The league has figured Yao out, or Rick is a bad coach

lebron can improve his jumper alright. so did many others.

can yao improve his foot speed and center of gravity?

dream and rudy didn't figure out the illegal d by george karl and lost like what, 16 in a row? like i said, post players can be taken out of a game any time by any team. it's not their fault per se, it's the way it is. the difference is if the team can exploit that.

if the league had allowed that illegal sandwich defense on akeem before he could catch the ball on a nightly basis back then, we might've seen a different akeem.

of course, akeem had more moves and is a greater player than yao. no one is arguing that. but that's beside the point. so pls don't come back with that one.

 

The league figured Yao out a few years ago, but it was never this noticeable/ easy to shut him down because we had one of the best wing players in the league playing along side of him. T-mac always demanded a double and took pressure of Yao...Tmac also ALWAYS found a way to get the ball to Yao...How many times have we seen Tmac beat a collapsing defense with a perfect pass to Yao. That pick and roll w/ Tmac and Yao was money.

For all the people that hated on Tmac and complained that he was stunning Yao's growth/ getting in the way of Yao being a dominant force all I have to say to you all is that Tmac was probably one of the best players that Yao could have had play along side of him. Tmac covered up a lot of Yao's weaknesses. It was never this damn easy to take Yao out of a game when Tmac was on the court and I still don't believe the guy gets enough credit for being able to single handedly beat a defensive scheme they had against him or Yao.

IMO the only way Yao can become effective again (w/o tmac) is by starting to play 40-50% of his offense in the high post and start playing some old school Adelman ball. Hopefully this will make it easier for him later on in the game to establish post position. Having Yao mix it up will keep Portlands bigs guessing. Otherwise it's to damn obvious what Yao is going to do every time, and it's not that hard to stop something/ prevent something you see coming at you every time (especially when the guy has HUGE physical limitations)

 

everybody should be responsible for this problem and let's see the change in game3

 

This is news? The league figured out Yao, seven years ago. They just fronting because of Adelman. He has been struggling for years with fronting. He gets destroyed in the playoffs.

 

I meant to say. They didn't just start fronting because of Adelman. It's an old issue.

 

no one figured out Hakeem. they might slow him down...but no one completely neutralized him. no one held him to 6 shots in a playoff game. not in his prime, anyway.

 

yes..this is true. no big man can ever dominate again, because teams might front him. or even (gasp!!!) double-team him!!! hakeem olajuwon would be diminished to nothing at the hands of brandon bass!!!!!

give me a break.

 

It's not really that the league "figured" him out, it's that Yao isn't ideally suitable for the main guy because of his obvious deficiencies. He's much better as a Batman's Robin, rather than being Batman himself.

The problem is we don't have this guy to compliment him:

Spoiler

The gimmick defenses Yao has to experience would never happen because they'd be more worried about trying to contain a healthy T-Mac.

 

clearly, the league has figured yao out.

i mean, no one knew about the fronting before this year... oh wait..

ok, they knew about it. Therefore, they employed it all season, shut yao down all season, and the Rockets barely won any games.. oh wait..



ok, the league figured yao out, but they decided not to employ it and not to try to win games very often so that they could let one team take him out in the playoffs. yea, that's it. that's what happened.

 

QFT.

All these players, years, and coaches have come and gone. And they have figured out Yao. collapse and front him.

No one can demand a double except Yao. That is the major flaw with this team.

Man, I miss TMAC of a few years ago. Hell, even TMAC of last year.

 

Bingo.

P&R Yao T-Mac will destroy any Fronting defense.

 

Its plainly obvious this is the result of a lack of a premier perimeter player who commands a double team. All defenses have to do now and zero in on Yao and its game over for us.

 

sorry to get your feeling hurt.

fyi, akeem in my book is the g.o.a.t. i've said it many times.

but someone being your bball idol doesn't mean you have to religiously blind.

what do you think? what if akeem faced the seattle illegal d every night? what would have happened? just asking a question.

 

[rant] Geez.. y'all are acting like we got blown out. We lost by 4 points and had it down to 2 with seconds to go! Without a bad call and a few made free throws by Fernandez we likely win the game.

