In response to all of the fairweather fans coming out of the woodworks lately, proclaiming doom and gloom. All the worrying. All the b****ing. Well, frankly it just makes me sick. Even more sick than these losses. In fact, give me one second.. *Hurl* Much better. Anyways, in response to this negativity, I would like to look into our team's current state, and provide a more analytical view, instead of the vague "We suck" or "We are fine". The Good -Yao is Rebounding- I've always thought that Yao has more room to grow, offensively. But as for rebounding, i succumed to the consensus that, at such a height, Yao doesn't have the balance, footspeed, and timing to become a dominant rebounder. With enough minutes, 10 would be fine with me. From what i have seen so far, that is not the case. First of all, he is more aggresive going after boards. Too often, he has been waiting for the rebound to come to him instead of going after it. Now he is actually doing a little semi-dive after rebounds out of his reach. Whats more impressive, he has much better hands and timing. I never thought he could improve his timing, since that more engrained and you can't really practice it. However, he is actually snatching alot of rebounds that hit the rim and have awkward bounces. Like when someone shoots a really flat shot and the ball hits the front of the rim and comes straight down. Before that would have probably bounced off Yao's head, rolls down his shoulder, tips it with his elbow and goes out of bounds. Now, surprisingly, he just grabs that mofo. This improved rebounding technique, coupled with his aggression, will probably yield closer to 12-14 rebounds, in due time, instead of the 10 that i thought he would max out at. -Bench- This is one of the biggest knocks on the Rockets, from the ESPN crew to Basketball forums across the "internets". Surprise surprise. I have been preaching all along that our depth is far from "bottom 5" or whatever they are projecting. And in the past two games, its our bench that brought us back into games, handily outplaying opposing benches. We have out scored the opposing bench by 16 in our two games. Lue Sura Boki/Bowen Howard/Padgett Deke/Spoon That lineup seems pretty decent to me, and with Jeff's defense, they will always be competitive. The Bad .....to be continued due to extreme fatigue
Here - I'll give it a whirl. The Bad -Game Plan- We still have a real hard time setting up the inside-out game. This is due to both (1) Yao not being able to set up position and (2) his teammates struggling with the entry pass. I don't know what the best resolution is, but it needs to start with Yao being more aggressive. I would like to see him swing those elbows, fouling as necessary. Force the refs to foul him out. Right now the defenders have a free ride because they don't need to worry about Yao running over them or the refs calling their illegal pushing on the block. To complicate things further, when the Rockets struggle to pass it in, the whole offense bogs down. We chew up a lot of clock time, which might be the reason for our problem with: -Shooting- There are entirely too many wild shots. I don't mind McGrady taking some weird shots (he has shown himself quite capable of making them) but the other guys? -Turnovers- I put this pretty much on Yao too. He should know now that the defenders double him and wait for him to put the ball on the floor. Where is that Shanghai-shake? The immediate jump hook? -Full court press- I thought we managed Detroit's press pretty well, but after the Toronto game I think this needs more practice. Beating the press should not be as hard as the rockets are making it, and it should lead to some easy baskets...
I've always tried to judge Yao's game at least 50% based on rebounding. Unlucky bounces aside, if Yao is rebounding well, he is being active, and while he may not be shooting well, he should be helpful to the team. And, keep in mind that Yao continue to get fewer minutes than you're other big rebounders. Duncan and Garnett both got over 5 more minutes of action last night, etc. So Yao is actually rebounding better than his 10 per game on a per minute basis. Of course, if Yao can't play those extra minutes than that is a negative on his game...but, I think his conditioning looks a lot better. He needs to start going longer in the first quarter and coming back in sooner in the second. Same in the second half.
Here is my attempt to be a rational fan. The Ugly -The Offense- The offense has never been pretty but at least it was serviceable but right now it seems like neither. Its hard to pinpoint any exact reasons why our offense (or lack of) looks so bogged down but it does. I need see much motion after the first pass and too many people standing around waiting for a pass or watching the shot. We need to implement more movement in our offense (cutting/diving/running around in circles) and actually try running some plays. -Rotating Defense- Our defense had been our bread and butter last year keeping us close in games where we couldnt hit a shot. This year our defense looks so much more porous with people able to get into the lane at will. Opposing teams are wide open for jumpshots its not even close. Our rotating and help defense is slow to the ball I dont know if its a matter of foot speed or players not knowing who is supposed to rotate. -Rebounding- Rebounding is going to become a big problem since our team lacks foot speed and atheleticism. I dont know how we are going to solve this problem but its becoming quite apparent we will lose the battle of glass everygame. J
