I believe DD never intended to discuss anything related to Backetball from the start in this thread. You may track back to read what he said and what irritated me.
Fair enough Real-egal.....I guess because I have been here so long and have seen so many threads about getting Yao the ball, when in reality, sometimes that is 100% the wrong thing to do. If there is a guy in front of him and one behind him in the lane, then take the wide open shot at the elbow. Don't force the ball into a bad situation make the other team pay for over committing to Yao. Maybe I jumped the gun on calling some of the people in here YOFs because they just did not honestly understand what Adelman is trying to do with Brooks. For that, I apologize. DD
Truly disgusted? Or just kinda disgusted? As long as you are not one of those fans that would be ok if Yao got 30 and 10 and the team still lost....we have no problem. Peace, fellow Rocket fan. DD
Real_Egal. Remember the Warriors game a couple years ago where they fronted the crap out of him and we got absolutely blown out because we tried to force feed it into him and had many terrible turnovers??? This is I think what DD means: Its not about Yao getting alot of touches. Its about him getting a lot of touches in the flow of the offense. If the defense is dedicated to taking Yao out of the game, attempting to force it into him is a recipe for disaster. Last night against the Lakers they played a more honest pre-entry pass defense, and were selective with their double teams. 17 shots against that(and 8 non intentional foul FTs) is pretty solid for that. Many of the posters whining about Yao needs to get his touches and we win are going backwards. Get his 20+ points and the game ends because the Rockets automatically win. Check this out, the Rockets could have lost the game last night if Brooks or Artest were off and Yao still had 26-28 points. You have to do it as a team. Its not some magic spell where you cast Yao scores 20+ and you win, so stop pointing to that stat. Its annoying because its not that he scores 20, its how the team gets him that 20. Balance. Its the same thing talked about in football, run for 100+ yards = win the game. Most of the time, that will happen. But you have to be able to run for those yards in the course of the game, thru a balanced attack. IF the defense is stacking 9 in the box, you are foolish if you try to run because they outnumber you. Please understand what folks like me and DD are trying to say.
Smart basketball, is what I am all about......it produces wins....sometimes the other team forces the Rockets to go away from Yao because it is the SMART play. A wide open shot, is a wide open shot.....take it. DD
Alright. My apologies that I called you "troll". As long as you don't pull that YOF card again and second guess other fans' motives, we're fine. Beat LA!
Kawins, There are posters on this board who have been saying this same thing about players not passing Yao the ball for years..... It bugs some of us Rocket fans who only care about the team. DD
Yao has long passed the stage of getting great stats, and I as a Yao fan could care less about his stats either. However, don't underestimate others' basketball knowledge because most Rockets fans here understand how RA has changed the team's offense and start to welcome it through all the games.
That is awesome, but there are those that have not embraced a decline in Yao's stats, and have not realized that even though he is playing less minutes, getting less rebounds, and scoring less points, the team is actually BETTER because of it. Notice that 4 players are averaging 15+ ppg in these playoffs....just a couple of years ago, the Rockets had a playoff game where only FOUR players scored in total...... Having more offensive threats makes this team so much more dangerous, and having a young PG that can get by anyone in the league is such a luxury.....and yes, there will be growing pains, such as him missing a good opportunity to pass it to Yao, and there will be games where he has to shoot 20 times because Yao can not get open due to suffocating defense. That is ok, as long as the team wins...because ultimatly, punishing teams for fronting Yao is the goal.....and when you do that....you force them to pick their poison, front Yao and let others beat them, or don't front Yao and let the big fella dominate. Either one is ok with me.... DD
Yeah but that isn't the main focus of this thread is it? As has been mentioned earlier it's more than just his inability to feed Yao which is the problem. Please reply to posts 392 and 370 if you want a proper discussion. I'll happily admit he had a GREAT game 1 in LA and we wouldn't have won without him. But besides Aaron being able to beat their guards, the Lakers interior was veryvery soft, allowing him to make easy layups. In the long term I'm just not sure if he will be able to sustain this.
