Yao must change his game again.

can you elaborate a bit more? feels like an unfinished post, and i am interested to hear the other half of the story.

 

I'm not going to put words into his mouth, but i have an idea of what he's trying to say. Instead of trying to surround yao with mythical fit players, focus on just players that can play. We know yao strong points and weak points and for years, i know gater and i have argued with people on this board on what kind of players should surrond yao or be the core. He has the greyhound theory he subscribes to. I agree with what he says about the type of players vs yao the player.

Since drafting Yao, it seems like they had a idea of putting shooters around him. Most wanted these standstill, spot up types. They figured every team will double Yao like they did shaq or dream and he would just kick out and the team would shoot open 3's. This still happens, but through injury and decline, this formula isnt as effective. Teams like Utah a few yrs ago exposed the rockets and their limitations. They tilted to tracy and physicalled yao leaving guys like rafer,shane,head,hayes to pick up the slack scoring. The rox couldn't, lost in 7 games. The can back adjusting on the fly by infusing younger legs like brooks,landry,and scola. Yao got hurt again, the rookies had to step up in the playoffs and fared well, but Utah knocked them out again. This time without yao, they tilted to tracy in a zone, the rookies struggled and the rockets are back at the house. This year, they went and got the 3rd scorer in artest and found wafer. They played well at times, but tracy went down annd rafer was traded and now the team was still making a puch led by yao. The rox won a playoff series, yao got hurt and they tok la to 7 games,but lost. So where are we now?

Kinda back to square 1. We do have some young talent developing in brooks,landry,wafer,and lowry. It seems like now though the focus is or should be on guys that can play with and without yao. History have shown us that even if yao isn't healthy, teams can still make him very uneffective. So this journey is moving forward to finding players that can and will look for yao, but if yao is having trouble, that player can get himself or another player a quality shot.

 

Disagree. The reason it wasn't effective was b/c our shooters were inconsistent and generally poor. Rafer and Head had terrible shooting forms; Rafer has a corkscrew release and Head jumped forward between 1-2 feet each time he shot. This allowed defenders to easily close out on him.

Here are the 3 pt% of last year's main 3pt shooters:
Head - 35%
Alston - 35%
McGrady - 29%
Battier - 37.7%

Now lets look at the 3 pt% of the players on the Magic this year:
Lee - 40.4%
Turkoglu - 35.6%
Lewis - 39.7%
Nelson - 45.3%
Pietrus - 35.9%

The formula is effective as long as its executed properly.

 

I don't think he needs to change his game that much. What he needs to learn is how to dominate that paint. I was hoping instead of heading off to shanghai he'd maybe get himself a trainer like tim grover and start working out. He could also use some practice catching that ball. I think JVG said it correctly when he went into the Rockets locker room and said "Hi this is Yao Ming. He's your best low post threat. USE HIM." Now do we really want this guy to be standing so far out he can't get that rebound. If we're making himn stand out so far then uhm what's the point of having a center in the first place. I'd rather have him in the paint and posting up. I also would like him to sit around and see if he can get a better knack of rebounding and shot blocking. He needs to learn to be that force that Mutumbo was trying to make him into. Own that paint. It should be his paint and no one is going to get in there and score unless he accidentally slips. If he could do that then he'll be just fine.

 

All of the magic guys can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim. The only guy in the rox llist that can o that is mcgrady. That makes a huge difference when defenders close out and give space. Hedo and Lewis have alwasy been good shooters as well as nelson. Who on that rockets list other than tracy that can shoot contested or 3 's under stress? Thats huge.

 

One thing that surprised me during the playoffs was Adelman's public criticism of Yao. The criticism wasn't harsh and I wasn't bringing it up because of that. I was surprised what the criticism was. He spoke about Yao needing to try different things to get the ball.

Adelman was frustrated that Yao was not moving without the ball enough, and CLEARY this was something Adelman had been telling him to do. Who would have thought? Yao just may be stubborn and difficult to coach. In fact, that wouldn't surprise me at all. Yao's English is great, but there is still a language barrier there with communicating on complex issues like this. Also (please correct me if I'm wrong on this), in Chinese culture it is not polite to be blunt about disagreements. If Adelman is telling Yao to try something he is not comfortable with, Yao is more likely to ignore it than argue.

Yao will always have to play D in the paint. He is too slow and can only play D on opposing centers. That does not mean that Yao must play offense in the paint at all times. His height means that he is a good post player, but it obviously doesn't mean that he can carry a team to the finals with his post offense.

His height allows him to SEE OVER every other player in the NBA. It also means that he can shoot a jumper without jumping, and almost never get blocked. Height DOES NOT MEAN you have to always be in the paint.

 

Also, with Brooks, Lowry, Wafer, McGrady, Artest, and then maybe White next year, we have PLENTY of guys that can get into the paint without being 7'-6".

I do think we're missing the guy that can get into the paint and never get blocked. McGrady should be this guy, and hopefully he is next season.