Strategies against Yao Ming

Hi there first time poster. I'm no bball savvy. The techniques posted by someone at ********************* is rather intriging. Is the aurther making any sense? One thing for sure is as Ming is getting more and more attention, more strategies will be devised against him. It will be tougher and tougher for the rookie. Good luck, I'll be listening.

http://www.*********************/forum/showthread.php?threadid=13182
=============================================

How To Stop Yao Ming
Many teams are going to be employing all sorts of counter tactics, to stop the future dominance of this guy. Here are a few examples, of tactics that other teams are going to use, to make him ineffective:

1) Get him into early foul trouble:


Why is this such a good tactic?? One, because you can expose Kelvin Cato, who is not nearly as dominant as Yao Ming and not as good an offensive force as Ming . Getting him out of the game early, will force the Rockets to adjust their game plan earlier then expected, throwing their overall game plan out of whack.

Having Ming only playing 20 minutes per game, due to foul trouble is better then him putting up big numbers in 30 minutes per game. Plus, getting Ming out of the game, reduces the Rockets inside post game, reducing them to an ineffective jump shooting team.

How to execute this plan. Well, your wing players and big men need to get the ball and take it hard to the rack on Ming. Create space in the lanes, for your guards to free wheel and drive it hard at Ming. Ming, through natural instincts will look to challenge the shot and hopefully will draw contact, giving up cheap fouls.

Also, give the ball to your big men and make them force Ming to play close up to them. Post him up, as best you can and lay it hard at his body. It is not as easy as it sounds, but is effective, as Ming is still a rookie and just getting his bearings adjusted to NBA life.Get him on the back foot and force him to react to you.

2) Stop the ball coming into the post

All that needs to happen, is Ming gets the ball, turns around and stuffs it home. So to stop this, you need your tallest player to play in front of Ming. This will force the entry pass to Ming, to be ignored, as Ming is covered. Make the Rockets make a lob pass over Ming's defender, in order to feed him the ball. Lob passes are prone to turnovers and this is an option.But remember, Yao can just reach over you, as he has such a great height advantage.

Second option, involves double teaming. Now for effective double teaming, your two guys, need to crowd the space for Ming to work and manouver around in the post and around. It is not just having two guys hanging onto Ming, you need to crowd his area and make the offense bypass him. Thus denying him possession.

By clogging up space for him to move into his spots, he will be forced to give up the ball and maybe be forced to turn the ball over, as he has two guys suffocating him on defense.Reduce the space that he can operate in, reduces the chances of him just getting the ball where he likes it and scoring at will. But remember, doubling Ming, leaves another player unguarded, so the defense needs to pick their poison.

3) Get him out of the lanes

So far, this guy is a board cleaner. He is rebounding really well, from his height and his aggression to rebound hard. He likes to stay down low and stop the guards driving and cutting for easy layups and dunks. You need to expose the Rockets lack of overall rebounders and get Ming out of rebounding position. How to do this??

Have your centre play way up high, or even on the perimeter. It doesn't matter if your centre even gets the ball or not, it is about reducing Ming's effectiveness. By having Ming out of the keys, and guarding his man outside, he is effectively out of rebounding position. Your offensive players have space to manouver in the lanes, without Ming in the way. Also, your chances of getting the offensive board are greater, with Ming out of position, as he is guarding his man near the perimeter or close to it.

4) Zone on the Rockets. Simple 2-3 zone will clog up the space for Ming to move in, down low, as I said before. Now, zones are all about reducing and cutting off spaces on the court. The zone needs to be built around Ming. So, your 3 men down low, need to pick their spots and guard the areas that Ming likes to move in and work around. It is all about forcing the outside jumpshot. The offset of this, is that the Rockets have guys that can shoot the ball and will have the space to get open, through the 2-3 zone.

But remember, the art of defense, is all about forcing the opposition to take jumpshots. Not to score inside, through layups and dunks.

5) Get Ming off his game.This is a rather strange task, but it can be used on rookies. This is just an idea. Get in his ear and trash talk him. Rookies can be succeptible to a bit of verbal jousting. Nothing personal needs to be said, just let him know that you are around. Give him the old underhanded jab to the kidneys, that most players do and make him be aware that if he is going to get the ball, he is going to get hammered.

When he goes up for the shot, make sure that he is going to get fouled hard. Make him be aware that if he gets the ball and forces a shot, there is going to be hard contact coming his way. This might not work, as Ming seems to have a clear head on his shoulders and this ploy might not work. But if you get Ming thinking about other things, besides what he does best, then that is a win on your behalf. So if you have the chance to foul him hard, do it.Obviously, Ming is a huge player, so you need hard physical players to perform this role.

Teams are going to target this man and are going to do everything possible to reduce the influence that he has on games. They want him to be a spectator and have no influence on the end result of games. I just mentioned a few techniques to stop Yao Ming...

Opinions wanted!

 

For some reason CC server won't let me post the link as it is. Just goto basketballbords.net, then click Midwest Division, then Houston Rockets.