This is more reason to run PNR with Yao and T-Mac(not that crap where Yao just sets a pseudo pick and nothing develops) and use Yao in the high post. Defenses will have an impossible time denying him the ball out there and if they do, the floor is more open for other players. Someone said that Yao needs to be a low post center like everyone else. That's beyond idiotic. If I'm blessed with great speed but not great size, I wouldn't go play offensive lineman in football or power forward in basketball. Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are two of the best players in the league and they spend much more time around the free throw line facing up than the low block. I don't see it hindering either's ability to impact basketball games, as in fact it gives defenses around the league more things to worry about when gameplanning for them. Yao isn't as athletic as them, but he can shoot out there all day long, and his passing skills/vision are very good. And by doing this you can still develop his low post skills without hindering his overall effectiveness significantly at the same time. The guy was given a gift to be a dual threat offensively, the team should utilize it rather than stifle it. I'm not saying that he can't develop into a low post threat in time, he can. The thing is you can bring that part of game along while still utilizing his other talents to help the team win games in the meantime. The other thing they can do is run plays for McGrady until he burns them enough to force them out of that fronting defense. Finally, the Rockets priority in the offseason and even possibly at the trade deadline needs to be athleticism at the guard spots and at PF. Yao gets so many fouls because he has no help inside with rebounding or like tonight a quick guard in J-Will gets in the lane with ease and he has to come over to prevent an easy layup.
There are some long time posters on this board stick to the fact that shooting from within 5 foot always gets you a better shot than shooting from 15 footer. They claim that if Yao learns how to work the low post, game is over for all opponents.
Yao is punished by the present lack of a face up game. Coaches are sending smaller yet quicker players like Stromile Swift to defend Yao. On defense they front Yao and deny him the ball. On offense they have a matchup advantage in speed. The end result is that defensively Yao has trouble outspeeding his mathcup. Yet he can't use his height to punish the smaller and quicker opponent on the other end of court because he doesn't get the ball in the low post. If Yao regains his face up game, all he has to do is to face the basket, get the ball and shoot over the smaller defenders and make them pay for disrespecting his height. After Yao hits a couple of jumpers like that, Mike Fratello will start pondering pulling Swift off Yao.
I don't disagree with the idea that if Yao learns the low post game he would be close to unstoppable. However, I don't like the way the team is going about doing it at all. There is no need to do it so drastically. If you run a significant amount of high post/PNR plays with Yao and T-Mac together(which I say good luck to other teams trying to stop it) with success you inherently open up the low post for Yao. That's how the Spurs use Tim Duncan. He uses his outside shot to open up the low block, not the other way around. Yao has many of the same offensive skills as Duncan and the other plus is that you aren't stifling his ability to help the team as much as he can while trying to develop a part of his game at the same time. A win-win situation. Right now, it's all or nothing with his contribution because of the fact they are using him 90% of the time or more in the low post and that is not his strength especially against good defenses. I'm not advocating abandoning teaching Yao how to play down low. Not at all. What I'm saying is I would take a more gradual approach to doing it and look long and hard at how the Spurs use a guy like Duncan. Not everything has to come right away, but this way Yao can give more consistent contributions while still learning how to make a weakness a strength.
Yao on offense is primarily iso-post or bust. If Yao is not able to get into post position, he is immediately out of the play. Yao can do a lot of things with the ball, the problem is that he never has the ball in his hands. Yes, it has a lot to do with Yao, but we need to find different ways for Yao to get into the offense. Have Yao start taking that jumper off the pick and roll, we know he can hit that shot, that just opens up a whole new dimension to the offense. If needed, bring Yao to the top of the key with the ball, he is a very efficient passer that find the open man. It is obvious that fronting Yao completely takes him out of the equation. JVG needs to find a way to use Yao in different ways, not just in the post-Iso. Yao is too talented to be restricted like that.
DVauthrin, don't try to convince me. It's not me who draws the circle for Yao to stay within on the offensive end.
he's doubled everytime he is on the offensive side of the court. if we miss he's already boxed out and sometimes like today,he got called for over the back.
That's essentially what I said in a long ass post that got completely shunned in a Yao thread. Infact I'm surprised by all the positive feedback on this thread, being suggested again and all.. Exactly why I'm surprised.. Perhaps they just haven't had a chance to chime in yet or have decided to ignore it as usual?
We got to change the system to incorporate both Yao and TMac. Move Yao to high post more and allow his shooting touch and passing skill to be useful. We all know Yao can be effective in high post when teammates are cutting or Yao just shot a jumper because we all saw what he can do in his 1st and 2nd season. What the heck is JVG doing? A lot of times, Yao looks like the only person on a isolated island. Mix it up once a while, don't just have Yao posting downlow most of the time, or have him becoming a screen setting role player. Even a man with IQ of below 40 can figure out how to defend Yao when most of the time he's just doing the same thing on offense: posting down low and waiting for a pass. What's the point of having 2 all star when you can only using one of them? The only way for Rox to win a championship and become a good team for that matter is to have some kind of system that take advantage of both TMac and Yao's talent. When only one of them is on, it's easy to gear defense to try to stop him. It's almost impossible to shutdown both of them at the same time.
Gucci888, Right on. This is a fascinating thread. It's also obvious to me that Yao, despite his IQ, still makes the same ill advised (aka dumb) fouls every day. And there were plenty of other over-the-back calls NOT CALLED last night. He needs a remedial course on NBA Officiating 101. His size and step-slow awkwardness make him an easy target for the refs. No, he's noting getting a fair shake, but that's not changing - in fact, it's getting worse. I remember Mark Cuban hiring ex-NBA refs to teach the Mavs how to be the exploiter rather than the exploitee. You can see and feel his frustration. He can either go on playing the "victim" or figure it out. His attitude, and how he is utilized are the keys. The league has figured him out.....ball's in our court. D R
I agree. There will be no more than first round even if we make the playoff. The way we paly can only win regular season games. Yao will be somewhere else if could not involve the play. Just six shots. regardless the foul, this is just too low for him.
Someone brought it up earlier, Yao expends a lot of energy on the pick and roll. He's basically doing the shuttle run all game long. Baseline to Baseline, to three point line, to baseline, then back again. It helps both Yao and Tmac on offense to run that set, but it expends a lot of energy.
Yao Ming is used like Cato Yao Ming is used like Cato Right now Yao Ming is treated as a blue collar center. He's ignored in offense, and has too much burden in defense. The main reason he is struggling is he's used in wrong way. Furthmore he's got no respect from the referees, and even the teammates. It's correct that Tracy Macgrady should play at his way. However it's not correct that Yao Ming has to play at wrong way. ROX is gradually becoming old Magic. JVG has to figure out how to simutaneously take advantage of the strength of both Tracy and Ming. Otherwise this team is going to nowhere. Obviously Yao Ming is becoming less and less happy. And confused as well. If the situation continues, he may leave ROX and join Rudy or Steve in the next season.
He was in foul trouble last night. They tried to get him the ball. He can't beat the fronting. When they put pressure on the ball and then have someone in the low post front Yao, it's over. There's no way to make a safe pass to him, it seems. He seems to be doing a very poor job of establishing position. By the way...he's not drawing a traditional double-team, as best I can tell. Certainly not away from the ball in any meaningful way. They're playing a zone...and of course they collapse as the ball goes in. But this guy isn't seeing the kind of doubles we see on the very best players in the game.
Cato was asked to rebound, play defense, and block shots. Can someone tell exactly what is wrong with asking Yao to rebound, play defense, and block shots?
our front court starting lineup have zero defence if Yao was focus on offence, but Yao isn't Cato, on defence end he is somehow worse than cato.
