Does anyone else become annoyed by star players like Yao being benched for huge periods of time because they are in foul trouble? Yao has been on the bench for ever with 4 fouls and now it's a couple minutes into the 4th. I understand it's nice to have your star in the for the last couple of minutes but at some point you have to realize the only way to get the maximum amount of minutes out of your foul prone center is to leave him in the game and use all of his fouls. If you let your players get the max amount of minutes possible, maybe you have a nice lead at the end of the game if they do happen to foul out. There isn't some magical penalty for a player fouling out, yet coaches are scared $hitless of it. Hell, if you leave a star in with foul trouble the refs ARE LESS LIKELY to call fouls on him. There definitely isn't a good reason to have Tracy and Yao both out for extended time while Tmac gets a breather and watching our offense flounder. No knock on Van Gundy here, every coach in the league does it. At least Jeff hinted at letting Yao play through foul trouble last year, he just didn't do it consistently.
I could be very long but I'll leave it at this: JVG wanted to test the small lineup to see how long it could hold on. Worked out pretty well. Like you, I expected Yao at the beginning of the 4th quarter but was wrong. If you meant keeping Yao in the game when he picked up foul #4 in the 3rd quarter, I completely disagree with you.
That is my read as well. Also with the unit in the game playing very well together, it made no sense altering it. In all, this is a "new" team and the coaches are trying to find the right pieces that gel toghether best. What I am not sure I can take anymore is the Yao Ming that only gets two rebounds against a team that barely shot 42% from the field. Yao greatness will only be certifield when he starts rebounding consistently well - not 16 rebounds in one game and thre the next. This jerkyl & hyde rebounding thingy and his passive disposition on the court when Mac is "on" is something only him can fix - so the ball is squarely in his court.
Yao was only on the floor for 22 minutes and the Nets were jacking up a lot of jumpers that resulted in long rebounds not Yao's specialty. Deke who is a rebounding machine played 14 minutes and he also had 2 rebounds. Get over it, Yao is never going to be a dominant rebounder but he can go into the Hall of Fame without being a dominant rebounder.
I don't think so. This game looked a whole lot like a lot of games we played late last season. When the team basically can't miss a jumpshot (especially TMac) JVG will usually sit Yao and put in Mutombo for rebounding. It's what happened today, it's what happened last season, and it's what will continue to happen whenever TMac gets hot (and infects his teammates with his hotness). But it's a formula that wins games, so why mess with it.
Yao's No.1 problem now obviously is his fouls. That keeps him off court for extended periods of time, makes him playing tentative on the court. That has to change before he can really dominate. Some of the problems is he trying to do too much, like the first foul he picked up tonight. He tried to reach for a offensive board behind Krstic. He has to learn when to let it go, it is not worth it!! His first foul last game on Wade was also stupid when Wade wasn't in a position to shoot. Even more stupid was that foul on PJ Brown when there was no chance. He has to be clear when to pick spots not to go for it. Play smarter, Yao! But he played well offensively tonight. Obviously JVG was conserving him for tomorrow night.
As everyone rightly pointed out, there is no point using him when the game is in no serious doubt. rest him for the boston game. no point for him to play 2 useless mintes to beef up his stats when you can conserve his energy for a more important game tommorow night.
All players have the luxury of committing multiple dumb fouls. Right now, Yao is picking 1, 2 dumb fouls per game at most. Of course, the first foul wouldn't matter if the refs didn't call him for bogus 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fouls. If there is anything to b**** about in this game, it's the officiating. It was terrible. Some rookie ref callin all kinds of bogus crap, falling for several nets flops and giving us phantom fouls. Once again, Yao is the easy target. Home team falls behind, Yao gets sent to the bench, home team comes back. I might just document this for all 15 road games against the eastern conference.
That small lineup doesn't work, especially if Tmac is not on the court. We let Nets close the gap with our Tmac-less small lineup out there not knowing what to do on offensive end.
Complaining about the officiating doesn't get you anywhere. You have to adjust to them, than expecting them to adjust to you. Yao is clumsy, so it is hard for him to avoid fouls. He just has to learn not to commit real dumb ones. Only this way he can stay on court long enough and be able to stay aggressive on defensive end. In the Heat game, after he was foul trouble, he wouldn't defend as aggressively and that hurt us too.
oh please.....let's see how you will do on the court....think you're smarter than yao on the court? it's much easier to sit your ass and watch the game on TV than actually playing the game and execute on the court. easier said than done. i've played pickup games...it is a different feeling on the court. let's see how many dumb mistakes you make on the court. basketball is tricky...do you play aggressive and risk getting fouls or be passive?yao picked up a couple of fouls, an offensive one for trying to get position and another one when he tries to block someone. at least he was aggressive and not taking charges it seems. it's not very easy to avoid fouls all the time....some of Yao's fouls tonight were b.s. and ticky tack. Centers pick up a lot of fouls.
Rockets were +15 for that 22 minutes when Yao was on the floor. Rockets lead by 6 after 3 quarters and only lead by 7 when Yao came in despite Tmac shooting lights out. I don't see how the small line up did better.
Adjust to THAT officiating? I can understand adjusting to a good crew calling a game either tight or loose, but what happened out there tonight was a travesty. Yao committed one real foul, and got to play about 20 minutes for his trouble. His first foul was dumb, but he did not commit a legit foul after that. On foul number 2, he defended Robinson perfectly, jumping with him and slightly back to minimize contact. There was the slightest of body contact, and tweet, instant whistle. Foul number 3 was for touching a cutter. Foul number 4 was the customary defender flop when Yao is fighting for position. If you want Yao to adjust to that officiating, you would be asking him not to fight for position, contest shots, or play any semblance of defense. I would rather b**** about officiating than ask him to do those things thank you very much.
Those rebounds today were tough to grab. Someone pointed out before that they were from long jumpers. Mutumbo and Yao were quick enough to get their hands on the ball, but not quick enough to grab them down. Tough night for slow bigs.
i don't usually find any trouble with jvg's handling of subs/fouls, etc. but that lineup we had out there at the end of the third for about 3 minutes almost cost us the game. fortunately he brought t-mac in just in the nick of time.
Seems like sometime last season this board reached the tipping point in concluding that VG is a great coach and the perfect guy to lead this team. I'm not sold yet...I think his offensive philosophy is one of the most elementary and restrictive in all the NBA. He is often only made to look good by virtue of McGrady's brilliance. What we saw today was typical...McGrady basically doing his own thing out there and creating for everyone else, but without him...the offense is stagnant and wholly predictable. In fact, I believe if you subbed McGrady out with any other NBA player, VG would have already been on the hot seat if not canned already.
