Tmac was attacking basket to get his points in that game, but suddenly stopped for no good reason. Rebounding of course was the key, but if Tmac kept attacking it also might change the game. 76ers reached final in one of the weakest conference ever? That being said, without AI attacking rim frealessly all the time, that 42% shooting wouldn't even got them there. You just proved my point again that Tmac should attack the rim more. As for Yao, there is no need to wait him. If there is fast break points or quick easy points, go for it. In fact, I think Tmac grabbing defensive rebound is a waste, he should sprint to the other end and let Yao and Hayes take care of the boards. He's the best open court finisher Rockets have. But in half court set, Rockets should still run inside out, not using Yao as a screen or high post threat like he is now.
He stopped because Yao got rolling, and T-Mac had just spent all of his energy digging the Rockets out of a 16pt hole they put themselves in. Offense was NOT the Rockets' problem in the last minutes of the game. T-Mac made the right plays and was the guy who set up the players who went 4-5 and had 3 foul shots in the final 4 minutes. Unfortunately due to the defensive rebounding, or lack thereof, Okur buries 2 dagger 3's and Boozer had an offensive rebound and was forced to be fouled, all of which basically ended the game. But the point is he shot a very poor % yet still got the team to the Finals with a ***** supporting cast. All FTA's were outdone by his high amount of TO's and poor shooting % from the field. And while AI drove into the lane more than T-Mac, he also shot a worse % from both inside and outside the paint than Mac, and in 05-06 (his last great scoring season) 70% of his FGA were jumpshots as opposed to T-mac's 78% now (aka 2-3 jumpshot difference per game). I never said he shouldn't, but using TS % is stupid. It is not an end all, be all stat. If he was shooting FT's at Kobe's %, he would be right up with the top swingmen in the league with the TS % and you wouldn't be arguing this. And FYI, I want T-mac to be put in positions to make better decisions, whether it be using the midrange game or driving to the rim. And that happens when you run him off ball and use him in iso's on the wing, not pick and roll after pick and roll like he has been doing for the past few weeks...this goes on Adelman. If he would use him more like he was being used early in the season when he was the league leader in scoring, his efficiency from the field as well as FTA per game would rise. When you are in the halfcourt, you have to wait for Yao to chug down the court, wait for him to get position, see that he gets fronted, set a screen for him down low, wait for him to cut across the lane, swing the ball to the opposite side of the court...before you know it it is a race against the clock, and if he continues to get denied you have Rafer or T-mac throwing up a last second 3 to beat the clock. And Yao was always being used in high screens last year, and it worked, so you can't blame Adelman there.
AI's TS in that year is not low beasue he attacked rim, that's TS's importance. It make offense more effective. If you can't see that, there is no point to argue. When it's already in half court set, what do you mean you have to wait for Yao? Yao is already there if we talk about half court sets. What race against clock are you talking about? It only takes 5 or 6 seconds before Yao got there. Swing the ball around is the right thing to do with or without Yao. So what's wrong with that? Yao is not selfish, he'd pass to open guy if he sees one. I believe it's better than Tmac ran ISO and the entire offense halted.