But if he can drive by them and force the defense to rotate, he is still doing his job...because it creates space for others to score. AB is not a finished product, but his quotes in the ESPN article I posted shows he is getting it.... AB will have games he struggles, but his speed and quickness is such a weapon that as he grows and learns the game more, he could become Tony Parker lite.....that is the direction the organization is taking him. At the end of the day, this thread has proven to be 100% WRONG.....AB needs the ball in his hands for the Rockets to be successful. So many wrong points in this thread.....and knee jerk in nature. DD
So in other words[Lou Brown] Great game Aaron, don't ever F'n do it again![/Lou Brown] No arguments on the terrible game 5 Brooks had. But there were many posts at the beginning of this thread that took off from what the OP intended. The OP talked about making the offense more fluid and what not, while there were some that decided to just take potshots at AB. They implied that his terrible game 5 was what he does every night, and that's just not the case. It's his worst play-off game of the postseason thru 7 games, easily. Some implied that Aaron was going rogue and that he just didnt like Yao. When it was fixed in game 6 some tried to say that it was all Yao's talking to Aaron after game 5 that corrected the problem. In truth, it was part Yao, part coaching staff, and also part Aaron understanding what he did wrong in that game. Saying that is not diminishing the leadership that Yao displayed. But its also not overmagnifying the leadership that he displayed like some have tried to imply. Sorry, but I take offense when "Rockets" posters try and bash Rockets players, and even more upset when they imply they are ignoring the coaching staff or their teammates. You have zero proof, especially in an after the game knee-jerk thread.
Something else, just for entertainment purposes, we can all agree that Game 5 was AB's worst. But what was his best?? Game 1 Portland?? Game 1 LA??
I think Game 1 in LA.....he has grown a TON in how he is running the team in only 7 playoff games. He could struggle again, and will but ultimatly, I think the team has found it's PG. DD
He did a great job of it the last game, more games like that and this thread will disappear I the two of us have exhausted our opinions on this subject. Maybe after this series there will be more to discuss. As real_egal said, whether right or wrong, I believe a lot of them want Yao to have the ball because besides wanting Yao to do well, they believe Yao doing well is the best chance for the rockets to win. You can dispute that, but there's no need to automatically label everyone who wants Yao to get more touches a YOF, fake Rockets fan or whatever. I'm sure some in the past have wanted Yao to get the ball for the sake of his individual performance at the expense of the team, but throwing everyone in this category just makes people angry, sensitive and contributes nothing. So I'm glad the search feature isn't working - let's move on
AB is not a good passer, neither is he a great scorer yet, so I don't think it's ok he would take 20+ shots a game because Yao get fronted. If he can't pass himself, give the ball to Artest, Shane or Lowry (if present), let them handle the ball. Unless he grows to be as effective as Parker, I won't trust him as the main weapon.
Ultimately, Lowry has a better shot at being the starter. I'll wait till next season to see how they both develop.
When did I say this? Based on game 1 he should definitely start game 2. But if he starts making useless runs into the paint, comes out lets the defence reset and wastes shot clock time, then his minutes need to be cut for Lowry! This thread was knee-jerkish, but games 3 and 4 weren't good either. It's not like game 1 is the norm for Brooks either. (And yeah I preferred Brooks LAL game1 over the Portland game 1)
And they have been. Game 4 they were split 24-24. Oh, you dont make a change to the starting point guard spot in the 2nd game of the 2nd round play-off series. I could easily see another game where Lowry is in there instead of Brooks, though if the Lakers go with the same lineup from last night, I could see the Rockets stick with Lowry/Brooks combo at the guard spots. Game 1 surely wasnt the norm. But he has had 3 good/great games(1&6 vs Portland and 1 vs Lakers) and 1 bad game in game 5. His games 3 and 4 were mediocre at best. Interestingly enough he had 5 turnovers combined in the game 1 wins, and zero turnovers in games 3 and 4 vs Portland.
