Why do TMac and Yao have problems running the RA offense?

Because Tracy does not like to run, and Yao is a giant...

 

i agree with these things... i would actually like to see that old JVG offense with our current talent level. i think we would be much better than we are right now because you know our defense wouldn't slack.

 

t-mac cuts to the basket once in a while. but he doesnt do it often. why? because it's tiring running around screens and setting picks. at 6'8"-6'10", he's definitely slower than barry or wafer, and that bad knee doesnt help either. you cant set picks on a bad shoulder either. plus, he's expected to play 34-40minutes a game. that's why he's pacing himself.

whereas wafer, barry plays around 10-15mins, so they have all that energy to burn, running around, cutting and setting picks. when wafer was playing >30 minutes, what happened? he disappeared in the 2nd half. because you cant sustain that kind of play through 4quarters. now if tmac is forced to play only 10-15minutes then im sure he can run full throttle the entire time. but 40 minutes? you have to pace yourself.

he usually hangs around in the 3pt area, let everyone do their thing. if he gets the ball, he would shoot it, setup somebody else with a pass or sometimes attack the basket. i agree that he barely cuts and he likes to setup his teammates in a good scoring position so he holds on to the ball until someone gets free. i thought we all knew that he has great court vision and excellent playmaking skills. so what's wrong if he wants to use that skill of his?

i watched the video of the nuggets game last night. there was this stretch with barry, brooks (or was it alston), wafer, landry and scola (or was it battier). ball movement was excellent so was player movement. but guess what? they couldnt buy a basket. 3-5 minutes with great movement and yet they couldnt score. so RA put in yao ming and he immediately scored.

what happened is that, you dont have a dominant scorer on the floor. all the nuggets player had to do was to keep up with their man. there was no mismatch at all. so they were contested all the time. but with yao, he was dominant down low that they couldnt stop him. you have to double him and that leaves someone free.

tmac doesnt have a problem with the offense. he just doesnt like to cut and expend energy while expected to play 40minutes a game. yao on the other hand, can move all he wants because he just has to stay on the low blocks and set picks and kickout passes. how many steps does he need to go from one side of the post to the other?

 

It would be interesting, I agree.

But we can't change things now. We have pretty good record (should have been much better but you know, injuries) so let's see whan happens at the end of the year.

JVG had two good opportunities to get past the 1st round (2005 and 2007) and Rick so far hasn't had even one. If we stay healthly and actually will be healthly in the playoffs, i expect something big, at least bigger than the 1st round.

 

Although you can give Tracy some excuses---he's a step slower after all these years, with injuries that bother him (more mentally than physically)---the main thing is, to me, that he's a $21 million talent with a $5 heart. He's naturally talented but not a winner because...he's...just...plain...lazy. He doesn't put in the work.

I'm sure you can see this each year; he's always slow out of the gate, takes awhile to play well, because he didn't work on his game over the summer. And had one too many Ho-Ho's (no pun intended....I think).

Now you ask him to learn an egalitarian offense that isn't tailored to what he wants to do. He dug in his heels with Van Gundy and got his way, although JVG did have to constantly kick his butt to motivate him. Tracy works better with a hard-driving coach. Now you get Adelman who actually implements an offense that would succeed, but put Tmac on the floor and everything, sooner or later, grinds to a halt.

I'm not saying Yao is perfect, but watch him when Tmac doesn't play, and most of the time, the offense looks pretty nice. Not necessarily because of him, but definitely not in spite of him.

I think it comes down to the fact that Yao and Tmac don't play well together. They'll win sometimes together because they're both very good. Collectively, they tend to get in each other's way. At least Yao plays to his coach. Tmac? He might try a little but watch when that fourth quarter comes around especially---I did my job, time to coast, whoops! we lost, hey, is it April yet, I'm kinda tired.

 

TMac has played in only half the games hurt and you know this all to be a fact?

Any one else and this would be a LOCK!

Like he couldn't have added this to another thread like evry one else is expected too?

When Yao is the focus point we win, when its TMac we lose......that simple.

 

If T-Mac is trade that would be one of the dumbest moves Morey has made. If T-Mac is traded the Rockets are going to be so predictable. But the main thing is if T-Mac is traded we are not going to get nothing back for him. The way trades are happening lately some teams are being robbed. Lakers got away with murder and so did we.

Another reason the Rockets would be dumb to trade him is because they went this long with him why would they trade him now when they could just ride the ship one more year when he is in a contract year.

 

Very interesting analysis and the "socialism" vs. "capitalism" angle is even more compelling when you consider that most foreign teams play more of a wide open motion style game than the US and that was part of our undoing during the Olympic and World Cup championship drought.

Skimming this thread I'm going to agree that the biggest problem is that T-Mac doesn't move enough. While Yao is big and slow that never kept Sabonis from contributing a lot from the high post in Portland. I don't think Yao should primarily become a high post player but it seems to me that we could move him out there a few times to shake things up.

 

Please don't get Yao into this Tmac thing! I don't see Yao have any problem fit into RA's system, just Tmac. The prove is when Yao out, we lost. And lately when Tmac in, we lost too.

This thread is dumb.

 

So u think Yao is a capable high post passer and shooter? I thought so. Good coaches mold their scheme around the talent or trade players that fit their scheme. Either way, if they don't think Tracy fit, they should trade him just like if they thought Yao doesn't fit they should do the same. La traded more talented players for better fit players and they won 3 in a row. Saying Yao,tracy,shane,rafer,deke,hayes, or even ron fits what Rick wants to do is false. When the game gets tight, its either pick and roll with tracy or post up with Yao. When La was in trouble against Houston, it was pick and roll for Kobe. It wasn't the magical triangle as some think. It was Kobe with the ball at the 3pt line, Bynum sets the pick, Kobe shoots. That's it.

 

The elephant in the room is McGrady's decline(whether this is who'll he be from here on out or not). I complete disagree with the idea that this system(whatever the hell it is) will somehow add years to his career.

McGrady was a 25ppg 5reb 6ast player the year before Rick got here. Thats the player he thought he'd be coaching but unfortuantly he hasn't been that guy for Rick & hasn't looked as good physically since the first 2 months of last season(he cant finish in the paint). Adelman doesn't want Von Wafer as his starting SG.... he wants freaking T-Mac and he hasn't seen him.

2 primary 23ppg scrorers is what Ricky thought he'd be seeing on the floor night in and night out. Adjust to whatever their strengths are and move on. But what happen's when only 1 of them is capable? How do you use the other one? Take advantage of the defensive attention he draws & his passing ability or turn him into the perimeter version of all of Houstons PFs.....no decsion making; just finish the plays others set up?

Thats a pretty big problem/adjustment

 

lolol