I've said this for years. That's why I made a thread last year of why you can't build around him. I used to think it might work, but all conditions have to be perfect. Its harder to have the "perfection" vs just have a detroit like squad. He's a good player or all star quality, that's it though.
i don't think for a second that this thread was due specifically to one game. yao is who he is and this is clearly an issue, as seen in all his games (whether the rockets win/lose). like someone said above, he's not a superstar and cannot dominate. with that, there will be no disappointments. so let's think of a solution. get yao the ball early and frequently in the first three quarters. when the superstars and the rest of the teams pick up their play/defense, use yao on the defensive end and decoy on the offensive end. teach him how to set proper picks/screens and defer to the other guys who can take their opponents off the dribble. we really need to mix things up, you can't just keep dumping it into yao on the low post and have him turn it over. that is extremely frustrating. his inability to move laterally and weak hands are terrible!
we resorted back to trying to force feed yao in the 4th instead of doing what we normally did in previous games--going through all the options. scola and landry were SCREAMING (i wish) for freakin' more shots. those midrange Js were begging to be taken
I also noticed only one play where we went to Scola in the post. Scola actually drew a foul on walton as they couldn't handle him in the post. We should run more plays for Luis in the post when Yao gets fronted or neutralized.
We should use Yao as a decoy more, face him to the rim where he can shoot so his defender must stay on him, and let scola go one on one, i think he can score against many of the best defenders in the league. But be aware, teams are starting to just front Yao with the second big man, and use their main defenders on Scola or penetrators, i have seen in the last games how Yao is for stretches covered by smaller and faster players who can deny him the ball. Last night, for example, in the clutch, Scola was covered by Gasol on one play, annd we went to Yao, he failed to score on walton because he went to far from the rim to get his posession. Plus the shot was rushed.
I honestly feel that our biggest need apart for a guard/forward to replace McGrady is getting a 5/4 like Camby to complement Yao. This will reduce the high maintenance factor to quite an extent.
Yao's a great player, but there was an article posted about a week back about how he's not such a great fit in Adelman's system. As much as people don't want to admit it, it's the truth. That's not a knock on Yao; all of our other vets were still playing JVG ball too (Tmac, Skip, and Shane). Rick was trying to pound his system down their throats this year and they still couldn't get it. Tmac and Alston are gone now and the offense has actually seen improvement, even through Battier's massive shooting slump. The question is: if we remove the last remnants of JVG's system (Shane and Yao) can we see even more improvement offensively? And would the new players we bring in be able to replace what they do defensively? I think we could improve tremendously if we moved both those guys, but they seem here to stay. And I'm just fine with that.
i actually like this idea of a decoy for the fourth, unless he gets a high percentage shot look. but we need to identify some closers, ab seems to be one, von sometimes, landry too. artest is great till closing time mostly. so its hard to say what we do except just get a large enough lead till the end like in the nuggets game.
