You make a decent point. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last year's playoffs, Boozer was on Scola and Landry for most of the game. Clearly his offensive output suffered due to the energy he used on the defensive end. And clearly, Okur played a lot better last year than two years ago because he was guarding Mutombo most of the time. So, he had his legs and can shoot the 3 which he so loves to do. I feel that if the rockets do face the j*zz this year in the playoffs, I don't expect Boozer to be as dominant as he was two years ago. Deke's defense is great, but Boozer was still getting the shots he wanted. Except this time, it just wasn't falling for him since he was obviously fatigued. I didn't see anything that Deke did that Yao did not do two years ago. The difference was last year we had Scola/Landry and two years ago we had Hayes/Juwanna-man.
Exactly. That was the only point I was making till the Tmac fan club jumped in. To shoot the 3 you need your legs. Okur wont have his legs if he has to guard Yao.
Back to the original topic, I am in agreement that there is no style that the Rockets won't be able to play next season. In fact, the Rockets look to actually have the style that has won championships so often in the past. Having a healthy Yao in the post is going to allow the Rockets to decimate teams at will. One game I hope everybody can think back to is the game that Houston walked into New Orleans for their 10th win of the 22 game streak. That to me was the best game of the year. Because of the emergance of Scola, Tyson Chandler had to play Yao one on one and Yao abused him every chance he got. Tmac also went off in that game but it was the only game that both of our superstars scored 30+ together in all season (if memory serves me correct). I imagine that happening a lot next year because teams are going to have to play Yao one on one with: a)the emergence of Scola as a go to option at the 4 b)Artest as a viable third option c)The moneyball pick up of the ultra efficient Barr spacing the floor when Rafer is off to go along with Head and Battier as 3 pt threats People in the general media who don't give Yao props as the best big in the league are going to see this year exactly how dominant a one on one big man Yao is. I expect Yao to play as well as he did that stretch in 2006 when he had multiple 35/15 games by having a 2nd year Scola and Artest on the floor. Indeed, small ball worries are a thing of the past. The only thing working against us are health and refs who don't know how to ref the 'big man.'
Excellent thread. I agree with the majority of what i'm reading here although I still think there are teams that will give us trouble. Just because a team like GS no longer has Baron Davis they're still a Don Nelson team. You'll still see Nellyball. You'll still see Al Harrington get minutes at the five. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if Marcus Williams breaks out and puts up T.J. Ford like numbers to play the uptempo QB role. Utah, as much as I hate to admit it, will still give us trouble as long as Yao can't figure out how to guard Boozer. Sure, the 07/08 Boozer looked nothing like the 06/07 Boozer, but Boozer has always had Yao's number. It goes without saying why we can't have Yao cover Memo so in that regard it's all on Yao to study his scouting reports, stay disciplined and figure out a way to slow Boozer down. Phoenix will still be tough. Anybody that watched the San Antonio series knows that was probably the closest five game series you'll ever see. And for as bizarre as the Shaq trade was Phoenix made that move specifically to beat strong halfcourt teams like the Spurs. If we're not careful we could fall susceptible to that weakness too despite how badly Yao owns Shaq. Shaq + Amare is lot to ask for Yao to handle.
Then why are you still posting? Anyways, if you actually watched that series and remembered the interviews, Okur said that he pretty much knew where Yao would be and so could defend him well. And he did defend Yao fairly well all things considered. And what's with you? Someone criticizes Yao so they MUST be T-mac lover. Why don't you get off Yao's set? So which is it? Did Okur or didn't he have to defend Yao. What became of his legs?
The thing that's real exciting is that supposedly it takes @ least a year to run Rick's system so I'm hoping for some good ball movement.
Defensively, we will always have trouble with two mobile bigs or one long ball big plus one mobile big, because of Yao. Past examples: Marion+Amare, Boozer+Okur. You have to put Yao on either one of those and he cannot keep up. Well, we don't have Marion+Amare no more. What we did with Utah was let Okur shoot his share of 3s. If he is off, then we can pack it in to focus on stopping Boozer. If he is on... well, he can't be on for more than 3 games in a series, right? So it is not "small ball" but "quick bigs" that we fear. As long as we have Yao as our main cog, we will have that problem. (But of course, as long as we have Yao as our main cog, people will have problem defending us. ) But as cabbage has pointed out in his opening post, even when Yao really cannot keep up with the faster opponents and we have to pull him, now we have enough firepower to sustain our offensive strength, with Scola and Artest (and maybe Landry) in the lineup.
Small ball just isn't gonna work. Rockets never had a post up presense other than Yao really, with Artest on the court, there are at least two post up threats. For small ball teams, pick and choose their own poison, Yao as the post up, and artest on your second biggest guy, or artest on the post and yao as the offensive rebounder.
sugarland, Yao wasnt doubled alot at all during that series, okur just handled him well on defense, Yao shot way below his average, got the ball strip more then a few times, and his jumpers were off, and okur dont leave his feet when he make 3pters, so your point about him needing his feet for 3pts sound so silly. The loss is on the team of course, but no denying that Yao had a sub par series, so stop bringing up his scoring averages, he should be shooting close to 50% in the playoffs.
