Yao Ming Fears His Return Will Disrupt the Rockets

i guess we will have to slow down the tempo, but that's hardly a big deal when your welcoming back a 25 pt a game allstar player.

 

Yeah, the team's doing much better without Yao. Trade his sorry ass.


The team was playing .700 ball before T-Mac went down with the back injury and that was back when he was playing mediocre(at least by his standards). Pairing the two of them at full strength should scare the bejeezus out of every team in the league.

 

We have the luxury to ease Yao back into the game. So as someone already mentioned, we can just replace Juwuan's touchs with Yao's. Then when Yao is really ready, we can just switch back and forth between the running or post up game, with T-mac responsible for making that decision.

 

And it's equally foolish to think that one who's been out for 2 months can just jump back in when the team is playing winning ball, and expect everyone to adjust instantly. Even more so when the player is a center who's taking up an entire block by himself.

We've seen it with Amare, we've seen it with Shaq.

Fact is, we'll probably drop some games when Yao gets back.

And JVG would be blind to intantly make Yao the focal point of the offense and reduce Tracy to a jumpshooter off kick-outs. That's not Tracy's game, and let's face it, he's better off creating and scoring off the dribble.

Like what many have said, Yao can be the number 1 scoring option without taking the ball out of Tracy's hands. What I'd like to see Yao do more is getting easy baskets off plays that Tracy creates, instead of dumping him the ball and have him hold it for a few seconds before taking it 1-on-1. That way, our offense will be even more efficient.

Oh and Tmac's stats will definitely take a dive when Yao gets back, especially his FG%. Reason being Yao's presence simply clogs up the lane, and that leaves only one side of the lane for Mac to drive. Yao is also not as adept as Juwan at pulling his man off the lane to open space up for Tracy. Which is fine, since Yao down on the blocks is the highest percentage shot we have.

But that'll also probably lead to Tmac having to shoot more jumpers and drive less, something which he isn't as effective doing.

 

Amare and Shaq aren't exactly an apples to apples comparison with Yao. The former was out for a whole year, so the acclimation process tends to be a lot longer. The latter was out shape to begin with, and is still completely out of shape. But yes, it will take some time to integrate Yao, but I think we can be optimistic about his return schedule.

 

There will be some adjustment, but I think Yao's return will be like the cherry on top the sunday. The team has progressed in ways they may not have with him always being the first option. I expect to see, after a few games, the inside/outside game that we have all been waiting for since TMac's arrival. The other players confidence appears higher than when he left. Other teams can't double team both TMac and Yao.

 

Here's the thing....we MIGHT drop some games, yes....but that's what our defense is for. By holding teams to 85-90 points a game on a consistent basis, that gives us a chance to win EVERY night, even on nights when our offense isn't flowing. I wouldn't be disappointed if we lose say 3 out of the first 5, but I also don't think there's any excuse to lose 4 or 5 out of those first 5 either. At the same time, looking at the big picture, if losing 5 out of 5 is what is necessary for our team to figure out the best game plan in the playoffs, then I'm all for it. All I know is, getting Yao Ming back at this point in time is better than any trade we could possibly make this season, and the NBA should be worried about us in the post-season.

 

I just want to add that we all know Yao's work ethnic. I am sure that Yao must have worked REALLY hard during practice with his teammates before he comes back.

 

AMEN BROTHA

 

Yao has been gone so long we should start by bringing him off the bench. He probably isn't going to be in good enough shape to start anyway. That way he will get used to playing in a Tmac oriented game.

 

What's Yao being Chinese have to do with anything?

 

Anyone saying that Yao coming back will not be a disruption is nuts.

Of course it will, it will change everyone's role, their minutes, the way the game is played on offense and defense....and more importantly it will change the team's chemistry.

I expect the team to struggle for 5-10 games when he gets back.

It will take that long for the chemistry to jell.....BUT....the team will be FAR FAR stronger once it does Jell...

The Rockets are better with Yao than without, but the chemistry is going to alter a bit when he gets back.

DD

 

start mutombo for 1 minute. get yao to come off the bench for 47 mins

 

I was going to say the same thing or at least play him in limited minutes for the first few games. This team is T-Mac's team and its going to need to readjust to playing a center oriented offense. I'm starting to think it might make sense to gradually ease back to a center oriented offense and let the focus remain on T-Mac. Given T-Mac's tear of late he seems to do best when he is the first option and has freedom to create. While T-Mac has the right attitude about deferring to his Yao watching what he's doing now compared to when both were playing he seems to be thriving when he is the first option.

As another poster said though having a healthy Yao come back and figuring out how to re-integrate him is a great problem to have.

 

I think people are making an issue that doesn't need to exist. The only reason the offense seemed to have issues before Yao was hurt is because Tracy blew as a scorer. He couldn't hit anything. He was shooting below 40% from the field and his three point shot was atrocious. And it wasn't because he wasn't getting enough shots, because he was still managing 20 or so a game.

 

^ I think part of the T-Mac's lower offensive numbers early in the season was his deliberate decision to defer to Yao. Its true he took many shots but he wasn't creating them like he is now and instead was taking tentative jump shots. T-Mac for most of his career has been the first option on offense and having the O go through him. While I think its admirable for him to be dedicated to deferring to teammates I'm not sure that's what's best for T-Mac.

 

Those who are worried, should go back watch the video of Rockets vs. Wizards in which Tmac was injured. Or watch the 7-game series of Rockets vs. Mavs. I am not worried at all.

 

Yeah right, he might defer to Yao to shoot FTs for him as well.

Stop being a revisionist, will ya?

 

excuse me...but where is Yao Ming's quote saying this?
if the writer had a quote, why didn't he use it. He had many quotes, but he did not have one anywhere close to Yao saying he feared his return would disrupt the Rockets.
when writers don't use quotes, they usually don't have them...it was never said. This is just the writer's worries, not Yao's.

 

I agree with you. TMAC really needed to get back into playing shape when the season started. He was out like 8 months so he needed some time to get his groove back. I remember there were quite a few games where he was really frustrated and it showed. Seriously, if it wasn't for Yao we wouldn't have had a 14-6 record before Tmac got hurt. Now we got 2 MVP caliber players on our team and we couldn't be more happy.