I remember the play but let's be realistic ... Whether it was Cat, Steve driving the lane, or Yao going 1 on 1, sometimes the opponents colapse on them and make them look bad. You have to take a little of the bad with the good. If they never drive the lane, they would never drive into wall of defenders but then they would never get to the basket and score either. You don't crucify the guy for a few isolated incidents. Only if it happens time and time again. Only if there are more negative results than positives. The idea is to score more than 1/2 of the time. No one can score every time down!
Shaq would go public saying things like "if you gont' feed the dog the dog won't defend" if he shot less than 15 times per game. That is what Yao is lacking. You will never hear Yao complaining of his teammates ...
I couldnt dissagree more. We need to start playing some consistent basketball. That would be the low-post game. That's where discipline & smart basketball comes into play. We all know that shooting jumpers from 19 isnt gonna bring us wins on a regular basis. Yao needs to gain confidence inside the paint. Feed Yao the ball more! Alot more! I'm glad we won this game. Am I impressed? NO absolutely not. We just won this game because of good shooting & Bulls playing CRAPPY bastbetball.
Imagine if Shaq was open and the rest of the three were open as well, but Kobe did not pass the rock to Shaq ... ... Shaq would let him know that in the locker room. Yao needs that. But Yao does not have that. Well, it is not a big deal to me. As long as the team wins and Yao contributed in his own way I am OK with it. You do not need Yao to score a lot to win with this team. You need Yao's presence in the paint defensively more than anything. Did you read Curry's stats from last night? That is what this team really need from Yao. If Collins and Williams of the NJ Nets repeat what Curry did last night, Yao will have a success game and the Rox will win.
You're right. They had open shots, and the shot well. If they are open shots, then those are the ones they are supposed to take. That is the way this offense, and pretty much every single other one, is supposed to work. All Cris Carter does is catch touchdowns....
SF response - "efficient" is a fluid term. But yes, he should of course be involved in the offense, he's either the best or at least the second best offensive player, the more the better. Gater response - Yes. Primarily because Yao is an excellent passer and generally makes good decisions with the ball. The primary difference I see between RT and JVG is that Yao's touches are much earlier in the shot clock. SF response - Mobley still takes stupid shots, however he took a bunch of them on the back end of a 30 point massacre, so I don't want to judge him on the second half of last night. Francis is doing a good job (from what I can see and from what JVG has said) Norris is trying but is too unskilled to be able to execute most of the time. Gater response - With the exceptions of an aging Dream and Barkley, our guards have not worked with a dominant low post big man...college or pro. So in some respects, a large measure of what may be perceived as resistance is IMO the inability to deliver the ball in the proper place at the proper time. This comes with practice and Yao has the responsibility of learning good low post postioning. Francis is playing marked more under control this season. My "jury" is still out on Mobley. I do not feel he is deliberately not passing to Yao. I feel his "high octane" approach to the game does not allow him to easily "see" or "feel" the true flow of an inside-out game. Basically agree with SF on Mooch. SF response - For 2? I don't know about the psychology of Mobley to figure it out. Maybe he will learn (he missed most of preseason remember), maybe not. If not then say goodbye. As for Moochie, there's not a lot you can do except pray. Gater response - I don't think Van Gundy has too many remedial options until Pike and AG return. In an odd sort of way, I see Piatkowski's return as a positive for Cat. Pike (and AG) give JVG more lineup options and Cat can be used with the second unit to get alot of his "game feel" type shots. Somewhere in this stretch of December games is not too much to expect for a hint of Cat "getting" it: 3 Wed Utah 5 Fri @ New Orleans 6 Sat Detroit 9 Tue Portland 11 Thu San Antonio 13 Sat @ San Antonio Any agreement?
I am glad to see that people remember it. And i will admit that the drive into three defenders was a slight exaggeration. I guess I got a little carried away with saying that Cuttino was making bad decisions. I was not saying that Cuttino is bad and should be traded. I was just mentioning that other than his good three point shooting and a couple drives. He was not making good decisions this game. Drives are not the only mistakes that he makes. They are just the most obvious. Pull ups and jumpers over people when he had an open man nearby are mistakes too. Passing it to the wrong man, turning it over are mistakes too. I think too often people look at the stat sheet and see that Cuttino shot 4 for 10, 5 for 10, he was successful half of the time. Count the TOs too and the assists and count the things that do not show up in the stat sheet. I think if you add them up, you will see more negatives than positives. Last night for the most part I was disappointed with him. This is probably combined though with my disappointment from the previous games. The fact of the matter is that he does it from game to game to game. And as GATER said a lot of this happened more towards the end of the game, but it still is frustrating to see him do it even when it doesn't matter. I don't want to trade him yet, and I agree with Rockets2K, give him 15-20 games, give him until the trade deadline, if need be. Cuttino is too much of a talent to let go and not give him a chance to prove himself.