I'm not going to rain on this thread because it does have some good points, but the only reason why any of those gimmick lineups ever worked is because Yao's inability to dominate the idea. Going into those gimmick lineups, Yao wuld have trouble posting against a fronting defense. He would fight the smaller guy like Harrington and Diaw for most of the shot clock. When he should just get to his spot and stand, then on ball reversal, just seal the guy. Instead on ball reversal, he would let the guy come around him. Why do anyone think people never tried this with Shaq, Dream or the other centers. Once Yao demostrates that you can't play him with a 6'8 guy because he's going to ge dunks and layups, teams wouldn't do it. They do it because he hasn't shown the consistent nature in abusing these trick lineups. When he can do what he did against GSW or Phoe a few times, they would never do it. The good thing about this team now is they could pull yao up and post Artest who is probably just as good of a post player.
Just post those midgets up if they're playing small ball... Basically Artest or Yao or Scola could abuse them if they tried that.
Adelman also gets some credit for devising better plays that worked to bust the gimmick D. The execution looked crisper and the players seemed to know what to do. Of course, it helps to have a Luis Scola spotting up for a J or spinning in the paint for a lay-up rather than a Chuck Hayes floater or an I-hope-this-goes-in J-ho jumpshot/hookshot/whatever shot he has in his arsenal.
Great post. Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, and Hornets - how do we compare? I'm really excited about this season!
When we play against small ball, the problem is not on offense. I have confidence that Adelman, with the offensive talents we have now, will solve any defensive schemes thrown at us. The problem is defense. With the slow-footed Yao, it will always be a problem. Like I said earlier, actually it is not so much "small ball" but "quick bigs" that is troublesome.
I agree with the premise of the thread that small-ball will not be nearly as effective against us as in years past. In fact, with our balance, it will be the other balanced teams that give us trouble. Defensively, I think our biggest liability is still against the elite, multi-threat PGs. That makes NO with CP3 and Utah with Deron Williams likely tough match-ups. Both teams have elite 4s also with solid, tough role players. The Lakers, even though they lack an elite PG, can go toe-to-toe with us from #2-5 with Kobe, Odom, Pau, and a healthy Bynum. The other interesting matchup, maybe not this year but in the future, will be Portland. They have a quick, scoring PG in Bayless. They are are long and versatile at the 2 and 3. Aldridge is a tall, scoring #4, and Oden can potentially match-up defensively with Yao. The Wild, Wild West is in transition with Spurs, Suns, and Mavs fading, but it's no less competetive with new contending teams like the the Lakers, Hornets, and our very own Rockets ready to draw.
huh? Not if you have more agile Centers to defend that three. This is a matchup problem here with Yao.
Teams that are going to run, are going to run. Makes no difference if rox have added artest or not. Defense wise, a running team will always outrun rox, as yao is usally slower than the opposite center, which makes it 5 vs 4. Too stop running, is to slow the game down, play more half court sets, and always cover the PG. Offense wise, yao will need to be more efficient with the ball. His so big, so what if the defense is fast, a big man, can always post one up, if its front d, then its up to the passers to feed the ball well. If its double d, then there will be a open look somewhere, and with the addition of scola/landry, rox have 5 players that can score on court. what i'm trying to say is, the addition of artest does not eliminate the small ball. The rox squad of 07/08 have cover that issue. What artest brings is, an option of a 3p shooting 4, a post-up wing, and a player that can cover 1-4. Artest brings in a versatility that will bring out the best in Tmac and Yao. Along with provide "security" when one of this 2 rest in the sidelines.
Deron won't be our problem anymore. He is not that quick but strong. We can just put Artest on him and let Rafer guard Korver or put Tmac on AK47.
i see the only team that we would have an issue matching up with is the LAL and the celtics (maybe). LAL only because they're getting Bynum back but in the past games Gasol is crazy soft and so is odom (their mentality) but they have bynum coming back and theres always kobe there. i think we have enough options to deal with the spurs and the hornets because our offense isnt constructed to go through tracy and or yao 90% of the time. even though the pair of them were efficient they didnt have the depth they needed in order to win a play off series. with all of these new additions you can bet we'll be much more prepared against whom ever we face in the play offs. In my opinion it'd be so much sweeter to face off with the jazz again in the first round so WHEN we beat them we'll be able to rub it in their faces and show them some humility. and with all thats going on in the league i don't think the west will be as dominant as it was before (as in the same teams being dominant) but more so new higher talent based teams (NO, Rockets, LAL) will take over as the new big guns in the Wild oh so Wild West.
