wtf? are you like new to sports or something? i must have missed the decree that any criticism of one's team was unwarranted. HAI GUYZ TIHS IS TEH PERFECT TEAM WIHT NO FLAWS GO ROKKETS BELIEVE IT!!1 1995 ALL OVER AGAIN WOOOOO!!11 there is no cause for concern, folks. we have built the perfect team.
Why do keep responding if you said you weren't going to? Who said we have a perfect team. On the contrary, I said we do not have the perfect team. It's you who wish for perfection. For everything little backhanded comment that you made, they are better suited for yourself.
You know what I also noticed (don't know if this has to do with this thread but its a definite problem) is that when Yao DOES get the ball in the post after the previous play or two he got fronted, he holds the ball for like 3 seconds and passes it right back out to the person that fed him. When he gets the ball, the shot clock reads around 16 or 17 seconds left. He just grabs it, holds it down low, 3 seconds later its back out and he never see it again. Nobody came to double him. He has his man sealed (finally). Why does he do that? Hold the ball and dribble at least to try and get the double team to you and THEN kick it back out. Very frustrating. By the way, I still say if Yao can't handle the fronting, we should put Deke in and run a team with Deke at 5, Artest at 4, Landry at 3, Wafer at 2 and Lowry at 1. Substitute Wafer for Barry if need be. Defense and penetration with the occasional three.
sad that we've reached the point where wishing for a semblance of a solution to the team's achilles heel is wishing for perfection.
Sorry.... But I can tell you now... The Trailblazers are going to run the living crap out of the Rockets.... They are young talented and RUN 10 deep....
I have to agree with rhester. I think it's really a simple equation. If the Blazers front Yao from the start, they will dispose of us in 4 or 5 games. If they wait till the 4th quarter to front with Aldridge, it could go either way, us in 6/7 or them in 6/7, depending on the play of our role players in protecting the lead Yao Ming will be likely to have built up heading into the 4th. I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't come out fronting from the very start with Channing Frye. They obviously can't waste Aldridge's energy. I think starting Pryzbilla simply for the sake of continuity is a bad strategy - Yao has proven that he will carve anyone up if they play behind him. Channing Frye isn't much weaker than Al Harrington, Boris Diaw, or Antoine Walker, all of whom have successfully fronted Yao in the past. If Nate McMillan is even worth his weight as a coach (and he is brilliant by all accounts), he will front Yao from the start and then come in with Oden/Pryz when Yao goes to the bench. We have shown we have no answer for this. Kyle Lowry is the only guy on this team that has shown even a remote capability of running a different offense without Yao. It will be on his shoulders to not get flustered and attack the basket and set up his teammates. Unfortunately he isn't talented enough to carry a team for a full series.
I don't know what your theshold is for our offense being truly Yao-centric. That's why I didn't respond, because I don't know how you're defining that. I mean, there certainly have been stretches in the past 3 or 4 seasons where we've depending on Yao a lot to carry our offense. It usually happened when there was lack of offensive talent elsewhere, and Tracy was injured. In such stretches, under JVG, Yao was able to average 30+ ppg over a number of games. A limited sample, but in those stretches our team offense sucked. Understandable, without a really good playmaker also on the floor. But you tell me at what point our offense truly becomes "Yao-centric". To me, if Yao is the main focal point of the offense in a majority of the possessions he's on the floor, that qualifies as a Yao centric offense. You apparently have a different criteria. When you say Yao is not turnover-prone, I can't say I understand that. Compared to other primary offensive options of other teams, he is very turnover prone. Most scoring big men are, to varying degrees, and Yao particularly so. And I don't just look at it whether or not Yao turned it over. Rather, on possessions in which we're looking for Yao to make something happen, are we more or less likely to turn it over? To me, that's the key question. As for Yao being limited, again I'm not sure why you consider that an ignorant opinion. Compare him to any other primary offense options on other playoff teams, and the ways he can hurt you are limited. He can't create shots for himself or others outside of 10 feet from the basket. He's obviously not a guy who'll run or finish on a break. He can't face up in the midpost and take defenders off the dribble. As a low post player, with his back to the basket, he's very good when he has the ball. Though, again, he's limited in his ability to receive the ball (does not catch outside his zone well, does not have great hands). You bring up Shaq, but you know very well that Yao is not Shaq. Whatever limitations Shaq had away from the basket, he more than made up for it with his ability to get deep post position, hold his spot instead of getting pushed off, and catch the ball if it gets anywhere close to him. There was no one better at catching a lob in traffic and finishing. That's not Yao. Yao's greatest limitation is that its just very difficult to get him the ball in places where he can be effective. More than any other primary offense player, that's a problem for Yao and the Rockets. I think we can agree on the facts. It's just the wording ("Yao-centric", "turnover-prone", "limited") that you disagree with.
i understand your perspective there. but that is true to any centerpiece of offense. the more important you are, the more you're gonna touch the ball; the more you handle the ball, the more chance you're gonna cause turnovers. your post is very reasonable, as usual. i just disagree to some of your points. don't know if you come to this board as often in the offseason. maybe we can exchange some points after the season is over and there isn't too much going on.
I agree 100% in concept, but not in practice. Everything you have said about this issue now and in the past is exactly right. That said, I think we'll beat Portland no matter what. I just think we're better, smarter, etc. We'll be hurt if they front Yao, but we'll still win. We still have more weapons than they do with or without Yao's consistent production. About Lowry, I agree again. We had this conversation a month ago and it focused on how good the Rockets could be. I said it was how far Brooks could carry the team. About a week later I started to think I was wrong because Artest was shooting the lights out. Now I think Brooks just won't get the court time in the playoffs because of his defense and Artest has reverted back to his poor spot up shooting. As a result - YOU ARE RIGHT - we'll be as good as Lowry can make us. Throw in some Von Wafer, and there you have it. Until next year when McGrady is healthy, we won't be making it out of the 2nd round without some miracle shooting.
