does put their defenders as well as out-of-position help defenders at risk of fouling. I don't know if I quite know what Shooter means by point center. If you mean he should bring the ball up, probably not. But, if you are talking about putting the responsibility on Yao of initiating the play by giving him the ball (like in a high-post situation) and calling plays and making decisions on to whom the ball should go, I think you're right. He can shoot the jumper; he can see and pass over the defense; and he seems to be smart with the ball. And, I think it is something we will see sooner or later.
By point center, I mean that Yao can initiate plays in a half-court set. Not for him to bring the ball up. Like I said, he has good height and is an adequate ball-handler that he can see what is happening above everyone else. What this does is let Steve roam free to look for scoring opportunities opposed to him focusing on setting up others first.
I think we should make Ming the SC(Shooting Center). Then he doesn't have to handle the ball as much as a Point Center, and we can leave him behind the 3 point line all day. In this way, he won't pick up those cheap fouls from being pushed around by those mean Power Forwards. Yep, this solves it all. Next week, let's discuss how Cat is really a power forward, and how we should bring Barkley back to mentor him....
