It makes sense to bench Yao in certain situations but to insist not playing your star center at all against the Jazz is just plain stupid.
Exactly. What if Yao gets Okur into foul trouble early in the game? Okur has a tendency to do that against quality centers.
The root of the problem is that we don't have anyone of our Point Guards who can pass the ball into Yao. Rafer is the worst offender!!!!! If we had a Robert Hory type player we would be in great shape! Possibly Coach A could work with a player in the offseason to become this designated passer!
Yeah, if I were an NBA coach like you I would bench a 7-6 center who is putting up 22 and 11 and 3 blocks per game because the other team has a good PF. I obviously mean that I wouldn't have Yao going out and contesting all of Okur's jumpshots. Obviously you don't leave any player wide open all the time, no matter how bad a shooter he is. Everybody makes it to the NBA for a reason.
So lots of people are trying to say, if we play Utah or Suns or GS in the playoff, we play Battier, Scola and Landry/Hayes frontcourt? If we really did that, i guess the other team will just drive to the basket and try to get an layup every single time. I agree in some critical posessions benching Yao is a good option, but for 25 minutes of the game? No WAY. He averages 2 blocks a game, and he changes a lot of shots in the paint,which does not show on the stat lines. We just can't take Yao out for 20+ minutes because the opposing centre can shoot the 17 footers. He'll always be a threat for the opposing guards who wants to penetrate. I'm sure Adelman will figure this out..he's the coach afterall.
2 cases rox bench yao without sacrifice insider: 1/ teams without very good PF and C, such as Portland. yao benched or not doesnt make any diffenrence. our backups can do well. 2/ teams with PF and C shoot outsider not strong postplay, such as Sun. we deffitelly need fast C and PF. Yao too slow and can be deffended. any other teams play post, yao match up well. Spur, Magic, NY, Laker, etc.
Exactly. Nobody is saying that Yao shouldn't be benched for certain situations in a game. You adjust to matchups, even guys like Hakeem had to sit for certain matchups. But not to even play him, or barely play him, because of a matchup? Why let the other team adjust when we would be doing the adjusting for them?
stop contradicting yourself. you said you'd have Yao stay in the interior instead of contesting Okur's 3 point shots, now you say you wouldnt do that? tell me mr. know it all, how exactly would Yao defend Okur?
Yao should be the first option, obviously. He's always the starter. But if its not working for him over the course of the game, for whatever reason, I think we should be willing to close out the game with another player. I don't agree with the notion that your all-star should finish games by default, regardless of matchups or the flow of the game.
I don't remember Okur being too quick off the dribble, so technically you could send Yao out to the 3 point line. I'm fairly confident he could stay in front of Okur no matter what happened. You just lose all that good shot blocking and intimidation in the paint.
I laugh when people say play a zone to fix the problem, because effectively the whole point of a zone is to give up the outside jumper to a big man since it's a lower percentage shot. You have to live with it. There's no reall viable alternative. The NBA doesn't really allow you to effectively run most zones because you have to clear the paint and that will leave a side open if you try runing say a 3-2 zone. A big man that can hit an open J is going to devestate zones.
this can only be answered by yao. When yao decides he wants to dominate both ends of the floor, you leave him in. When yao wants to plus like he did tonight, you sit him down.If yao makes it so lopsided in the rox favor, the rox will roll. Last yr in the playoffs, Boozer and Okur killed the warriors in the paint. If yao does the same, its a no brainer.
benching yao is NOT an option. he's a top 10 player and u don't bench a top 10 player. he's a huge part of our offense. tonight was just one of those nights where this specific unit on the floor was just clicking on both ends of the floor. what if scola continued to miss those Js he had missed earlier? also, yao was in foul trouble and the blazers went small. when we play small teams and they play zone/front, it's best to play him in limited minutes WITH shooters. but he still must play around 30 minutes a game anyways. u need him for interior defense, rebounding on both ends. this shouldn't be a diss to yao. tonight just showed the growth and depth of our team, esp. our rookies. when we won without tmac, it was a tribute to the growth of our role players in general. that's not a diss to tmac either. we should be glad the players are growing as we head into the stretch run. we need at least 2-3 guys to step up along with dominant performances from tmac and yao. like i said, i'm optimistic. yao will come back strong v. utah.
Well there lies the problem. Adelman needs to mix it up and not give them the same look all the time. That is the best defense. For example, Yao makes Okur expend a lot of energy defending him. It hurts Okur shot. I don't understand why it has to be all or nothing.
Exactly. A zone is designed to pack it in to protect your big men and make teams beat you with a jump shot. And with Utah's style of offense they would shred any zone the Rockets try and use.
Shawn Bradley could beat Yao off the dribble. Yao is probably the SLOWEST player in the league. he'd make Okur look like Aaron Brooks.
