Here is the breakdown of Yao's shooting stats over the last few games... Golden State FGA-M 8-12 for 66% FTA-M 7-7 for 100% Phoenix FGA-M 9-16 for 56% FTA-M 1-1 for 100% Hornets DNP Meanwhile David Wesley is shooting a whoppin' 21% over the last three games....and I think it extends further then that but I have not time to research that far back. If he is not shooting that good for whatever reason then DON'T SHOOT!!! My point to this thread is WHY IS YAO NOT TAKING MORE SHOTS IN THE GAMES??? WFT??? I was listening to the game on the radio last night and when it was crunch time and the game was close Yao wasn't getting the damn ball. Instead they kept kicking it out to David Wesley for a low % 3pt shot. I don't get that, especially since it seemed that they had no answer for Yao in the low post. Let the big chinese man carry us home to a victory for goodness sake....and then for them not to play defense on top of that is inexcusable IMHO...
Yao is already maximizing his touches (as Hubie Brown says). And he gets more than last year... in fact this team is pretty good at giving it to him when he's open. It's just that teams focus on denying him the ball. The other teams know he's our most high percentage option.
I've said this before and I'll say it probably many times again. Yao can help out with getting more shots by getting better position, hanging onto the ball more and most importantly REBOUNDING MORE. Yao's a good offensive talent but if he does those things he will be great.
The real question was "why can't Yao have more touches WHEN HE IS EFFECTIVE while teammates are shooting a whoppin' 21%". You reponded by saying "He did not hold the ball well". But why couldn't he touch the rock more when he did hold the ball well (as shown by his high shooting percentage and low turnover number last game)? Your logic ("If there is no rebound from him, there should be no more touches for him") is funny.
Because the guards don't get it yet. Oh, we are down 18, we better start getting the ball to Yao. Oh, we are down 10, let's start to hit some threes to get back in it., Oh, we are down 18 again, lets get Yao the ball to get back in the game. It's so sad. Look. If you are hitting the threes fine. Take all the damn shots you want. You are wide open. But Golden state proved a point last night. Open shots should always be made. And right now, the guards aren't even playing at an NCAA skill level from outside. I say it's time to bench Wesley and go to Mike James or Brent Barry. Try something. Tinker. I mean seriously, Wesley had what a 5 game streak of hot shooting. and that's it? He's freaking wide open all year long. Get it together. Its demoralizing.
No I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that its not always that easy to get Yao the ball because often faster defenders close him off because he hasn't established the best position. In general the Rox want to get Yao the ball more but they can't always do that because he often gets sealed off. In that case Yao can help his touches by grabbing more offensive rebounds for put backs. The presumption among many is that because Yao is shooting over 50% but only getting 12 shots a game that somehow the Rox guards are deliberately not passing to him. The thing missing is considering whether Yao is doing enough to get the ball. Yao could be shooting 100% but it won't matter if Yao isn't in good position to recieve the ball or rebound it to get more touches. Remember Yao doesn't bring the ball up himself he needs to put himself in a position to receive or rebound it.
They might go to Brent if we had him. Last night was fun to watch, except for the fact that we lost. I think Wesley is trying to shoot himself out of his slump, but the object is to win the games. (duh!) If JVG had any more hair, I'm sure he would have yanked it out last night. The team is in disarray. We need Jon Barry back, like yesterday. He could bring Howard along with him, if Howard can walk!
If Yao is shooting that good from the low block then he should get the ball everytime down the court and orchestrate the offense or at a minimum split that time with T-Mac. And if our guards are having trouble hitting the outside shot then here is an idea.........TAKE IT TO THE BASKET. My goodness how many times did freakin' Baron Davis drive the lane last night and go to the charity stripe???? I lost count....lol And the refs were calling a foul EVERY time he drove. I can't remember how many times we were down by 1pt and Yao had just make the last shot or two nad then Wesley tries another three pointer....I know JVG tells them to keep shooting but geez louiz if you take the lead by letting Yao shoot the next shot then you could shift the momentum toward your favor....its not that freakin' hard to understand that you get the ball to the guy with the hot hand ALWAYS!!!!
