how the hell is it sensible to make statements like "we need a healthy tracy to win"? who is going to gift wrap a healthy tracy for us and deliver him in our time of need? santa claus? if you call wishing for impossibilities sensible, then yes, that is a sensible comment. i will add another one in the same vein: I wish we had lebron james and kobe bryant on our team. and i wish we had KG instead of Yao. and I wish we had CP3 as our point guard. and i wish we had magic beans that prevented our players from being injured. and I wish we could go back in time to get a prime Bill Russel or Wilt Chamberlain to play center for us. man, making "sensible posts" sure is fun . . .
I think he ment... the Rockets only went to Yao once... in the 4th.... other than that ... they did not even try and pass him the ball... thus... not force feeding the big guy... as your title suggest...
Dude I wasn't. I have no problem if they tried. The biggest problem was they stopped trying for the last 3~4 minutes when game was on the line. There were times while Yao was fronted by only Miller --- who is also not a high jumper --- and not doubled, they didn't even try a lob pass. Instead, the ball was quickly swung away and ended up a Artest or Brooks 3-point brick. It happened so many times. And Adelman, Brooks have said more than once they need to find a solution to beat fronting, pass the ball to Yao's hand etc. Now as you see, they don't have a solution and they even stop trying. Well, 3 pointers at cluth time, just roll the dice and see if I can be a hero or zero.
Look, my post was about needing a play/shotmaker when you don't get the ball to yao to avoid a collapse. I'm just stating the obvious, who do you turn to when you need a shot when Yao is denied the ball or doesn't demand it? A streaky Ron, a hesistant AB, etc. That's obvious that T-mac isn't here and many posters, maybe including yourself, (I haven't read all your "sensible posts" yet) fail to ignore the importance of a shotmaker. Your post about current and future HOFs being on our team is just wishful thinking which may be fun for you. Go Rockets.
Every set they ran, they were trying to get Yao the ball. I don't know what you were watching. Just because they didn't attempt a pass doesn't mean they weren't trying to get him the ball. He just couldn't get open. You front Yao, you take him out of the game. I don't know why more teams don't do it.
They didn't. There was no plays for getting Yao open, no plays called to let Yao run from one side to another. There is no pass to Yao when he's briefly open. It happened in Blazers game the same way.
I wish they would have gotten the ball to Yao in the 4th.....up 17 with 6 minutes to go and getting outscored 23-3 the rest of the way, and Yao getting ZERO touches....friggen return of dumb ball. DD
I was watching the same game like you did. Stop spitting out this kind of nonsense. Watch the last couple of possessions carefully. Yao estabilshed the position earlier than Miller. But the guard with ball in his hand did not pass at first moment. It almost seemed list they were *waiting* for Miller to complete fronting, then swung the ball away. Why? Because they already had a plan in their mind -- if Yao's fronted, then ... -- that's why I have props the thecabbage and RA, they did stop trying to force feed Yao while they should have! If their mind was set, they had passed it to Yao without hesitation, couple of times Miller would have been left behind and Yao would've gone for a slam! Now, please enlight me on how did they try?
Yao can't get open when he's fronted. He's the slowest player in the league and he has no hands. The ball swings to his side and the wing will stare at him, but he can't get open. If you move him to the other side and swing it around the perimeter, same problem. If you try to force it in, it's a turnover. Even if you make a nice pass over the front, there's a good chance he's going to fumble the ball away, because he can't catch if he's not in a comfortable position. If I was an opposing coach, I'd just rotate my bigs all day and have them front. Yao is not a closer. Period.
Rox beat fronting defense many times already. It took a team effort and some timing to get him the ball. Tmac and Rafer were the best to pass Yao the ball against front defense, get the ball to him when he's rolling toward the middle etc. Now there is no Tmac and Rafer, Brooks and Artest simply don't know how to pass him the ball when he's briegly open, even under tha basket.
I had to post to this thread because it seemed like some revolutionary idea: "Stop trying to force-feed Yao!" Hello. I mean, it worked most of the game (the inside-outside game with Yao)...it works most of the time in EVERY game. BUT, ...what is the point of doing it for 6-10 minutes straight with no results? I'd rather have no Yao and at least have some more movement than have a Yao that just clogs the lane while trying to get a pass that isn't coming. There are also a lot of excuses for Yao not being more aggressive towards the end of the game like, "He had 5 fouls." And...so he fouls out. Could the game have gone much worse than what happened? Losing a 17 point lead? If Yao can't come out and play, really PLAY, then bad things happen, I think we saw that tonight.
Yao can't catch a freaking lob pass and he can't establish position worth a **** on anybody with any kind of quickness. After watching the guy for seven years, I'm surprised you guys don't know this. The guards were right not to try to force the ball in. The problem lies in the team being so intent on getting Yao the ball at the end of games. It's too easy to defend. I love Yao, but he has flaws. He brings a lot to the team, but in situations like tonight, those flaws really come out.
