Sabonisdidn't play under him too much as others said, anyway with Portland he was a role player. Not sure why this is a good parallel. Taking more shots means defending against more shots, and means running up and down court more. Yao's stamina even at height was always questionable - his natural position during dead balls is grabbing his shorts, doubled over with exhaustion - usually before the end of the first period. If you quicken the tempo you increase the wear and tear on him that much more and take him out of a lot of possessions (ever notice that he tends to stayon his end of the court when there's a break on? You think that's because JVG told him to stay home or that he doesn't feel like hauling 300 lbs down there? I"m guessing its the latter
By " uptempo" it dosent mean high octain full on jacking up prayers and running the lanes nonstop like the suns do. it means creative halfcourt offense. more creative passive and better off the ball movement.
No "up tempo" means quickening the pace of the game by shooting earlier in the shotclock, which means more possessions on both offense and defense. The Princeton offense is what you appear to be referring to, and when executed as designed, at , say, princeton, it is far from up tempo. I don't think either of these two characteristics are particularly suited to maximizing the talent currently on the rockets, including one in particular.
Well, what i meant was when Coach Adelman says we'll setup a more uptempo offense, it dosent mean that we'll be the mirror image of suns. the kings or the princeton offense is a very creative halfcourt offense. it dosent exactly requier world class athelets to be good at it. it requiers good passers and High IQ ball players. we'll probaly see some changes to the roster. with the current crop of players, there is noway this offense will be successfull.
again, when i said "shoot earlier in the shot clock," i didn't say do it every time. its when the other teams shoot 3s and we get long rebounds or our big men throw a quick outlet pass and our perimeter players can go down and get a quick shot. or the few times that our "halfcourt" runs so smoothly that we get a good open shot after the first or 2nd pass. w/ adelman, it is more likely the 2nd way. we set up halfcourt, and we get better shots of cuts/movement... that means we shoot before the shot clock goes near 5s => less bad shots => more quality shots => less offensive droughts. if yao can't adjust, adelman will adjust to that. but yao's stamina has been improving. i think adelman will talk to every player and telling them how they should be training themselves this offseason to follow his style of play.
If you quicken the tempo you do not necessarily increase the wear and tear. Ever heard of the ' Give and Go' play. The player from outside passes to the post player and cuts inside trying to get open for a return pass. The Princeton Offense utilizes the ' Give and Go' play by utilizing cutters and screeners. Usually, the attention of the defense is on the person with the ball , cutters are often neglected by the defense, that is why there is a lot of empasis on passing. The post player catches the ball when he has yet to dribble , hence he is in a triple threat position ( pass, shoot, or dribble). this does not necessarily increase the wear and tear on the post player because he merely passes the ball or shoots when the opportunity presents itself. The offense thus becomes more fluid and less predictable and with better spacing. With Yao's height and passing ability, he would be able to see over defenders and fit in perfectly . About running up and down the court more , it has always been a misconception by many that you need all five players on the court to be fast to get fast break points. You will never see five players run a fast break... the most you will see is three offensive players running a fast break. A five man fast break ( Where all five offensive players sprint upcourt) is rarely heard of . Tony parker can run the fast break by himself... scoring on the fastbreak in run and gun fashion is different from up tempo offense
Up tempo means taking an easy shoot before the defense is set, which gets guys like Chuck, Battier, and Rafer easier looks than shooting in hurry as the shot clock expires after running 2,000 picks and rolls.
T-Mac and Yao will be fine under Adelman. I worry more about McGrady breaking down when he carries the entire offensive load...which by all accounts thus far will not be the case with Adelman. I'm also excited about the propect of Yao shooting 10-15 footers in addition to posting up...
we'll see how we do in the first month. since tmac came over, we have not had a "great" start. i always expect us to pick it up as the season goes along. but let's see if adelman can get us off to a great start. that will go a LONG way in getting better seeding and thus homecourt against a "weaker" opponent (though no team is "weak" in the west). i mean, can u imagine us playing the wiz t his yr or the nets???
and our pick and rolls don't get tmac any good shots. what a waste of time. if u run a play KNOWING your best player aint gonna get a good shot, whats the point?
