V Divac: Yao Ming Will Thrive to Become Better Under Adelman

The wins are more important

 

Actually take it a step farther, Rockets win 65 games, get to the WCF and Yao only scores 13 points... if he/she didn't care about that I would have to wish a person like that would leave

 

OK, where the hell is this talk about Yao turning into a 13 ppg defensive specialist coming from? This is no small change; 13 ppg is roughly HALF of what Yao scored in his most recent season. He's also NEVER been that great of a rebounder. Over the course of his career, going by rebounding %, he has been good but not great. Yao is a dominant and highly efficient scorer. That's what he is, and it isn't going to change

If Yao's scoring is halved, that's NOT going to be made up by a couple more assists to his teammates. Even in Adelman's Kings teams a few years ago, which were known for teamwork and passing, Chris Webber and Peja were scoring over 20 ppg, sometimes in the mid or high 20s. Adelman is smart enough to realize Yao's strengths, and isn't going to try to completely change his game.

The Rockets just don't have the depth and offensive tools to neglect Yao, their most efficient scorer. Who's going to pick up the slack? Winning rather than padding your personal stats is the true objective of playing basketball, but the Rockets WON'T win if Yao doesn't score. This is not to say Yao's ppg might not go down; it may because he's shooting more efficiently and passing more in a system that does a better job of setting up his teammates. But I SERIOUSLY doubt Yao is not going to be a big time scorer next season. This shouldn't even be a debate.

 

Sidetracking from the whole Yao's-mah-b**** thing going on in this thread for a while, this should be an exciting season for Rockets fans.

What Vlade said is pretty much true and visible on the court for Adelman's teams. No, the King's didn't place #1/2 in defensive efficiency in any of Adelman's years, but they did rank near or even at the top of offensive efficiency in pretty much all his years. So RA DOES know how to get his players easy shots. Look, if Slow-as-molasses shooters like Peja can get about 30% of his points on anything 10-feet in under Adelman, think of what he can do with Tmac. And if he can switch from a high-post offense featuring multiple back-screens basket cuts one year, and revamp it to playing more than 50% pick-and-rolls the next year while not sacrificing offensive efficiency, then what Vlade Divac said about this man must be true. That he's the consummate players' coach.

Back to Yao's role in this new system; I don't think that RA doesn't realise that Yao has an uncanny understanding of the game for a big man. While that attribute has certainly been stymied the past few years 'cause he's spending most of his time in the post, where the only playmaking he can do is to pretty much kick balls out on double-teams, you can't fault JVG either. 'Cause what JVG has done is to really utilise Yao's size down low and create a walking mismatch, until a weakened Yao was pretty much exploited by Memo Okur in the playoffs, and JVG being JVG, just wouldn't - or couldn't - adjust his schemes. Under Adelman though, I think we'll definitely see some of Yao up high, or in the mid-post, with guys running baseline hand-offs and backdoor cuts off the weakside every so often. That in turn should free Yao up more to beat his man with moves to the basket, or to just turn and pop a jumper.

That said, I really don't think Yao's stats will drop that much. Rebounding-wise maybe, but it's already dropped this year due to Chuck Hayes tipping everything to himself anyway. Points-wise, definitely look for Yao to be scoring over 20 a game.

 

This is why JVG absolutely sucked as a coach: he demanded all players to fit his mold, instead of looking at all the pieces he got and adjusted the team accordingly. Pieces like Bonzi and Stromile Swift wouldn't have been nearly as bad. Adelman knows how true tacticians work.

 

yao_fan and the anti-yao_fan crew are arguing about things that have zero possibility in real life.

A 65-win regular season by Rockets and a healthy (eh, relatively speaking) Yao with 13 points seasonal average. Ain't gonna happen.

A dominating Yao posting 30/12 stats and another Rockets first-round playoff exit. Ain't gonna happen.

A humbling T-Mac talks no more me-me-me. Ain't gonna happen.

A smooth shooting Chuck Hayes forsakes his trademark double hitch at the FT line. Ain't gonna happen.

A penetrating Rafer whose floaters are no longer stinky. Ain't gonna happen.

An offensive genius Van Gundy. Never mind.

Now carry on.

 

pryuen, great job!

I hope Divac could have talked about Adelman's defense as well.

