The first clip, don't care if its positive highlights only, Yao had big time ownage of Amare. What was that 15 times he blocked just Amare? 2nd clip, man just a different fresher looking team without Rafer on it.... Inverted offenses work good in situations. It doesnt have to be a full time standard offense having Yao on the high post. Won't hurt to have another wrinkle in the offensive strategy, if the team decides to run it effectively. Wasn't it having McGrady in the high post that enabled him to play so well in the playoffs?
That's how I saw it. I think there was a noticeable difference around game 3 in how Tracy was being used and he seemed to be a lot more effective. From that area, Tracy may be the biggest triple threat in the league. Shoot over anybody, make a pass or beat his man off the dribble.
The Rockets offense this year, especially with their stacked roster this year, should be nice to watch regardless of what offense RA implements. To quote RealGM's SW division preview of the Rockets, they have the necessary tools to: The bolded part really cracked me up. Artest will give that extra offensive option.
oh yeah. name a better fastbreaking Rockets team in the last 10 yrs than the 04-05 team of Sura, Wesley, Barry and James...and TMac...with JVG as coach constantly waving his arms to run. Of course, that was only after all the trades came in, and they started to gel.
Yeah, I know, its weird because he shoots a extremely good around the mid-range area-especially in and around the key area. I recall it was somewhere in the upper 40's % wise. Even though he still shot a lot of pull up jumpers once he got the ball in that area, he actually makes close to half of 'em. But the real advantage in that was his ability to be a triple -threat option like you said, and plus, he doesn't have to rely on waiting for the Pn'R's and can make quick decisions with the ball. I never got why Adelman didn't make more use of that, especially during the playoffs, where he made Tmac run through picks most of the time, putting a lot of pressure on him. Thats why I think Artest can be invaluable, more so than just his talents and skills alone. He really understands the offense, and plus he can do more with the ball in his hands than Shane (sorry Shane).
an inverted post places your primary transition defenders (guards/wings) closer to the baseline and cutting towards the basket. They are cutting and rubbing their defenders off picks to lose their defenders. Problem with losing your defenders is those defenders become the wing runners coming the other way...where are they if your job is to lose them via cutting...well, they are releasing the other way. cue up the NBA classic Mav/Kings series in ?2001? as a prime example. A traditional low post offense always has guards and/or wings out high ready to ...uh... transition into defenders. The NBA learned this to stop Magic. The definition of motion is to lose your defender who you then have to find and pick up in transition should you make or miss the shot. Laker's would just take that ball out of the basket and find Magic with Scott and Cooper releasing. How are you going to beat that. Well...put your defenders in an offensive position to drop back into defenders easily. same theory somewhat applies to the long ball game of soccer that England loves, where only a few select are going for the goal.
No, HP is a master of defensive strategies. Actually, what he explained isn't that hard to understand. Two of JVG's wing players were always staying outside of the 3pt line, in a position to get back on transition defense. That's the way to limit the opponents from getting easy fastbreak points. That's why you got to have good 3-pt shooters for that system. That's why we were one of the top teams in 3-pt attempts under JVG. BTW, that team with Jon Barry, David Wesley, and Bob Sura was the best fastbreak Rockets team in years. They were not as good in half court sets.
Man did I love watching Webber when he was with the Kinds. I never saw a big man pass like him before.
when your back court players are TMAC, Jon Barry, Wesley, Mike James, Sura, ........you are going to be good. You have to be rigged to get out of the 1st round.
And there two best players Webber and Peja still avg. more than 20 points a game. So I'm not worry about RA turning Tracy and Yao into role players.
Exactly, beacause with this offense, the Rockets can score a lot of points in a multitude of ways, and with this team we have a luxury that those kings didn't have...a true post up player who can isolate. Webber played well through his team because of his passing and driving ability, but he was never a great post up player, he was an okay to a good post up player at best. Divac was a very skilled center and could post up okay, but he wasn't consistant on the low block. They relied more on 3 point shooting and beating teams with passing and ball ball screens. This team has 1 great post up player in Yao, who also shoots a very high fg% and ft %. Ron Artest can also post up most of the time if he has a SG or SF guarding him or esle he'll beat a PF from the perimeter. He is by no means one dimensional. Tmac is still one of the better one on one player in the league. He's not limited to shooting jumpers like Bibby or Stojakovic. He can create with the best of them in the NBA. If the offense isn't clicking for whatever reason one night, then we still have 3 great one on one options that we can rely on. One who almost never has a bad shooting night in Yao, and 2 other nightmare matchups for opponents in Artest and Tmac. Teams will have to pick their poisen. Those matchups can still provide open 3's off of double teams, so its not all bad to isolate if needed. Phil Jackson did the same thing with Jordan. If the offense wasn't working, then he put Jordan in the post and let him create and his teamates fed off of him. This team may not be as skilled as the Kings in 2002, but they are more talented overall if you look at star power, defense and rebounding. The kings were more skilled in passing and 3 point shooting, and running the fast break. The areas where we have an advantage are what wins championships. There was a reason why the Kings couldn't beat the Lakers...only one go to guy who wasn't a great low post player or beat people off the dribble with ease. He was at his best within a system, not one on one. Same with Bibby, and most true for Stojakovic and Divac. You have to have a backup plan for when the gameplan doesn't work, which is guarunteed to happen at times. The Kings didn't have that player they could go to, to take over a game...luckily we have 3 who almost always have an advantage at their position every night.
We brought Adelman in to instill more offense. If we were going to use the same offense, why change the coach? Yao in the low post has 2 or 3 defenders on him, which cloggs the middle. It's hard to run a back door cut to the basket when you have to go thru 3 or 4 players. So you bring Yao to the high post(he can hit the outside J) and the trigger man hits the back door cutter for a lay up. Now if you're worried about the cutter "brushing" his man off a pick and his man streaking down court for a lay up, you have a point. The cutter needs to utilize the pick to knock his defender at least off stride so the defender can't streak anywhere except to the floor.
Hmm...it's hard to say it's right or wrong...maybe it really should be one month for the attemp including the training camp..
With RA at point running the RA offense, it's gonna give RA headaches when RA's shot is not falling. Sorry, had to get this off my chest. Back to topic, although last years Yao at high post experiment failed, I still think that it might work, if they get more familiar with the system and start to run all those backdoor cuts like the old Kings. Yao playing in the high post will reduce a lot of wear and tear on him, and if it works out, will make it much harder to guard him. So I'm all for trying it out.
Exactly. Distribute the ball, get everybody their touches and get six or more guys into double digits every night. What's important is to keep the ball moving.