I would have agreed with this a few months ago, but Artest and Brooks have been abysmal of late, so that really worries me. We will need Yao to dominate, he is capable of dominating, but last night reinforced the painful truth that we have no counter when Yao is neutralized. i would also feel much better about this if we had homecourt. I'm not sure but I think this thread was created before the Lowry trade, so most of us here pinned our hopes on Brooks. It's pretty obvious though that Lowry is clearly the better player. The problem though is that while Lowry is clearly better, he is a playmaker - Brooks makes us much more dynamic when he is on his game than does Lowry. So I think Brooks has/had the capability to make the team dangerous when he was hot, whereas I don't think Lowry is talented enough to do that. And Brooks has fallen off a cliff. So yes, if Nate McMillan is smart, our hopes basically are all on Lowry to guide this group through its set offenses like a true leader. This concerns me for the aforementioned reasons - we can't simply matriculate that Lowry is good enough to lead/carry a team through entire games for an entire series just based on the small 5 minute spurts we've seen him do it. It would be a tough task for anyone, let alone a guy with no All-Star talent around him (if Yao is neutralized). And of course if they don't front Yao in quarters 1-3, he should have no trouble destroying them long enough for Lowry and co. to hold down the fort for one quarter.
good idea....with dke running the center position we will get blown out of the arena.... 110-50 deke can't score
i intend to continue bumping this thread until either A) an all-star caliber playmaker is acquired or B) the team shows it can consistently score despite facing a fronting defense. until either of these two things occur, this team will not be of any significant relevance in the NBA title discussion.
The points are these: No other scoring option on the floor but Yao. Teams only have to focus on him and Rockets fall. Throw everyone at Yao and let others shoot. 8 games out of 10 they will miss. Teams are willing to gamble...and in a series...will lose a few...but win the majority. This is where we miss McGrady. You will see this in the playoffs....get ready.
your blind optimism is appreciated, but this is a serious concern. the 2% chance this team had of winning the title this year evaporated with last night's loss and the removal of portland from the lakers bracket. i've been saying i think its almost poetic justice that it was the fronting defense that essentially sealed this team's fate in the biggest game of the year and robbed it of realizing the ideal playoff scenario. i'll be praying that daryle morey gives me reason to let this thread die a dignified death this summer by virtue of Option A, because i'm fairly confident that option B won't ever be coming to fruition for any consistent length of time without some serious personnel changes. And I'll assume C was a joke...
Anyway, I think the over-arching idea here is that our offense needs to be less predictable in the fourth, unless it's effective. Lowry getting foul calls - that's effective. Yao making jump-hooks - that's effective. The team needs to realize when something isn't working, though, and I think that's the problem. When the team can't get the ball to Yao they seem to forget that we have a roster outside of Yao... they start to panic and make bad decisions... to say nothing of Artest.. dear God, that guy.. Ball movement. Scola, Wafer, Lowry, Landry, Brooks. We got this. We just can't afford to be too robotic about it. We need an offense that thinks.
I can't recall any team having more trouble getting their big man the ball than the Rockets do with Yao. I can't recall any all-star caliber center ever having such a difficult time getting the ball late in games.
(I was just writing about this and was going to start a thread. But now that I see this thread I'll just insert my thoughts here.) A big part of the brain-lock the Rockets experience in the Yao/fronting situation is that their "go to guy" is the one they can't get the ball to. Aside from Yao, there is no well defined "go to guy". Even Yao is not a reliable "go to guy", but he may be the best on the team at this point. And this "go to guy" would ideally be attacking the fronting defense from the weak side. A case could be made that in some instances attacking from the strong side lets Yao act as a shield (or pick) when driving to the basket. And let me define right here: my "go to guy" would in most instances attack the basket; not be a wonderful jump-shooter. (Although, I certainly wouldn't frown on that skill as a bonus -- see Jason Terry.) I'm not sure this "collective" brain lock can be solved this post-season. The candidates for the job are young and not sure if they should try to be the "go to guy". (A matter of perceived role and pecking order) Right now the best candidate is Von Wafer, but he is young, relatively inexperienced, first year on the team and so can't be as decisive as a "go to guy" needs to be. Being tentative generally leads to mistakes -- especially in the playoffs. Aaron Brooks has potential, but too often throws up Alston-like rainbow shots when he gets close to the basket. Landry has potential for "go to" as a post-up player because he goes to the basket stronger than Scola does. (Again, the key being to attack the basket.) Lowry could also be a "go to" because he attacks the basket most of the time when he looks to score. He has more confidence in that and also realizes it puts the most pressure on the defense. The problem?? None of these guys are at a stage in their career or with the team where a collective "unspoken" message from their teammates tells any one of them that they can be the "go to guy". This feeling has to come from the players as well as the coach. Everybody repeats the mantra that "Yao is the man" so much that it puts doubt in these other potentials to act when they can/should. The best hope for the playoffs is for the team to get together (doesn't have to be a formal meeting) and let these players know that they all should not be tentative in attacking the basket. Don't "look" to get the ball to other players if you have path to the basket or an open jump shot. This process may likely be painful and mistake-ridden at times. And the playoffs are not the ideal place to let ""go to guy"(s)" be chosen. But their success in these playoffs may turn on this. As long as the team becomes tentative when Yao gets fronted they will struggle and risk losing the game.