 

have u followed tracy's career? he has the stats. and look at how he's judged.

in this league, it's ALL ABOUT WINNING. look at how players like marion are elevated b/c the suns win. same w/ amare. while look at KG.

stats are fine and dandy and may give u highlights. but when it comes to "historic or legendary" comparisons, you're not gonna be in there.

tmac and KG are lagging behind b/c of their lack of playoff success.

so only stupid fans care about stats.

if yao averages 30 pts next yr and tmac averages 20 and 10, im all for that. if tmac can be magic johnson and yao can be kareem, and if we can win doing that, then go for it.

if this team wins, tmac will get love. yao will get love. more importantly, THEY WILL GET RESPECT.

man, i dont know why there are still some fans like u. if u follow the rockets, u know that our best players don't get respect AT ALL b/c why? THEY DON'T WIN.

 

and if yao doens't improve his intimidation on defense, we will never win even if yao scores 40+ pts.

teams don't fear yao ming when they go on offense. they actually look forward to it. look at deron driving at will. look at boozer driving at will. there's a reason why most of us were shocked that JVG didn't use deke more.

but again, we needed yao's offense in sacrifice for his defense.

now u see that logic that yao should only focus on offense. his defense needs MUCH work esp. for a guy who's 7'6.

 

wat the hell are you smoking????

 

Ya'll are being too harsh on Yao's defense. If you're 7'6" and over 300 lbs, with stamina problems all your life, coming off a leg injury, you would probably have the same problems.

It's pretty amazing the stamina level he's at right now!

That being said, yeah his defense was horrendous in the playoffs but there was not much more he could have done.

 

thats why i say he should focus more on that. i know he CAN improve. i see his stamina getting better. now i hope he'll focus on improving his anticipation of when to block shots and when to just stand straight up not to go for the foul.

also, i would like for him to give a hard foul once in a while just so the defender would think twice about going into the paint again.

 

I enjoyed reading that, thanks.

Vlade!!!

 

I am strictly talking about individual defense. No one on that Kings team could play a lick of defense granted they were great on offense and had us beat there but that is why they never won the big ones. My post was in reference to people thinking all of our players will some how forget everything they were taught on defense and somehow be amazing on offense like the Kings all offense mediocre defense. We could figure out how to be even better defensively by playing certain players less minutes or playing a zone every once in a while. I love when we try to compare ourselves to RA's Kings because we are not very similar but as RA has proven he can WIN with all sorts of teams. Let's just hope he figures out the winning formula for our team in the playoffs.

 

Wow you guys have really got to at least read ONE word of my post before you assume I am claiming Rafer as being better than Bibby. My post was strictly about defensive abilities.

 

I am looking forward to Rick Adelman coming up with a better way of covering the PnR on defense where Yao is not so exposed.

That was one of my biggest beefs with the previous coaching staff, that all they did was b**** about Yao not getting over to cover up the roller more quickly.

It seemed like they were banging their head against a wall, never admitting that maybe Yao was just not EVER going to be fast enough to cover it, and should have run a little different scheme to give help.

I think Rick Adelman will get more out of Yao and this team in general.

Gonna be a fun year.

DD

 

Oh my God. After reading this I want to have Rick Adelman's baby. RIGHT NOW.

 

I don't care if the Rox are winning and he is scoring 13 either. And I AM A ROX FAN. I want Yao scoring 25+, because if he is scoring 25+, he is opening up our offense tremendously, and our offense is being run very efficiently, and we are drawing a ton of fouls, and when we hit the playoffs we will be better prepared and in a much more competitive position to win a championship. I want Yao scoring 25+

 

The Kings were 2nd in defensive efficiency in 2002-2003, an improvement of 7th in 2001-2002. They were 1st in opposting teams FG% with 42%, just ahead of San Antonio's 42.7%. In 2003-2004, Weber's knees failed him and he went out for 59 games.

The Kings were unable to maintain their defensive efficiency and promptly fell down to 21st. Weber never regained his lateral speed, Divac was getting slower, and they hovered in the bottom of defensive efficiency for a few seasons and Adelman was fired.

Adelman had the Trailblazers in the top 3 for defensive efficiency for 4 straight seasons.

Reference:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAC/2003.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/stats/b...nent&sort=329&conference=NBA&year=season_2002

 

The way Divac played on offense under Adelman was exciting to watch. He could shoot n pass. Yao Ming is a better shooter n a good passer which not only helps him out to elevate his game overall, but it also gets others involved, mainly tmac n James who can create n finish. Because of Yao's height n Adleman style bball, lot of other centers are going to have problems to defend Yao n it will open up the low post alot for other players. I predict Yao's assist numbers to go up this season.