I wish we had Brent Barry who drives pretty nicely. D.Wes is a streaky shooter. Look at his career stats, look at Jim.Jack's career stats. I also dont like MJ being a pt guard. He was made to be a 2 guard, but that didnt land him a NBA contract. So he disguised him as 1 guard, but he lack the skill on 1 guard, which is really important to this team. Sura isnt a good 1 guard either. I just dont like the pace of the games lately. We are dying with our guard's plays, that's sad.
Matt Bullard actually summed up this argument very eloquently last night: "Yao plays within the offense..." You can take that statement for what it is... a.) This offense basically consists of get the best shot possible, whether it is an open 3, a Tracy pick and roll, or a Yao post-up. b.) Yao is content to just wait till the shots come to him, rather than force up ones when he's double-teamed (like Hakeem used to do). c.) Only one player on this team is allowed to take "ill-advised" shots, and that is Tracy. The others (Wesley, Sura, Barry, James) all take either wide-open 3's, or high percentage shots. Now, whether or not Yao should be allowed to just go "freestyle", and try to score as much as possible every game, is up for debate. I really don't think it makes us a better team... no team is good when none of their outside shots are falling.
It's obvious Yao need more touches, he might not need to shoot the rock himself, because he's a great passer if other guys just keep moving, Yao can find them for a nice shot. The Rockets are trying hard to get Yao the ball, and the other team is trying their best try to deny Yao the ball. After watching so many Rockets games this season, I still have the feeling that Yao is not being use optimally, wether is the system or we need more time to work in a few more sets where Yao will get the entry pass into low posts more with a better timing. IMO, the timing of entry pass is way off in many possessions, the only guys that seemed to have the timing right are Tmac & Jon Barry. Sura is a great player but he doesn't have the natural passing ability other guys have, Wesley is not a good passer either. I think next season is when we're really gonna make some noise because Tmac and Yao have one year under their belts. If we keep most of the guys we should have a really good team. I hope we're younger team though.
Even though I said Yao can do more himself to get the ball by setting better position I agree with this and has been my biggest concern about JVG. I think JVG's recent comments to Yao he is trying to get Yao to loosen things up but I'm not sure that JVG's offensive sets are looser. I've always felt that because of Yao's outside touch and passing ability playing him in the high post would do a lot for the Rox O. Right now it seems like most of his high post play is setting picks or holding the ball and litterally handing it off to a guard who runs up to him. I feel you could set Yao up in the high posts and have him catch it there and either shoot it from there, pass to cutters or as shown by the Portland game put a move on get to the hoop. This would have the benefit of in a zone D allowing Yao to shoot over a much shorter defender and in a man to man set unclogging the lane for people driving. While Yao's made a lot of progress he will never have the strength of Shaq to knock defenders out of the low post or the footwork of Hakeem to spin around and under multiple defenders.
How detrimental would it be to the overall defense if Yao doesn't have to chase the 6'5" guards along the perimeter? I would like to see one game that Yao just stay under the basket to be the goalkeeper and rebound the miss shots. Was it how he play in that Pheonix game which he grabbed 22 rebounds, blocked 5 shots and owned the paint?
I don't have any problem with majority of Wesley's shots, those are all open shots due to the defensive attention paid to Yao, or TMac. If he passes out those shots, he shouldn't be in the game. Missing or making them, I want Westley, or whoever to take the shot as long as he was open, and it was within the offense. However, I do have problem with TMac, Sura, and James last night. We lost the game because the pace of the game was too fast for us. We shot .495 overall, which is very decent. Yes, they made many shots, but the timing of their shots were terrible, mostly in the early stage of the shot clock, and they could work the clock a little bit to get BETTER shots. As a result, the Warriors were able to push the ball up the court, went to the basket before our defense got set, and we had to foul them to stop the play, the results was 41 FT for them. Our players need to look inside first before look for other options. Many times, we just didn't even try that at all.
To me that's the key. They had good games without invovling Yao much, and they start to have this mentality that Yao's decoy or bail out option. I am sure JVG's plan is to look for Yao, and if he is not open, look for other options. The look for Yao part somehow isnt taken too seriously lately. The old lakers will always always look for Shaq except Kobe. They dont swing the ball to shaq on the get go in offense. But once Shaq flashes or call for the ball, the ball definitely sent in.
