if Yao can jump well, he won't have any problem with fronting defense, just catch the lob and dunk it home in the air like Shaq.
Exactly how many passes in a game are thwarted that way? I did see lob passes that Yao scored on when fronted. What I am advocating is 20- just twenty attempts out of the 75 we normally average! There is something seriously wrong if a team that wants to get it done "NOW" - cannot get this simple message.
Which came first the chicken or the egg? Is it because the defense of the opponents is preventing Yao from getting the shots, or is it because Yao is taking (or getting the ball) less and thus we are losing to the opponents? I saw the game, and I can say it was some of both, the Rockets guards had a hard time getting the ball to Yao, due to the constant double team on Yao. At the same time they could have tried harder in some cases to get the ball to him sooner, before the double team got there. I also saw in several cases where Yao got the ball, waited for the double team to get to him, and passed it out for a 3ptr that usually missed. So, in this case should Yao decide to take on the double team, and not pass out for the wide open 3 ptr?
what makes you want cat back? sucks the ball for 15 seconds, does an iso move, jacks up a 3, predictable outcome...
I'm at a loss for words. When Phoenix shades or guards 2 or 3 athletic players on Yao, it's impossible to get him the ball. Yao barely jumps so it isn't easy to just toss it up and have him get it. (How many jump balls does Yao lose?) When Yao DID get the ball, he was either too far away or they collapsed on him. Passing to him and getting 20 shots isn't as easy as you think. Phoenix didn't play this way every possession, but when they did, Yao did not get a chance to shoot. I'm curious: Have you played bball very much?
you are damn straight yao needs to stop passing those balls out of there. especially against a team like the suns who have noone to guard him. yao cannot defer. glimpses of cat and sf last night. but a lot of it because yao was passive, he does have a choice also, and he is a damn big choice and an efficient choice
So what if Yao lost 100% of the Jump Balls! Let us stick to the thread and not worry about whether I am an NBA player! You will see it soon when a PG that really can be unseflish is on this team- how you get this done. Watch Rafer again- and see how much he hesitates atleast 5 or 6 times in a game when the defense is not triple teaming him- atleast you have come down from 3-4 player collapsing to 2-3, frankly it was more like double teaming- a pee wee league player would tell you that the way we are bricking. And YAO does beat double teams- and I dont care even if he misses or turns it over, I would rather have that possibility than trust our jump shooters in their current form!
What made you think "Yao needs to stop passing those balls out of there. especially against a team like the suns who have noone to guard him" ? Last night SUNS put 2 or 3 players to deny him getting the ball. And you think "noone to guard him". Did we watch the same game ?
The problem is opponents can get away with DT Yao and play 3-on-4 against the rest of Rox. Tmac is slower so the most they do is set a screen outside to slow him down then quickly get back to paint without worrying Tmac attack the rim much. The rest of the team shoot inconsistently. If opponents stick to their plan, they may fall behind when our outside shots fall, but they almost always get back when our shooting cools down, which is a gurantee. We need some scoring option closer to basket. JVG tried to set up play for Battier to get him that baby hook shots. But he has to be real close to the basket to have a shot. I think this is where Bonzi can really contribute. Look, if our jumpers don't fall and if Yao is swamped by 2 defenders, get someone make shots from closer. Bonzi is a good option. Also, why doesn't Tmac try to post up shorter defenders anymore?
remember how lakers did last playoff against suns? post play by lamar and even kwame almost killed suns we should do the same thing and not run the floor with them
You just don't get it. Jump ball problem is because ref not throw the ball high enough in most cases. Yao don't need to jump to get it. The quicker hand win the jump, not the higher hand.
I found this pic in another thread. Everyone complains that the team didn't try to give Yao the ball. May be you guys should take a look here. When Yao rolled to the basket, there was a Sun player on his left and another one on his right to sandwich him. And Nash was also nearby and ready for the triple-teaming once Yao got the ball. What's the smart thing to do at that moment? Bingo! Pass the ball to an open man to sink a wide-open 3-pointer. The fact that we couldn't make the 3-pointer doesn't mean it was not a good decision. What we need to do is to make the other teams pay when they collapse on Yao (ie make those damn wide-open 3-pointers).
I agree there are a lot of factors contributing to this but there were multiple occassions in the Phoenix game where Yao had good position and the pass just did not get thrown to him. I think (if memory serves) that he even got called for several three second violations where he had his man pinned deep in the post and the guards did not find him. My frustrations partially stems from the team not adjusting to the double teams. Some of this is on the coach but most is on the players. Yao does a good job now of recognizing the double teams and sliding across the lane, so why can't we swing th ball around the perimiter and hit him on the other block? I also agree with some of the posters in this thread that we need to drive to the basket more. For whatever reason our perimeter guys just don't have the confidence to drive to the lane when Yao is covered. Its not just last nights game or fatigue, this has been happening all season. Turst me I've been screaming at the TV or screaming at the players when I attend the games. I don't pretend to be a coach and I do think that JVG sees this and instructs his players on making adjustments. I don't think the players execute the adjustments very well or with consistency. JVG made a comment in the post game interview last night that he felt the failure in the Phoenix game had more to do with our inability to execute on offense then anything else. Of course jacking up unwarranted 3 pointers didn't help our cause. We shot 13-38 from behind the arc for a dismal 34% and didn't do much better from the field at 38%. Does anyone know of a website that tracks shot attempts per quarter by player? I would love to break down those numbers... Thanks to everyone for the 5 star rating and your valuable contributions.
Totally agree. When scores were still very close, T-Mac made a jump shoot in a hurry. He really should not when he was cold and in pressure. It is a matter of either basketball IQ or discipline. Sigh.
OK, after a missed shot, how many times against the Suns was Yao standing between two players, the ball goes straight to him, and he can't pull the rebound down? Several times. He's way taller than both players but somehow he doesn't end up with the ball. Sometimes it's only one player who does just enough to knock the ball away. Blame it on Yao's lack of hops, his "short" arms or his small hands. Whatever! The same exact concept applies to the entry pass when he's double/triple-teamed. I agree with you on the jump ball. Bad illustration. But that doesn't change the fact Yao isn't the can't miss target some people here think he is. And I also agree both Rafer and Tracy shot waaaaaaay too much from outside. But that doesn't change the fact that when defenses don't want Yao to score, they can stop him. It's then on the other players. OddsOn, several times Rafer attacked the basket because the lane parted like the Red Sea, but he couldn't finish. Please don't mistake my question about whether one plays basketball as an attack. I didn't mean it that way. It's just that I deal with this issue with the guys I play with. It's very simple to understand in the real world and I guess it's hard to illustrate on a chalk board.
Not that I disagree your point here but that player you mentioned in the shot was Hayes, not Yao. Yao wasn't in the game in that possession until he replaced Novak after 77-74 PHX.
What is your damned problem? Are you some sort of YOF? Do you honestly think Rafer Alston is such an ego maniac that he feels he should be shooting instead of Yao? Watch the game with a little objectivity. Every team the Rockets play knows where the obvious mismatch is and they setup their total D to stop Yao. And please also look a little more deeply than the number of shots. Over the course of an average game Yao gets plenty of touches that don't result in FGA's. FGA's are very inaccurate...they don't count when Yao goes to the FT line for 2 shots or when he turns the ball over. Rafer Alston is a terrrible PG but hogging the ball from Yao is not one of his problems.
