I remember when Yao first came into the league. As stiff as he looks right now, this isn't the Yao I remember. I remember Yao having much much better footwork and moved alot more, he looked more spry and and wasn't forced into trying to play like Patrick Ewing and shooting a bunch of fadeaway jumpers from the free throw line. With the departure of Assistant coach Gundy, what type of Yao do you think we will see? Since Hakeem stated he would like to work with Yao I think we will see Yao continue to improve. He can always polish his post skills and that doesn't mean trying to bang with guys he just can't back down. Creativity comes to mind is something that I think he'll begin to develop again. What do you think we will see? One thing for sure, it won't be that iso in the paint while everyone watches you get swarmed crap anymore.
Our new coach I mean Adelman probably won't play the tactic JVG played. That tactic was called "get the ball to Yao and leave him alone". JBG really forgot we have Tracy so I hope new coach wil use both of them, not only Yao. Adelman is a great ofensive coach so he'll find some great tactics
I can't stress this enough. 10 feet and in, Yao Ming is unquestionably the most dominant player in the NBA right now. It's automatic. Van Gundy's greatest contribution to this team and to Yao's development was to emphasize this fact over and over again. End result: MVP caliber play before the broken leg, 25 and 10 over the year. That's superstar level. It's reflected it in Yao's mindset: [10 feet and in] "You can't ****ing stop me." Above all, Yao Ming's deep postup should remain the primary offense because it's the most consistent one we can have; simple logic. I hope Adelman feels the same way, though he will probably give Yao more freedom to shoot the open 15 footer ala Brad Miller. While a few of those is fine by my book, to me they're to Yao's game what McGrady's pull-up 3's are: heatchecks that are severely underutilizing each player's strongest skillsets.
A fully recovered Yao, with a summer that excludes, for once, playing for the Chinese National Team, includes continued work on improving conditioning, and with extensive tutoring by the Dream, Moses, and anyone else that can teach him the finer points of being The Big Man for a team with one of the most illustrious histories in the league when it comes to the center position... that would produce a New Yao. A Yao who finally has what would be a normal summer for an NBA All-Star hoping to improve and reach that next level towards greatness. And before someone complains, I understand Yao playing for the National Team. He's a patriot, and I respect that. BUT, the guy needs some normality for once in his life, as much as normality pertains to being a star in the NBA. If China is smart, and truly wants the finest Yao possible for the Olympics, that happily coincides with the needs of the Rockets, who desire Yao to be the best he can possibly be. Just once, let him do that.
I also want to see some kind of Pick-N-Roll with Yao and T-Mac. Not that high screen Yao sets for McGrady and his 3 pointers. I want a pick and then T-Mac driving to the lane for easy shot or lob pass to Yao for the open dunk.
I hope we can see a new and improved 3 pt shooting perimeter Yao! I'm sick of all this low post business!
We've seen them once or twice, and when they work it's fantastic. Unfortunately, it seems to me that Yao's just too slow of a roller to make the Yao-Mac PnR a consistently effective play. Too often Tmac gets blindside doubled and is forced to either side of the court. Maybe a better option would be the pick and pop ala Kurt Thomas. Again, however, this is somewhat underutilizing Yao. While it may help conserve his energy, at full strength it doesn't have any real advantage over the postup. What Yao does need to work on, and I hope Hakeem can help with this, is getting and holding deep post position. Simple flashes to the paint gets him a layup everytime and the new coach needs to tell the players to PASS the damn ball. Don't hesitate. Just pass it. Misfiring the pass is the same as the resultant 3 second violation anyway.
Yeah a pick-n-pop would work also but I doubt Yao is effective from 15-18 feet shooting jumpers. I know he has the touch especially since he is a great FT shooter but I don't want him to turn in another Brad Miller type. However if Yao knocks down those open jumpers then that opens up the paint for T-Mac to drive the ball. I just don't want Yao to fall in love with the mid range shot like T-Mac has fallen for the 3 pointer. I still want Yao to go apesh!t on guys down low knowing that nobody can guard him. But a mid range game would add another dimension to his game and would make him a deadly assassin and practically unguardable.
I strongly feel that we can have one of the best backcourts in the league with Yao and McGrady. Can you imagine Yao spotting up from the 3??? Nobody will be able to deter his shot, guarded or not. And remember, he only needs to hit 33% of his 3s to equal his 50% from the low post. IMO if Yao gets moved to the 2 or 3, with Hayes and Howard moving to the 4 and 5, we will have an unstoppable backcourt along with a very quick and defensively adequate frontcourt. Remember Boozer torching Yao all last series? I don't see that happening if Yao is shooting open 3s at the SG position.
Ideally I hope Adelman will still utilize Yao mainly on the low block on most of the possesions, but hopefully he can successfully add the occasional outside shot like amare. Playing in the high post is ok everyone once in a while, but thats playing away from Yao's strengths, even though he had a poor playoffs, he is still one of the best low post threats out there. I hope Adelman realizes this, and implements his motion offense to supplement Yao's low post game and to have Yao get tmac some open shoots intsead t-mac doing all the work.
you'll see him firing up 20 face-up jumpers at 45% clip from high post all day... I don't understand why anyone would think this makes him a better player.
To all those wanting Yao to face up, let me ask you. Who's more valuable, Dirk scoring 30 with 5 free throws or Shaq scoring 30 and fouling out the entire frontline in the process? Except the Yao we're talking about shoots FT at a 86% clip so that 30 is really about a 40. This is a no brainer people. 7'6" 300lb guys don't shoot threes no matter how good they might be at them.
Last time I checked, Yao was playing at an MVP level before he got hurt, even with the evil VAN GRUMPY as his coach. But maybe it's Van Gundy's fault he got hurt.
