O... trust me. If you gets a 40 pt night on Thursday, but the rockets loose, this board will be happier if the rockets win, but you gets 10 pts. Isnt that what is happening the past few games?
That play was perfect. But the problem is that was one play. Cat played awesome, but it had very little to do with Yao. I think Cat had most of his points with Yao out of the game. I don't think anyone is "freezing Yao" out, but we seem to have problems getting him the ball, but he does seem to have problems getting good position.
The fans should criticize what they don't like even when the Rockets blow the opponents away by 40 points. It's like treating one's children, encourage them while they are down, praise them while they've done well, and always honestly point out their problems whenever. If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing well. Is post entry not important? is it not worth doing well? It obviously isn't, so fans have a right to critize when it's not done well. Think about this, if this situation persists throughout the season unaddressed - Yao being used as a decoy, a big dummie and guards getting used to fed off of him, without Yao being really developed into a night in night out dominant player - if this continues into the playoffs, and teams suddenly stops double teaming Yao, as a result Yao won't be able to dominate, and the guards won't have a field day. We'd stumble like a man who lost his balance. What are we gonna do? Learn how to play inside-out in the playoffs? IMO the way of doing things is more important in the long run than temporary win or loss.
How was Yao being used as a big dummy? He was getting double-teamed and sometimes triple teamed last night. Our guards got open looks and took the shots. That's smart basketball in my book. When teams stop doubling up on Yao and our guards are jacking up wild circus shots, we can then start criticizing our guard's play. Until then, we just have to take what the defense is giving us and make those open 15-footers. BTW, the way of doing things may be important but it is not more important than getting a win. You don't win championship on style points.
Do you honestly think that Yao can't become productive once teams stops doubling him? There's a thing called practice and trully if Yao's as special as I think he is, he better be able to turn it on once his chance appears.
A big dummy is when you are open, or after a PNR rolling to the basket without getting the ball. So you job turn out to just be freeing the guards as a mobile wall. Precaution is better than cure. Hindsight is cheap. I'm not saying we should force it into Yao every time, nor that the guards should pass up open shots. I'm saying the lack of touches for Yao is a problem masked by winning. Yao needs to shoot more, we need better schemes and better efforts from his teammates more than we need from Yao in terms of fighting for the perfect position - what's point in fighting for position when the defensive schemes can easily neutralize it or when guards can't/won't pass you the ball? Oh yeah, the point is to be a dummie, attract defenders and free the guards. Yes, it's a luxury for us to have a big dummie, yet a mistake while we should try turn that dummie into a beast. It's fool's gold. Now I repeat, I'm not saying we should force it into Yao every time or tell the guards keeping trying it without taking open shots. I'm writing the post in correspondence to Haven's four reasons for post entry failure- defensive schemes, Yao's position, guard's passing ability and guard's mentality. I think those, along with other posters similar thoughts, are valid points and shouldn't be dismissed as Yao-only fans obsession. I respectfully disagree. Generally speaking, it's one's way makes for long term success. Example, cheating in exams may get you an A, but cheating as we know won't get you far. In terms of basketball, it's the style of a team that wins championship. Now I think the guard play is getting better, still, there's things on their part that needs improvement, not only limited to getting Yao the ball. I'm not much concerned about the problems, or else I'll go out bash people hard. I'm enjoying the winning. At the same time, I won't pretend there's no problem, or the problem lies only on Yao's shoulder.
Yao can be productive once teams stops doubling him, but he has to get the chance - with the ball in the post - to constantly challenge himself to get to the next level. He'll have to do it night in and night out to mature, in both leader's mentality and physical skills. It won't come overnight. Practice can't substitute real games. I don't think I need to elaborate on the last point.
rockets sucks. Yao sucks. Steve sucks. Mobe.....err.. Be a rockets fan sucks. I should check in the hospital with EG. I only like Moochie. I'm Moochie only fan.
