Yao Ming Fears His Return Will Disrupt the Rockets

Except he said himself he was deferring to Yao which is my point. T-mac has the right attitude to want to be more of a team player but his natural skills and inclination is to be the first option and to create more. Now that T-Mac has taken on the load of being the focus of the offense he is flourishing. T-mac's problems with tentative drives and lousy outside shooting were that he was playing against what he does best.

Certainly he was having some physical problems that likely added to his lack of enthusiasm but you can't dismiss his own words and compare to how he played when he himself said he was deferring to Yao vs now when he is taking the lead.

 

I still say the Rockets should just run the P-n-R with Yao and Mac like they did two years ago in the Mavs series. Let the defense pick their poison, give Yao the deep post or Mac an open J, it'll be beautiful. Plus, I don't buy the Ewing theory, Yao will be awesome when he comes back.

 

Ooh! Do you think that, like 2 years ago, Finley can stand two feet out-of-bounds and "save" the ball from going out? That'd be great!

 

Of course you can dismiss it when the evidence says otherwise.

"When you're averaging 19 points per game (as McGrady was with Yao playing), you're not in a deferring role," Van Gundy said.

Mac 8-24 Jazz Nov 1 Yao 8-12
Mac 4-11 Mavericks Nov 4 Yao 12-16
Mac 5-15 Hornets Nov 5 Yao 6-11
Mac 6-15 Grizzlies Nov 7 Yao 8-15
Mac 11-19 Bucks Nov 8 Yao 10-24
Mac 4-12 Knicks Nov 10 Yao 15-21
Mac 6-18 Miami Nov 12 Yao 11-19
Mac 10-25 Spurs Nov 14 Yao 7-21
Mac 8-17 Bulls Nov 16 Yao 7-19
Mac 9-16 Pistons Nov 18 Yao 8-18
Mac 6-15 Knicks Nov 20 Yao 6-14
Mac 5-12 Wizards Nov 22 Yao 9-16
Mac 7-15 Grizzlies Nov 25 11-16
Mac 4-15 Wolves Nov 28 Yao 11-15
Mac 9-26 Suns Nov 29 Yao 6-11
Mac 3-5 Cavaliers Dec 2 Yao 8-23
Mac 13-25 Warriors Dec 5 Yao 12-17
Mac 5-21 Wolves Dec 6 Yao 5-19
Mac 9-13 Bobcats Dec 8 Yao 8-16
Mac 10-21 Wizards Dec 9 Yao 13-19

Looks to me that they both put their stamp on the offense pretty much equally. They are the superstars of the team and shot accordingly.

T-Mac is not the first option. Yao is not the first option.

Yao and McGrady are the first option. They are the system. It has always been this way and always will be regardless of shooting slumps. Now if their teammates can realize this why can't bbs posters do the same and quit arguing whose team it is and who the offense should run through?

 

Those are certainly compelling stats still T-Mac said he was deferring himself. Was T-Mac lying?

 

that game against Minnesota was the absolute worst that Yao has ever played. T-Mac stunk it up pretty bad as well.

having said that, T-Mac (given how he's been playing right now) should rightfully be the first option in the offense as he is doesn't have to have the ball passed to him, and it's better for him to create for Yao (and other Rockets) than the other way around. which means that Yao should obviously be T-Mac's first option when he doesn't have an easy bucket. of course, once T-Mac gets rolling, there no such thing as a difficult bucket for him.

 

We are playing good because Tracy has come back strong. Tracy wasn't as strong back with Yao, but now when Yao comes back he will find a new tracy mcgrady which will make this team a title contender for sure.

 

I wouldn't say he was lying because that would imply deception. Maybe him saying it was a defense mechanism to how he was feeling about himself as a player at that time. Who knows .

What I do know is that McGrady being more focused in playmaking didn't keep him from being involved in the offense.

 

^ T-Mac was always involved in the offense its a matter of if he's the first option or even taking over the offense as he is now. If he's saying he's deferring to Yao and is taking more jumpshots and looking very tentative on drives wouldn't that mean that his natural inclination isn't to defer but to take over? There's nothing wrong with wanting to defer to your teammates in a team game but its not something that plays to T-Mac's strengths and it showed.

I will say though that T-Mac's psychological problems and his desire to defer might be part of his physical problems and now that he's over them he's playing better.

Back to the point of the thread though the Rox are playing great largely due to T-Mac's dominance. You want to be careful how you tamper with that and IMO Yao should be the second option on offense at least for awhile. I've been a critique of JVG but I've got enough trust that by playoff time he will be able to figure out a way to capitalise on both Yao and T-Mac.

 

The issue with Yao and Tmac and driving is that Yao clogs the paint and brings an extra defender to the basket area, thus making it more difficult to drive.

If they would move Yao occasionally to the High Post, I believe the offense would be more efficient.

Just adds another wrinkle.

DD

 

Very good point

 

The same way the team adjusted when he left they will adjust when he returns, it will take time but it is doable. this is a win win situation, imagine having a player like Yao sharing minutes with DEKE, while the team is playing with the same style it is playing right now. I think it should be that way for a couple of weeks until Yao become a comfortable second scorer and starts earning defensive respect.

 

Early on Yao wasn't doing such a good job of passing out of the double team, he was fourth in the league in turnovers through the first fifteen games at almost four a game. His biggest challenge is going to be get the rhythm of the offense back. I'm pretty sure he's gonna go throught this again with the four or five turnovers a game, hopefully he can tighten that up before the playoffs.

 

thats right....this offense must run from Inside to outsdie...its how we did it with Dream..and it worked.....in the beginning of the season Yao was creating open shots for TMAC but he just wasn't hitting...now TMAC is in a groove and when those same opporuinites come for him from YAO, he will knock those shots down.....the offense must run thru Yao.....

 

nice, its true, yao and mcgrady are the first option. but the offense used to revolve around yao with tmac and the rest orbiting around him. that's what some posters are skeptical about, having seen the success of the tmac centric offense. yao when healthy was option 1A, while tmac was 1B. i guess what a lot of posters, and what a lot of the media, wants is tmac to be 1A as in that situation the offense undeniably much more dynamic, as opposed to the yao thing where everyone stands around and watches yao after making a few cuts. hope VG finds a way to keep everyone involved in the offense.

 

Lets pause for a moment and consider how many teams are worrying about how to integrate two players who have played liked MVP's this season.

I'm sure this is a problem that most teams in the NBA would be dying to have.

 

amen.

 

I don't know what the hell you are arguing about, doofus.

 

God I love immature namecalling on a BBS! Nothing like getting the last word in...


Yao just needs to get his arse back in shape and get back ASAP...

 

oops double post...