Dead on. I think we're going to be in major trouble if the big man doesn't have more touches. Passing to Yao is not easy when the defense is focused on him, but that's no excuse. The Lakers do it, the Spurs do it, etc. Any team with a good post up player can do it and we should be able to also.
First I admit rockets has been playing well. particularly in the defense. That being said, the current 5-1 and leading in WC does NOT mean too much. We have not met tough opponents yet. Let's wait and see. I hope JVG is working on passing the ball to Yao, and it is indeed a 2-way problem. Countlessly we have seen the guards waiting and seeing Yao and his defender circling each other, then 3 seconds(sometimes even more) later, throwing a pass to another side. The game just lost flow and motion in those moments. Did it mean the guards were *trying* to pass the ball to Yao? Certainly yes. Did it mean they were trying to improve the passing skills(not only to Yao), I think not. Another point, if we want safe pass only and Yao can not get a good position right now because of being fronted, why should he keep fighting for a good position? Consuming a lot energy on it for 3-5 seconds in every pocession makes him tired even more quickly.
Agreed 100% It's very hard for the shooting-minded guards to do the timingly entry pass. Same problem with the pick-n-roll. It's Jeff's responsibility to help Yao, SF and CAT to solve these problems. If Rox can integrate Yao, SF and CAT offense together, very few team could stop them.
I'm not particularly agreeing or disagreeing with any side of the arguement. I tend to think both side have a point: it's a two-way problem, take what teh defense gives you, ect. But the instant labeling of yao-only fans whenever someone has something to say about the guard play is unnerving. can't someone pull a JVG, has some constructive scrutinizing of the guard play even though they were playing well?
Suffocating defense and Yao still comes up with 16 points. I think that it is time for some of you guys to adjust your expectations. RARELY do players enter the league and dominate their position after one or two years. RARELY. In the case of Yao, it is even more difficult because he is the first potentially dominant big man to enter an NBA that allows zone defenses. This is an era of NBA basketabll with the most complex and difficult defensive schemes ever seen. The last time defense dominated the league like this, the NBA responded by implementing the 24-second shot clock, creating the offensive 3 seconds rule and making goaltending illegal. Additionally, Yao is in a difficult situation because he doesn't have the strength and agressiveness yet to shed defenders like Shaq and he isn't athletic enough yet to face up on defenders like Duncan or Garnett. Clearly, this is NOT all Yao's fault. There are a lot of other culprits at work here. In fact, I don't really think it is Yao's "fault" at all. I just think his touches are a result of the defense being played against him. Yes, the guards do often dribble too much and have problems of their own, but this is a team game. It takes five players working together to succeed and criticism of the guards for not getting Yao the ball cannot come without criticism of Yao for not getting open as much as he could AND the simple realization that teams are gearing their defense to stop him. Look, the best player in the league last year averages 23 and 13. Yao has a ways to go to be that kind of player. I think he'll get there, but I think we all need to realize that this is a tough league. You don't just show up with size and skill and dominate no matter how often the ball is in your hands.
Actually i typed it for this thread then saw the Fronting thread and though it should have been there Rocket River
Wow. This issue is becoming more and more polarizing. Perhaps fewer than 1/4 of all the posters really believe that the truth lies "somewhere in the middle." Personally, I believe there are 4 issues: 1. Teams scheme to prevent Yao from getting the ball (and sometimes double/triple team him before it even arrives). 2. Our players just aren't really good post entry passers right now (hopefully will improve; if not, find a Robert Horry-clone). 3. Yao isn't always able to effectively battle for position. and the controversial one 4. The guards have some resistance to getting the ball to Yao consistently (I don't think this is the biggest factor, perhaps even the smallest... but I do think it exists to some extent). In the Miami game, I thought it was almost entirely #1. But I do think it's bizarre how many people are willing to place it entirely on 3 or 4.
I am not advocating censorship. There is nothing wrong with being Yao-only fans. In fact, I am not trying to convince anyone to stop their constant whining about Yao's lack of touches. I was merely expressing my opinion. AS far as being rational, how rational could it be when the team is winning and we are stilling hearing complaints about Yao's role on this team?
This argument has been well and truly exhausted, and I've made my opinion clear - except for one thing. You cannot argue that it is irrational to assert that problems encountered during wins should be addressed despite the overall positive result. Whether you agree that you should or not... is a different question... but it's not irrational. Learn some basic logic .
Have yall forgotten what team baskettball is? Yao still does his job by comanding a double team. As long as everybody is knocking down shots, who gives a dizamn whether Yao gets his. Like an earlier post says, they pay either way. If you wanna shut down the outside game, you will have to man up on Yao, and he will eat you up there. If you wanna double and front him, somebody is gonna be open and it's tre's for days. It's essentially the same concept as when we had Hakeem. Yao commands enough respect, that as long as we have decent shooters, it's gonna be ballgame everytime. I mean, how can you really play as bad as we did the first quarter and still be tied after 1? Defense. Our defense is gonna win us alot of games. I like the Rockets scheme right now. If they could cut the dumb mistakes and turnovers down, they would be blowing out everybody. BTW...where are all the Cat haters now? Cat is going to thrive in this new scheme. Yao is opening the doors for everybody at this point. BTW..I SAW YAO DOWNTOWN HERE IN BANK OF AMERICA THIS MORNING WITH COLIN AND HIS PARENTS. Why they would choose a small downtown branch location to open an account...who knows. He still looks like such a lil' kid. It's hillarious.
Good post Jeff and haven... What seems to be happening is that "Yao-only" fans want Yao to become the next "Shaq (more points, more points!!!) and the expense of everything else. Forget if the TEAM's is playing well, as long as Yao gets his 30 points, or whatever. True, in the past, we had a problem with our guards. Isolations to the extreme. But the Yao-only fans seem to want to go to the other extreme where it's to get Yao in an ISO situation. The way we are doing it now is perfect. We can only work with what we have in Yao. He's not strong enough to hold off TWO or THREE defenders! Maybe never. But that's why we have a TEAM. JVG has stated that Yao is 75% fineness, and 25% power. JVG wants to get that to 50% to 50%. Until then we have to wait and see. If he becomes more dominate, then we'll exploit that...but... Even though Yao gets stronger, that still doesn't mean that we become an exclusively Yao-only team. That's going back to the ISO's just for the sake of stats as the expense of the TEAM. Even if Yao does get stronger, the best option will still be to pass out of the "DOUBLE/TRIPLE TEAM" and find the open man. That's just smart basketball.
The fact that we are rehashing the same stupid debate when we are 5-1 that was rampant when when we were 1-1 (3 blowouts and 1 tough road win later) really kind of makes me want to smash my head against the wall.
How many times was Cato open and did not get the ball? Moochie? Nachbar? J Jackson? Francis? If you gonna track bs stats like that . .. do it for the whole team YOU KNOW WHAT . . Just because u open . . .sometimes u still don't get the ball Rocket River
But, but, what's fun about being logical and rational? In fact, our spending countless hours discussing basketball is definitely not a rational behavior. Don't get me wrong. I realize that this team is far from being perfect. JVG still has a lot of work in front of him. But we are 5 and 1. Can we at least show a little excitement about what we have accomplished so far?
Good point. In last night's game, when Yao passed out the ball to Cat at the top of the key for an open trey, I said to myself "That's a team right there". You don't have to be the top scorer on a team to be da man.
I'm not saying that ALL "Yao-only" fans want this. I'm just saying that that seems to be the "tone" or "mood" of some the post. "Get the ball to Yao! He was open!!! etc, etc..."...all the while the team is getting 15 and 20 point blowouts!