Yes it would be great to get Yao a lot more touches, but Yao isn't the frackin team. What Adelman showed was that we can beat the Blazers even without Yao. Consider we missed 10 free throws and Scola and Artest missed a few wide open jumpers if any of those things change even slightly we win.

Seriously are y'all more upset that Yao didn't get more touches or that we lost the game? I can't tell the difference..[/rant]

 

of course yao is not the team. no one is.

but to get yao more touches increases our chances of winning dramatically. those 2 things are inter-connected. why is it so hard for some of you to understand?

we may be able to beat the blazers and win a game or even 2 without yao. but the whole series? are you nuts?

 

If the Blazers are dedicated to not allowing Yao to score by fronting and double teaming and playing their zone, and they're willing to give up open shots to other players, then that's what we have to take. And, yeah, if other players do their job correctly I think in that scenario the Rockets would still be capable of winning the series. But I wouldn't consider that winning the series "without Yao". Yao's presence is still creating those openings, even if he isn't getting the ball.

 

What a lot of y'all seem to miss is that the only way to defeat fronting and collapsing defenses on Yao is to have the rest of the players score. The Blazers can't commit two players all the time on Yao or dedicate a shot blocker infront of Yao when other players are scoring. They are going to have to play honest defense and defend the other players.

No post player has been successful without having other players around them play well. Shaq couldn't do it, Duncan couldn't, heck even Hakeem couldn't. Yao is no different. Just trying to forcefeed him when he is doubled and fronted won't win us games. We've seen that before.

That is why I said I can't tell the difference between whether some of y'all are more angry about whether Yao only got 6 shots or that we lost the game.

 

I don't want to say this thread is stupid but fronint Yao started last season on a regular basis and this year most teams applied late in games when possible. But still Yao averaged 20 10 this season. So the league hasn't figured out anything accept that the Rockets don't have a whole bunch after Yao. If you stop him then you can beat the Rockets. The solution is simple make them pay for focusing on Yao. How do you do that. The same way the Lakers make you pay for trying to double and triple Kobe. They kill you with Gasol, Odom, Ariza and then when you back off late in the Game a rested Kobe takes over.

So the answer is simple only we don't have Gasol or Odom on our team. We don't another dominate offensive player who can create his own shot when Yao is doubled and fronted and backed. So it is matter of stopping. Any team can stop any player to a degree if they are willing to make that player their focal point. The problem is we don't have a healthy young tmac or a another star on our team. We don't have Parker, we don't have Gasol, we don't have boozer, we don't have aldridge, we don't have josh howard and Kidd. We do not have a supporting superstar offensive player to make another team pay for focusing on Yao.

SO don't say stupid things like the league has figured out Yao. The league has also figured out Lebron James. Just keep the ball out of his hands and always keep 2 bodies on him and you stand a chance of stoppping him. If I am any team playing the Rockets I will make anyone else beat us on the Rockets besides Yao. that is my defensive strategy for all playoff games from here on out. And unless Artest and Brooks step up even more we might not win another game. On a side note I do believe the Rockets will rise to the ocassion but more importantly Yao will still be a force to some degree. If he can do that then we will go far.

 

1) NOBODY will guard yao when he's out 20ft from the basket. there's no need for foot speed or center of gravity for knowing how to consistently knock down an open jumper. THIS ONLY SKILL will negate any fronting any team tries to do. you think they'll bring 2 guys to yao way out 20 ft from the basket? i don't think so.

umm... come back to what? illegal defense has been around this league since forever. have you seen how teams defended lebron/kobe/wade with the shadowing defense? that WAS illegal back in the 90s. now you can do that. you think it slows those guys down?

there's youtube clips showing evidence of that. that's why if lebron (or wade, who has developed a good jumper if you saw tonight's game) and all perimeter players know if you want to be a great player in this league, you gotta have a jumper.

again, yao can EASILY solve this fronting defense with a midrange jumper. it doesn't even require thinking. why do you think adelman wanted to play yao in the high post to start last yr? had yao do well out there, it would open up the game so much not only for yao, but the team. but since he can't, we gotta swing/move the ball around, and as a result, have to ignore yao when teams front him.

 

the league figured out dwight howard. he only got 6 shots and scored 11 points.