The question now is how do we utilize the wings that we do have now to do the job that McGrady used to do for us late in games?
i see none, unfortunately - if you're talking about a 05 version of mcgrady. i believe that's why morey has another "high caliber player" goal in his mind so he can pair up with yao. with what we have, of course it's aaron, ron, wafer and kyle.
That's probably why those Adelman Kings, as good as they were, couldn't quite reach the top....because they didn't have a Kobe, McGrady etc....
Well, let's not get carried away. He was certainly a top 5 player that year though. Go figure. And to think, Dakota had me completely convinced that Tracy McGrady has always been the bane of this team's problems since his acquisition.
well, maybe I just revere McGrady's play a little too highly, but I really felt that year the Rockets had the most talented wing in the league at his best.
bibby, b. jackson, barry, christie, peja, etc. those were pretty good wings. the reason they couldn't beat the lakers was bad luck and the refs, at least for that one year.
They were good wings no question, but none of them were dominant like wade, lebron, mcgrady or Kobe. They weren't game changers. And I think the Rockets need a game changing wing to close out games.
Ill respond to this. Its is that easy. Good ball movement and proper spacing will aleviate this problem. This is a Brooks and Rafer issue of the years. Rafer was only comfortable setting Yao up on the block with a man behind him. To be honest, I don't think AB has the ability to run a team in this situation. Let me give you an example. A few years ago we played the Mavs in the playoffs. If Tracy had the ball at the top of the key and the defense was fronting with weakside cheats, we ran Yao up to the top of the key, used McGrady in a Pick and Roll, more of a rubbing off they both rolled to the lane and Yao got dunk after dunk. Now we don't have the advantage of McGrady, but AB sure isn't pointing it up out there, he is strickly a gunner. Yao does have a slow reaction time, but its the job of the PG to make the adjustments to find a way to get the teams premier player the ball. Look I love ABs penetrating ability, his fearlessness, and I will live with his inability to defend anything other than a dust bunny. What is discerning is that he doesn't try very hard to put people in winning situations with his passing, and he is straight up a gunner. Nothing else. AB has to figure out how to mediate when to score, and when to pass. And his passing has to be effective passing, not just dishing the ball around the the circle and last second heaves when the lane is shut to him. Think of it like this. Right before RA got booted, the Alston Scola PnR was becoming a very deadly and effective weapon. I just don't see AB even trying to make that play at all. He just pounds the ball away.
The truth is this is not a Yao problem this is a team issue. There are very few instances in recent years when a team uses a post player as the focal point of the offense down the strech. Look at all the championship teams in recent history they had a post player as the focal point for 3 quarters and a player who could create there own shot down the strech. We dont need Yao to do anything diffrent we need Someone else to step up and be that offensivly potent wing scorer if only for the last 5 mins
Of course, we should not force feed Yao in any quarter not just the fourth. The Rockets drain too much of the shot clock just trying to get it in to him through a fronting defense, and once they do, the opposing team will immediately double him resulting in either a turnover or bad shot. If he kicks it back out, his teammate would be forced to shoot a low quality shot with the shot clock running down. The problem I see in Yao's game is that he tries to pass it back out too often and not look to make an aggressive move to the basket or do his turnaround jumper. He has to realize that it is difficult to get him the basketball and that once he gets it, he has to be more offensively-minded and not defer to others. I'm not saying that he should force shots, but he should quickly decide what to do if he gets the ball and not wait around too much trying to survey the defense.
I agree. Yao needs to be more "selfish" and power over his defenders instead of passing out too often.