What kind of logic is this? So it's okay to go 1on1 or 1-on-many than passing to the open teamates? Did I say Yao was the only one get ignored? Isn't the bball a game of creating mismatch, and an openning a result of that process? The discussion here is why Yao wasn't involevd more at the offensive end. Was he ignored intentionally by the guard, or it was just the lack of ball distributing skill for our guards? Many people made the argument saying it's the HEATS' defense, but that is not entirely true. Yao & others were open many times, but were ignored. How can you explain Francis put his head down, drive to the hoop when his teamates set a PnR with him, rolled towards the hoop freely? I didn't see any so-called double team, or tripple team there. I'm happy that we have played better basketball than last year, especially with the defensive intensity. It's wrong to overlook those improvement the team has made, but it is also ignorant to think jump at people when they made an observation/suggestion. What I've found is that fans are the same everywhere. They think all of their players are better than they actually are after a few wins, but want to bash & trade everyone after a few loses. We saw the reaction last season, the same thing is happening now. --daoshi
Yao has to get better position and Miami played him well, but we're still not doing a good enough job of getting him the ball. Beating up on the Heat is not anything to be proud of. Van Gundy from Rockets.com 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.” From the Chronicle There was lots of isolation and not enough pitching the ball to Yao, although he came up with several late buckets for 16 points.
He was involved. . . just not the way you like him to be sometimes. . . He will be the decoy Sometimes not . . . . Rocket River
If rocket has problems to pass the ball to Yao, the team must fix it ASAP. Otherwise, it will be a problem to repell rocket out of the playoff. You can not simply rely on One man show or two men show through out the season. To label people with different opinions with Yao-only fans is very disgusting. American alleged itself to be a democratic country but very frustrating at the BBS / froum in the internet, people tends to label people with opinion they hate most. To see Mainland China, at least you can now see people there at renman net can express sharp points about the China society while here labelled and attacked. A contrast and sarcastic phenomenon.
I would rather have Yao start of slow, then come out hot then finish the season struggling. He will find his touch, and when he does, we will be even better.
Be prepaired for more of the same against the Mavs.... Try this For all the different approaches Mavericks coach Don Nelson can bring to a game plan, the Heat might have demonstrated a defensive strategy he will have to try. On Tuesday, Miami had 6-9 Brian Grant battle Yao Ming for low-post position, then surrounded the Rockets' center with quick frontcourt defenders. The Mavericks moved Danny Fortson, a physical power forward similar to Grant, in as the starting center Tuesday and always have quick forwards ready to bring help defense. If the Mavericks use the same style, the question will be whether they will attack a Rockets weakness or a problem the Rockets could correct with Tuesday's experience. "At the beginning of the game, Miami took us out of rhythm with fronting Yao Ming and jumping out early on screen-and-rolls," Rockets guard Moochie Norris said. "They had us kind of indecisive. That's something Coach has us working on every day. We know the system. We know the plays. We practice on them every day. We should be able, when someone takes something away, to be able to go to the next option, keep swinging the ball, instead of being so indecisive." Houston Chronicle
this is going to be the trend if the Mavs also have success with the strategy. it will be be sad if the way to stop the Rockets 7'6" big man ends up being by putting a 6'9" power forward on him every game.
Nap! It's not the way I like, but the right way to play bball. It is just plain wrong to miss your open teamates, be it selfish, unable to delivere the ball, or whatever. I don't care if Yao score 5 pts, or 30pts, as long as the team is playing the right way, and winning. We are all happy because the team is winning, and has been playing better than last year, but that doesn't mean they cannot be criticized. --daoshi
I think that labelling of people with the Yao-only fans is a way of the Yao haters attacting Yao. There are a few Yao haters on this board who come to alive, because Cat is playing so good. They think that the Cat haters are the Yao -only fans, whatever. When a person is going to label others for Some-only fans, She or he could be some-only fans. When they are the someone-only fans, there is no much good things from their mouth, as simple as this be Rockers fans on this board.
I think JVG has echoed my opinion in that we should not allow the other team to completely take away the number 1 option. The play where Yao passed to a wide open Mobley also supports this. The problem with that play is it only happened 1 time all game long. Instead of giving up on trying to go inside, just wait for the right opportunity, and then Yao can find the shooters. If Dallas tries the same thing tonight, we better hope for another hot shooting night from Cat and Padgett. Our wide open shooters hopefully can outscore their shooters with hands in their faces.
Oh, come on, this is pretty facile. Yao should get the ball more (when open) than all those players except Francis for 3 reasons. 1. The offense is supposed to operate inside-out. (applies to Francis as well) 2. Yao is open less, so when he is, he needs to be fed the ball to keep him in rhythm, and re-establish the threat. (applies to Francis as well). 3. Yao is better than they are (arguably does not apply to Francis). I agree with your point about him being a helluva decoy. But the Cato bull**** is asinine.
