In almost every interview, players and coach keep talking about looking for Yao in offense. However, the words seems to be very empty to me. Take this lakers game as example, there is no fronting defense and Yao is quite hot to start the game. In Q3, the ball just doesn't go inside (not to Scola either). I understand that the team tries to utilize skills of role players and other key players like Atest and AB. Yao is used more and more as a passer, coordinator, and screen in the offense. In my memory, Coach A tried to use Yao this way at the very beginning of his Houston career, and then he realized that it is not to Yao's strength and team's goodness. He changed the strategy and let Yao go back to low post much more. I agree that Yao should mix his game a little bit more and other aspects of his game should be developed. But at the end of day, to make it simple, he just shot too few (not only for this game). I don't know if Rockets is experimenting with some new sets. That Yao throwing ball from the line set doesn't make any sense to me. It wastes his energy, slows his entry into his position. Currently Atest apparently gets the permission to shoot at his will, like the privilige of Tracy of past. Unfortunately he is worse than Tracy of last year of the year before. My point is that rockets are not doing what they keep saying- finding Yao and letting him center the offense. Personally, I think it is on the wroing direction.
Our offense is at the mercy of two sub-.400 shooters while we sport not one, but TWO friggin big-time post players that are hitting above .500. It really boggles the mind.
The most efficient way to use Yao is having him inbound the ball. Adleman finally realized this after two years.
Can't agree with your assessment of the situation more. I look at the game against the Lakers and try to imagine how it would have played out had JVG been the coach; not that I don't think Adelman is an excellent coach himself, but Van Gundy truly appreciated the role of an offensively skilled big man and I believe he would have utilized Yao's talent to score the basketball much better than what Adelman has contrived thus far in his two years as coach. One only needs to look up the numbers Yao put up under Van Gundy's regime as evidence that he was used in the role of go-to scorer more often than he finds himself with RA as coach - and this was with T-Mac in his prime! Doesn't anyone remember Yao scoring 40+ just a few years back? When was the last time he's done that? And what's with Adelman playing Yao to the point of exhaustion and ineffectiveness this late in the season?! I realize that playoff seeding is important, but regardless if we're the 2nd seed or the 7th seed, don't you think that having a Yao Ming who isn't worn out from logging so many late season minutes is the best strategy for advancing deep into the playoffs? The guy is 7'6" - 325; historically, that typically doesn't make for the best of endurance and I'm honestly quite baffled by the way Yao has been used by the coaching staff as of late - it just doesn't make much sense to me.
Scola and Yao need to be taking the majority of our shots in the offense. Period. They're just money.
Adelman threw in the towel. Yao's not getting enough touches, enough shots. Is it any coincidence that he was doing well in the first half and the Rockets were tied with the Lakers? He disappears in the second half and the Lakers sweep the series with the Rockets.
Cause he realized he was being out coached and knew yao needed a break. was bated in by phil jackson, solid gameplan on phil jackson's part yao should have came out when gasol left.... instead mbenga came in and banged on him! he was Tired
RA still doesn't have a clue at how to use Yao's strength. And the players we have now don't help either. The two best player at get Yao the ball in Tmac and Rafer are all gone. Tmac's shot selection was bad, Artest's was worse. Throwing Wafer and Brooks, this team's IQ goes way down. And, Brook's defense will hurt Rox big time, it seems every point guard simply eats him for lunch.
If we don't make it past the 1st round this year, off with Adelman's head. There's no question we have the talent. The coaching is terrible and the team has little discipline under adversity.
Rick Adelman's book on how to use Yao... a.) Make sure he touches the ball a limited amount of times. b.) Despite Yao's problem with stamina and his size, play him full qtrs. c.) Have Yao inbound the ball. d.) Use Yao for many high screens and picks, Yao operates best OUT OF THE POST! e.) Give Yao a lot of open shots(out of the paint) Rick Adelman's guideline on how to use Yao...the PF... He uses Yao and Scola nearly the same way and that's the main problem...
Sad to say it, but we've got some selfishness on this squad. Artest is looking to get his, Brooks is a bonehead who's only looking to score first, Wafer made me puke when he passed up Barry on that 2 on 1....Yao needs to say something publicly to call his teammates out. If he doesn't, then it's on him as well.
IMO it's both yao and he's teammates' fault. Yao wanted to be more of a team player, and his teammates try to do too much on the offensive end.
I understood his reasoning. We were down by 10+ points. The way Laker's were scoring in PnR with Yao, there was no way we were going to be able to make a come back. Adleman was hoping that we would be able to get some stops and may be score on the other end. I also felt exact same as OP. We hear all this quotes about how Yao should be our focal point in the offense, but when we look at what actually goes on on the court is exact opposite. This happened in the past as well when TMac was with the team. Now when TMac isn't with us, there should be absolutely no reason why Yao should not touch the ball in the post on 2/3 of all our plays.
we aren't going anywhere until we: 1. fire adelman 2. get a real pg that will deliver the ball and isn't undersized 3. get yao the ball consistently and rest him to keep him fresh at the end of games
