This one gets trotted out to justify playing Brooks or the need for 4 "shooters" on the perimeter. Has everyone forgotten the past two seasons? When has any team "Double-Teamed" Yao as their primary strategy the past two years? Every team worth their scouts knows that the way to limit Yao is to front him, not to double team him. When Yao is fronted, the way to destroy the front is to attack the rim and pass the ball. I can't believe that anyone still believes this, "we need a shooter cos Yao get double teamed" myth.
The way to beat the Yao fronting defense is for Yao to grow up, catch a lob pass and finish aggresively at the rim by dunking the ball, rather than acting like a little girl.
Fronting doesn't really work without a double team. You need someone floating behind the post player, otherwise there's a huge risk the fronted player will score an easy basket from a lob pass. I think the Rockets have struggled using the lob is because Yao isn't explosive or quick, and can't be guaranteed to catch the ball first with a quicker defender floating behind him. It's not an issue of Yao needing to be more aggressive, its just tough to catch a lob with a defender lurking behind, because a lob pass takes its sweet time getting from the passer to the post player. If there was no defender doubling Yao from behind, there would be no reason not to lob over the top of the fronting player for an easy 2.
Yao gets defended in several ways, including double teams. Not everyone has the personnel to front...
My point is that the defense is basically a soft double off the ball. The way to beat that defense is not through 3 point shots, but through passing from strong to weak side and getting to the basket to take advantage of out of position bigs.
Every single team we will meet in the playoffs has and will front him, last year both the lakers and the blazers fronted him as their main defensive strategy.
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Yao has the stiffest hips in the league. He can't just turn and go strong to the rim, and I think part of that is mental. I hate to compare him to Shaq but I will. Shaq recieved the same kind of defense in LA that Yao reiceves here in Houston, and he managed quite well with the lob pass. Shaq boxed out his man with his body and then went strong to the rim, getting the bucket or the foul. Yao as tall as he is should be able to create fouls by going through the defender rather than settling for close range shots and layups. Yao made a huge leap in his aggresive play when Adleman came to Houston. He began to dunk the ball, rather than laying it up and getting knoked down to the ground. Yet, he still needs to play harder.
Not every team has the personnel to front... Shaq, Bynum, Dwight, Perkins, Duncan, Okur, Nene etc will not front all game... Sure they might throw a front look every now and then, but it is not as prevalent as you make it sound... The Lakers almost never front when they are completely healthy, as you see in the video. They double with Fisher most of the time on the first dribble...
True, other than game 1 in both series, where Yao torched them for single teaming him, they fronted him the rest of both series.
No they didn't.... They fronted sometimes, doubled on the dribble other times... I could post every game video If you like... SEVERAL non-fronts...
I agree with the original poster. However, I'm not sure the Rockets have guards who can make a good lob pass into Yao even if Yao was to learn how to get that position. If Yao is actually to lose those 20 pounds that he, the docs, and trainers said he would try to lose, I would actually like to see: 1. Using him at the elbow and have him shoot his shot from there. Just like Hakeem learned to do and was so effective at. 2. Have some guard who can actually pass the ball to Yao on the PnR because we all know he can hit that shot and I have yet to see a Rocket wing who was getting that pass to Yao. Aaron & Lowry have done a decent job at this running the PnR with Scola & Landry, so lets hope it translates. 3. I hoping that we can switch to a sort of "10 secs or Yao" scheme. Push the ball, take the open shot if there (or drive for foul), and have Yao trailing (as I'm hoping Yao is a bit faster than before given less weight), so he can get the pass when he is at the FT line, get position because he either beat his man down the court or just beat him to the spot/position to get a good shot off. 4. Be able to get more put backs off of offensive rebounds (maybe a pipe dream but it would be great). I do realize that all of this depends on how conditioned he is when he comes back, time to gel with the team, and how strong his foot/leg is considering the surgeries and such. I have said for awhile the I really want them to practice Yao shooting his jumpshots while having the trainer/teammate/whomever giving the hip push that other teams always get away with. It disrupts Yao so much, that him learning to adjust would make him even more effective. Not sure if he can learn that now but it would make him more unstoppable.
You make it sound as if these two strategies are mutually exclusive. Plenty of teams defended Yao by fronting and then doubling if/when we were able to eventually get him the ball after a series of reposts, rotating the ball or whatever means necessary to counter the fronts. In any event, the doubles will still come and the need to surround Yao with shooters will still exist. It's why our wings, even at their very worst (AKA this year without him), stand to complement Yao exceptionally well in this regard as Martin, Ariza, Battier and C-Bud are all excellent spot-up shooters. We all know Brooks can hit the open jumper and Lowry will even surprise you once in a while too.
Man, I really miss last years tough and scrappy team. We've really lost that identity with Artest gone and Yao injured and Battier declining...
In other words, we really need Yao back. Man I miss him! And lol and Pryzbilla: "I want to guard Yao on my own"
