why the team froze Yao out?

Yes it is, he was fronted DAMN good by a much small and undersized Center Grant though he was doubled up 90% of the time he needs to learn to avoid it n get deep into the post, like Shaq and Duncan do. It'll take time, plus we won the game so i ant trippin

 

Let me explain this for you. When teams stop doubling and triple teaming Yao, thats when you dump the ball into him and he can blow up for these 25/15/4 games we all love to see. See thats why they're doubling him now. Throwing the ball into Yao when he has three men on him is not winning basketball, finding the open man(in last nights case Mobely) and having him hit shots is winning basketball.

 

There will be teams that after watching us beat everybody with our outside shooting will let Yao have the ball in the post by trying to single cover him. Until then we are winning by taking what they give us. If they give us Yao with single coverage in the post we will win with that too.

The glass is overflowing.

Go Rockets!!!!

 

The problem here is obvious. It’s a two way problem. Yao is still learning how to post up "American style" and our guards have never had to pass the ball into the post to a "traditional" post up center. The only players on this Rockets team that I have seen make that pass is Jim Jackson and it was either Scot Padgett or Nachbar.

The ball must be thrown quickly, with a good arch right when the defensive player is about to set. That way the player is caught off gaurd. SF and CAT wait WAY TOO long to start the pass.

The bottom line is that this team has no experience with that play. And granted, it’s harder than it look to make a good post pass. It doesn’t help that although Yao has good hands, he is a little slow. Also SF and CAT don’t have much touch. It’s a two way problem.

 

Sorry to repeat my point, but this thread is the right one.

All championship teams use regular season to tune their rotation and find the right offensive/defensive schemes. People say only winning matters regardless of how we played are just showing their ignorance. Four year straight lottery season is enough to make a lots of people on this board and Rockets players content with just make playoffs this season. However, JVG clearly only has one goal on his mind: Championship! I believe Rockets can be a contender THIS season, not in three years.

Everybody knows that guard-oriented play may win some regular season games, but will never bring championships. Big-man post play is the only way to win consistently in playoffs. In playoff games, the defensive intensities are much higher, opponents will put much more parimeter defense on our guards, and still try to deny Yao the ball. If guards cannot, or unwilling to, get Yao the ball in regular season, I don't see how Rockets can play inside-out coming playoff time. It will be the Memphis game all over again.

Again, I was not talking bout feed Yao the ball when he is double/triple teamed. I am talking about feed Yao the ball at the right moment when he is single-covered, single-fronted, or on a pick and roll. I hope JVG takes post entry pass as the number 1 priority in practices. They need LOTS of work, from Yao and the guards.

 

Thank you Lancet and Vibe!! Exactly my reasoning !

 

The Pistons won two championships and the Bulls won six without a dominant post player.

That being said, I believe the post game is extremely important. But so is balance.

You have to take what the defense gives you. Right now, they are letting the guards go one on one and not having much success, As it has been said before, soon, it will probably go the other way with Yao getting more touches.

In the meanwhile, Yao needs to do what he did last night - be a contributor any way he can. Teams have tried to blanket Duncan but he STILL finds a way to be dominant. He controls th boards and the paint.

If the TEAM keeps playing this way, it will be a great season!

 

Why the f**k labeling people a "Yao only fan" when he/she makes an observation? It used to be a fashion to beat on Francis & Mobley, now bashing Yao & his fan becomes the most fashion thing on this board.

The Rockets are 5-1, but that doesn't mean there is no problem with the team. Yao was defended well last night, but I counted AT LEAST SEVEN(7) TIME he was wide open inside, but didn't get the ball. Was that because the guard didn't want to pass to him, or they just didn't have the skill to pass? Either way, there was a problem there. A true fan should always enjoying the effort & the result of his team, but not foolish to think the team has no improvement needed.

The Rockets are winning becasue of their DEFENSE. Their offense is still average at the best.

--daoshi

 

Of course Yao is my favorite player, but I like SF and Cat's play more and more. I can't believe how much improvement Cat made for his shooting selection and shooting percentage. He is the leading scorer now, guess when you are hot, you are hot.

But I still think we should pass the ball to Yao a little bit more, not only because it will benefit Rox in the long run, but also rewarding the big man for his hard work all night long on defense end and drawing double team and fighting for position the other side.

I watched the game last night, they did try to pass Yao the ball, but obviously the guards were not comfortable doing so when Yao was fronted even he was single-covered. Most of time they were way too hesitant.