“think too often people look at the stat sheet and see that Cuttino shot 4 for 10, 5 for 10, he was successful half of the time. Count the TOs too and the assists and count the things that do not show up in the stat sheet. I think if you add them up, you will see more negatives than positives.” More negatives? He scored 14, Assisted on 4, and prevented 6 (steals) while allowing Kendall Gill his counter part to score 3. Outside of stats, I saw him hustle, play good D, and generally play within the offense. He also hit at least one, maybe two of his threes, an open shot mind you, as Chicago was making a run. What negative things did you see that out weighed those positives?
Unless, of course, it's the first game of a back-to-back and we're up by 20+ points. Why not let him save some energy for NJ?
I was not talking about his defensive game. I have no problem with his defensive game what so ever. In my previous post, i said that the rockets play excellent defense. Cuttino plays good defense and has improved every year on it. I give credit to Cuttino for his defense. I do now and always will. I was talking about offense, he shot four for ten. I am not counting total points he scored or resulted from him. I am counting opportunities, 4 FG + 2 A - 1 TO. For 6 good decisions out of 11 on scoring opportunities alone within the stats. I am talking about decisions not points. Steals are good too, but they do not equal points as you do not score on every steal. Unfortunately stats do no count every time he makes a good/bad decision only the times he makes a scoring decision or gives the ball up. Anyways... You and I differ on how we saw his performance. I did not see him play within the offense. I saw him drive into defenders that he should not have. I saw him jack up shots which he should not have. And he did ignore the better open man for others who would have had a better chance of making something positive happen. I can not pull out a game tape to look at right now and give you times of when things happened. This is how I remember it. I remember pick and rolls with Yao and Mobley where Yao had the better opportunity but Mobley chose instead to drive into the teeth of the defense instead of passing it out. I remember him driving into the lane and passing it out to Moochie when he should have passed to Nachbar with the open shot. I think that we will have to agree to disagree here today. I am hoping that tonight Cuttino proves me wrong so you and I can both sing his praises here tomorrow.
"I remember pick and rolls with Yao and Mobley where Yao had the better opportunity but Mobley chose instead to drive into the teeth of the defense instead of passing it out. " Totally agree with that. In general the Rockets really don't play pick and roll well. It grates on me too, because that is one of my favorite plays to watch. But, he is a shooting guard not a point guard. You know kind of like, that's why he's a DB instead of a wideout. But as you said, we just differ on wether Mobley was scoring within the offense or not. I say yes you say no. I would also say, that I probably have more tolerance for bad decisions on offense if the player makes up for it with defense, for example in my mind a steal negates a turnover because both are a potential 4 to 6 point swing, while you seem to put more weight in his turnovers. All that said I hear you. Don't agree, but where arguing over our own perseption of the facts and I doubt either of will back down. Hopefully, we'll get a good win tonight and tomorrow we can talk about what a great job all the players did.
Okay for everyone who thinks Yao never gets the ball ... I want you to watch tonight and see how long it takes Yao to get up the court and start to post up. HE IS TIRED. If Yao wants the ball more he needs to DEMAND it. All the greats do. I think Yao can and WILL be a great player, but right now it looks as though he gets tired and has trouble making it down the court quickly enough to get himself in the offense every play. The Rox are lucky to have such a gifted player like Yao to play in the middle offensively and more importantly defensively. Then to have a player like Steve Francis be able to break down the D while Yao takes a break on plays by just setting some screens is definitely a luxury.
everyone is going to get touches...that's the offense. i don't care how many shots he gets just as long as the Rox get the "W". I thin Yao would agree.
Yao seemed to hesitate last night. he appeared timid, dishing it to the perimeter instead of taking it to the hole. that's why he is not getting enough shots, he is not creating enough shots for himself. As JVG says, it is up to YAO to be a dominant player in this league
Ummmm......it's called using your brain, dude. Yao took advantage of the almost constant double-teams all night by dishing to the open man. JVG encourages ball movement. Why risk having a turnover, when Yao can pass out of a double team for a wide open shot? Thank God your not our coach!
thank god indeed, you b*stard! did you watch the game last night? The Nets defended him well, but it was Yao who in the end didn't dominate. JVG said it himself. play devil's advocate in a YAO ONLY thread and see what happens
Yao's mere presence on the court makes our perimeter players effective. More than once, NJ doubled Yao before the entry passer could even thinking about dumping it down low. The Nets were obviously not going to let Yao beat them with his touches. Someone said it in another thread, but our offense will be cyclical. Some nights the opposition is going to clamp down on Yao, creating openings for our wing players. Other nights, they might guard the perimete more than Yao. In either instance, we have to ability to make them pay. Last night's game was somewhat revealing in that showed that Yao doen't always have to shoot the ball, or even touch it, to be effective.
The day that Yao threatens to not play defense like Shaq did, Yao should be benched or traded. That is the worst idea I've ever heard.
yup, open shots happen when a man is not being defended, usually when another is being double teamed or the defense is outta position. this happens regularly because yao is trying to get position, or has the focus. that is the effectiveness of yao that doesn't show on the stat sheet. i have no problems with the way the guys are playing.
