The new system will have to fit around Yao. run and gun is fun so far, but Yao ming is yao ming. ya mean?
It's still early, but the trend seems to be that the Rockets don't miss him nearly as much on the offensive side as on the defensive side. Most significant drop off from last season to this season is defensive rebounding (4th last year, 29th in the early going this year). Poor defensive rebounding leads to better shots for the opposition around the basket too. According to 82games, opposition is shooting 61% on non-jumpshots this year, while last year it was 58%. That makes a big difference over the course of a season -- enough to drop our eFG% defense from top 5 down to middle of the pack. As good as Chuck Hayes is defensively, he can't replace 7'6. On the offensive side, Rockets are actually 6th in efficiency in the early going. They're taking about the same number of 3-pointers as post-allstar break last year (relative to shot attempts). But they're getting far more transition scores, they're top 10 in offensive rebounding, and their assist rate is top 5. They're making up for not having one dominant scorer by seeking out opportunities in early offense, moving the ball, and scrapping for offensive boards. I've thought for a while that Yao's value lies mostly on the defensive end, and I think what we'll see this year will bear that out. Even more statistical evidence for this one could consider, and I'm sure the Rockets are aware, is "adjusted" +/- which shows Yao to be a truly impactful defensive player, while overall just above average in his offensive value. This could be interpreted as the Rockets still not figuring out how to use him effectively on the offensive side. But when its the same story, year after year, that a player isn't being used properly on offense, to me that suggests its largely an issue with the player himself.
a lol to that assertion, and a loud one. and you will get the same from me if you substitute yao's name with any other decent center's. and i am serious. lol.
The only thing I'm afraid of is we'll revert to the old pass it into Yao and wait to see what he does shtick. Then, Yao will be fronted and it will be a struggle even getting him the ball. If we don't play that offense, everyone will be complaining about Yao not getting enough touches. Especially when we struggle but even if we lose by 1 point. I figure DM knows what he's doing, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned.
Building a franchise around an injury prone player is probably not a good idea, but the rockets may have no choice. I don't like the idea that we will play both half court, fast break, and do motion offense. It isn't going to work look at the suns for an example. The team needs to have an identity which all the guys buy into. The half assed crap might not work. We need to pick a system and stick to it. Plus asking yao to run up and down the court will pretty much guarantee injury to yao.
The Rox wouldnt be forced to build around Yao. They can simply not resign him if they truly want to go another direction. Or even trade him at the deadline next year to try to get some value. As for your other idea, it is one of the biggest myths that Yao can not fit in with this team because they are suddenly a running team. Last year the team simply did not have enough players who could run to have any kind of fast break team. This year they have added Ariza and Budinger and gotten rid of Artest who was as "non fast break" as Yao was. Yao's job will be to get a rebound and look to pass it up for the break. The more the team runs, the better for Yao cuz if they break quickly and score (five seconds or less) that is a trip up and down the court he doesnt have to make. Everyone acts like we suddenly became the Suns or Warriors of old and score 125 a game. Look at Adelman's great teams. I would hardly say that Kevin Duckworth or Vlade Divac were high flying centers. Even now, its not like Chuck Hayes is finishing every fast break. There will be an adjustment to be made but its not like we are asking Yao to be a PG or forcing the team to wait until he is past half court before they try to score.
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Will Yao fit? Let's get him back so we can find out. It's a question we'll be wondering about all season. Predictably, the better we play without him, the more you'll hear that he's not needed as much as most of us imagine he's needed. If someone asked Coach A about it, my guess is that he'd look at you like you were crazy and then say, "Hell yes!" As Durvasa pointed out, he's a huge factor on the defensive end (no pun intended), the absence of which is hurting pretty badly with defensive rebounds and defense in general. Look, long time Rockets fans are spoiled. We're spoiled from having an amazingly quick Hall of Fame center for many years, and Moses Malone, extremely quick himself, before that, not to mention, in between, Ralph Sampson (very quick himself). Most centers in this league, what true centers are remaining, aren't all that fast up and down the court. You adapt to that. We'll adapt to getting Yao back and be damned glad that he is.
The days of YAO CENTERIC OFFENSE ARE FINISHED . from here on who scores will be dictated on off/on the ball movement. the days of drop it into yao and bm turnover days are done and dusted with.
Adding Yao to our current team would only make us better, and not hindering us. Rick is able to show us that Rockets can succeed without Yao, and the next season when Yao comes back, we can play him less minutes and use him more effectively without him disappearing in games too much (we can simply rest him in those stretches). Yao creates matchup problems for EVERY team in the NBA. I'm just excited about how scary Rockets can be if everyone's healthy. Then again, I've been wishing that for the past 5 years and it just never worked out.
I completely agree with this post. I think the effectiveness of the offense without Yao was pretty easy to see in last year's playoffs. And it is him, not that he isn't a great offensive player. It just takes so long for him to get into scoring position and so long for us to get him a good entry pass that we don't have time to explore other scoring opportunities. Dwight isn't a great low post scorer but he gets in position quickly and seals off his man so that it isn't tricky to get him the ball. Yao will work well in this offense but not if he's clogging up the lane for 20 seconds. He will need to become more versatile, stretching his game further out. He has the shooting ability.
I don't think that Yao can run this "Princeton" offence that we're running right now simply because he is too slow and he clogs the paint limiting options on cuts. We'll probably change back to half court offence with more running when he gets back, or Trade him (unlikely)
Damn dude why don't you just stop posting dumb questions already. Off course Yao would not fit in this system. If you had any type of basketball IQ you would know that. The admin needs to stop this guy from starting any threads.
If I am Morey I am calling up Orlando and seeing what it takes to get D Howard with Yao as bait. Howard might have an edge as a player, but Yao is a cash cow. A mobile defensive bigman like Howard fits the Rockets new style, while a dominant post up player fits with Orlando.
