Lol, that's just a major fail. That's because Yao has hands of steel. The guy struggles to catch passes. And don't tell me to NOT talk about that "fronting crap." He's useless with a defender in front him. What the hell does this even mean? It wasn't his fault the players completely forgot how to play basketball at the end. Stop blaming the damn coach. He wasn't the one out on the court. The only mistake he made was not subbing for Aaron Brooks sooner. Other than that, this loss was completely on the players. Aaron Brooks is just fine. He's just inexperienced in those situations. He'll get better. Scola overrated? I'm actually starting to wonder if you even watch the Rockets... I agree with this. Now you've confused me... The obvious problem with the Rockets sucking when Yao is being fronted is because they are trying to rely on Yao too much. They just need to play basketball. Stop worrying about getting it to your big man and just try to get open. I honestly have no idea how to answer this one. The defense was just fine the entire game, except the 4th quarter. They forgot how to play defense at the end of it.
Like i posted in game thread. Did you see where Scola was standing. When Yao was getting fronted Scola was at the free throw line. His man was was always in position to cover Yao's backside. Scola needs to be on other side of court waiting for a pass. Three fourths the time they front Yao, someone is always behind him. Putting Scola farther away gives him the chance to get an open jumper. Also when they front, Rockets need to space out better. Yao is not quick enough to get around the fronting, everyone knows that. All it would take is 2 passes to get him open underneath the basket. He may be to big to work his way around the fronter but that also means he is to big for that guy to get around him. It would take Yao one step to get right beside the basket. 2 to 4 to get to the other side. If they dont want to swing it around, at least fake like they are going to. When they bring the ball back to the top of the key, the guy fronting will always try to move that way. So quickly pass it back to the guy in corner who can then give an open Yao the ball. After their first attempt in passing to Yao they always give up. That is when you see stupid plays like the Brooks bad pass or Artest's horrible shots. One last thing, when passing the ball to Yao, they hesitate WAY TO MUCH. They wait like 10 seconds until they think Yao definitely has position to finally give him the ball.
Good post with solid reasoning. They are wasting too much time dribbling behind 3pt line when yao is fronted. (noticeably Brooks and Artest) Go post up Artest one on one or get Scola a open jumper. (The key word here is open)
The fronting crap is getting old. Need to practice another way to change up the way Yao gets the ball, instead of always trying to post Yao up in the fourth they should change it up and have Yao get the ball on the elbow and work from there. He can either shot if open, pass to someone else posting up or to a cutter.
Rockets definitely can't be a 4th quarter failure. Teams go around talking about wanting to play to Rockets in playoffs because of games like these. Opp. that usually give up in the 4th down 17 now look to players to get them the "spark" to go over the top against rockets. Their reputation is definitely killing Rockets morale, both for the Rockets players and for opp. players.
Play Lowry more, and the problem could be solved. Brooks was real stupid in this game, it was just a short version of Rafer without a pass skill. At least Rafer can figure out to pass the ball to the big man within six min.
Agreed. They need to be patient with good ball movement and shot selections. Jacking up shots would only result in fast breaks by opponents. When their shots failed to fall, why not play the clock down so that the Bulls would have much shorter time to tie the game. From what I see, shots were rushed giving Bulls fast breaks and more time to tie the game.
Ill agree with one thing... RA is a players coach... because someone like JVG would have probably called a time out... and yanked the first player who started to chuck up 3 pointers with a 17 point lead.... and thats what we were doing... because it was easier... then driving to the paint...
Your points: 1. Luis Scola is underrated. Most consistent player this season. I agree that Aaron Brooks is overrated, I also think that we overhype Von Wafer too much. 2. Not being able to get the ball to Yao is not a problem of trust. the players know that everything should go through Yao, and our offense revolves around him. However, when he is fronted, they try to make the defense pay by themselves, which they can't seem to accomplish. Our team's like this: when Yao's the center of the offense, everybody gets spacing and we're really efficient. But when he's not, we run around with our heads cut off. And by the way, Yao was NEVER open. 3.? 4. No question, it's Yao. If Yao is inactive or passive, we collapse. This is why we need Landry because with the way we're playing Yao right now, he just can't afford to fight for position for 36+ minutes. 2)Yes they do practice fronting. However, they don't have a guy like Miller to practice it with. I am sure they will work especially hard on this problem after this loss. 3) Trust me, they want Yao to have the ball. The mentality is not "let's not get Yao the ball" but "crap I can't get Yao the ball! What the hell do I do! Damn the shot clock's dwindling, better chuck it fast". 4) Not really. Big guards like Rose are especially hard to defend for us. D Will will likely cause even bigger problems along the way. Your solutions: 1. The leader is Yao. When Artest tries to assume leadership, we're screwed, like today. Frankly, I'm actually more comfortable seeing McGrady jacking up jumpers than Artest. At least it looks like it's gonna go in. 2. The rotations are pretty much set. We just need Landry at the moment. Okay, so you trade Alston to make AB the bona fide starter, only to make a greener PG (in our system) the guy to play in the 4th quarter? 0 logic there. 3. Who are you going to rebuild around? Yao is one of the handful of players in the league today that are actually worth building around. Good luck finding another one that's willing to stay.
This is a joke right? The ball never hit yao's hand, it was deflected before it even got to him. The problem is AB holding on to the ball for 16 seconds before getting it out of his hands. Reminds me of the good old Francis days.
I think the problem with Yao today is fatigue. Usually when he's fronted, the other player wait patiently until he gains position himself. With the way Miller was fronting him so aggressively, the fatigue really settled in and you could see he wasn't nearly as effective when fight for position. Our schedule's been tight, we only had a 2 man big man rotation, and Yao had 5 fouls so he was afraid he might foul out while fighting for positions. The situation will get better when Carl & Chuck come back, but we also need to figure out some game plans to get Yao the ball even when he can't get position.
Ahh...Chuck is already back?? Hello!! It didn't matter. The problems are a combination of bad defense by Aaron Brooks and turn over the ball, Artest want to be hero, bad time management and substitution by Adelman...all these contribute to the loss.