A great play came at the fourth qt, when Grant fronted Yao, guard quickly swung the ball to the top of the Arc, at the same time, Yao spun to the basket and Padget made a perfect entry pass for Yao finishing with an easy dunk. I wish they can practice the play more because with more and more team trying to front Yao, it is the ultimate weapon causing the highest percentage shot.

 

Here's a quote from JVG on Rockets.com about fronting the post. Do you guys remember the play he's talking about? I remember when Padgett threw that pass that we should have been doing that all game.

On things that can be done so shooting isn’t relied on to win:
"They did a great job fronting the post. I really thought they did a great job. Only one time in the fourth quarter did we do a good job; Scott Padgett did a great job … he made a great high-low pass. We can’t allow defensive intensity to take away what we want to do, regardless of what it is in that particular situation.”

 

I call it like I see it, someone claiming that Francis and Cat aren't "real guards" with the numbers they've put up so far can be one of two things. Biased towards Yao and Yao's stats alone or possesing an elematary understanding of basketball. Perhaps it was #2, I gave he/she the benefit of the doubt.

No one is bashing Yao, hell he's the best thing to happen to the Rockets since Hakeem. I just wish the loyalty that his fans have for him, they could place on the team he plays for.

Of course some improvement can be made, no one has said differently. Could the Rockets guards make better post passes? Of course. Could Yao do a better job of establishing position? Of course. I'm assuming you have the game on tape, or maybe you just counted the times Yao was "frozen out" by those two fake guards we have. If you do have the tape, do me a favor. Watch it again and tell me this time how many times Yao gets denied position or gets the ball and gets pushed off his spot. Let me know what you find.

I agree they are playing GREAT

 

Last I checked, we are 5-1 and leading the WC. Apparently our team is doing all the right things. I can see that there are still room for improvement and with time I am sure JVG will find ways to get Yao more involved. But for now can we stop with this incessant bickering about Yao's scoring?

I don't want Yao to force his shots. He contributed heavily in last night's game with his defense and passing. So he did not lead the team in scoring. BFD. We won the game, didn't we? I love having Yao on this team but I am getting pretty fed up with all you Yao-only fans.

 

Word.

It's the Houston Rockets, not Yao Ming's Rockets.

 

Maybe I can calm down a bit. Guess JVG knows the situation all alone. Have to give him some time to solve the problem.

 

you've got to be kidding. have you not read any of the other posts in this thread? it's pretty damn hard to score in the paint when you're constantly double and triple teamed...... hence the open outside shots (see how this works?). if teams want to single-cover yao to stop the outside shot, yao will get his points. to assume that yao needs to put up huge numbers just to warrant double coverage is just plain assinine.

and the fact that you're comparing yao to bradley automatically discredits anything you'll ever post here.

ah...... you're a moron.

 

Yao Ming currently is a player of Houston Rockets, that is why Clutch allow us to discuss it on Rox section.

As long as it is a rational discussion, people have no responsibility to stop talking the topic you don't want to hear. So here is a suggestion for you, just ignore it.

 

I disagree. There are Yao bashers on this board, we all know who you are. It's just not that many.

I didn't use the word "frozen out", but I can see where the original come from giving the history & the bad rep our guards have. But the point is many posters chose to overlook the possesions Yao was open with the lame execuse of "defensive fronting". As I said the HEATS did play very physical defense against Yao, but you cannot deny the fact that Yao didn't get the ball where he was open at times. As someone said in his post, it's a two way street, Yao needs get better/deeper position, and the guards need to get the ball to him when he is open.

BTW, I did tape the game, but I'm at work right now, so I cannot watch it again. You can trust me on this one, Yao had good open position at least seven time (because I made the comments to another viewer) last night, but sometimes the guards were not in a good position to pass him the ball. So it's a two way street, Yao & the guards need to work on better timing & comminoication for that to improve.


--daoshi

 

Yeah, I agree with you. Bottom line SF and Cat are scorers. We need someone like D.Fish to distribute the ball. I dont know if JVG
wanted them to look to score first?

 

I'm in disagreement with most of the posts on this thread. People keep posting how he was double and triple teamed without the ball. This did happen, but it only happened a few times in the course of the game. Also, I didn't think we did a great job of finding the open man until midway through the 3rd quarter. If you do think that the Heat were doubling and tirpling Yao without the ball, do you guys think we did a good job of finding the open man? I think the key was Mobes getting hot and that was the turning point.

I'm glad we won, but it was against the Heat. Our offense looked horrendous in the first half and if we do that against a good team we'll be in trouble.