Which is why JvG said in a recent interview that he'd take Yao around the Rockets' locker room to remind his teammates who Yao was--the best low post player in the league right now.
That is a wonderful chart! Guess the Rockets management team must use some kind of stats such as this as part of their training. They should hire you. My impression of last night's game was that Yao should turn and score more himself. Many times he just waited for the double team and then just dished the ball out to his teammates. This could be their strategy of the night, but he should mix it up more. A great game though.
I'm not going to deny there are times during games when I'm thinking we need to go to Yao more or times when I saw we missed Yao close to the basket for an apparent easy bucket against a sealed defender. But that's dictated of what the defense is giving us. If they are fast with the doubleteam and force Yao to pass out to an open 3 pt shooter, then that's what the defense is giving us. We can repost again but if they double again, Yao is suppose to find the open shooter who is suppose to shoot with the shot clock winding down. We can go to every loss we've had and probably say Yao didn't get enough touches in those either. The point is that we have a diversified offense and talented players that can score, not just Yao. We're not going to Yao 100% of the time, I hope you can give the Rockets that much leeway. Everybody knows our best offense should flow through Yao in the post. But that's if Yao is on his game. Yao is not without fault that he's not getting enough touches, it's lame to say this but he should just vocally demand the ball more if he really wants it. Just post up and yell to his guards to get him the ball, just like Dream did back in the day. He's becoming a more vocal leader anyways. It's a contrasting image that the smallest guy has to reintroduce the biggest guy to the team, who has the bigger voice between the 2...
It's not just the other team's defense though. Until recently the Rockets' offense has looked pretty terrible. Thankfully there's signs that's changing. Again, the chart might be more useful as an indicator of the general health of the offense than as a measure of Yao's personal performance.
A nice work, thanks. I thought Yao got enough touches right now, and the team is also winning, that is a good sign, but I also see too many meaningess passes from Yao, when he had a good position to shoot the ball. Even rockets TV guy said" Yao shoot the ball."
Like I said before, you're kinda just reiterating what is common knowledge. I thought it was also common knowledge that Tmac was being (and should be) used less on offense due to many reasons, that's why I questioned you bringing him up out of nowhere, especially in a Yao thread.
As you said, everybody knows our best offense should flow through Yao in the post. So when that is not happening, and Yao is being used as a decoy in high post too much, people do have right to criticize. It's not "whining", it's a valid concern. If Yao gets 45 deep touches but puts up only 9 shots and people still complain, that's whining. At some point other players are being selfish. Yao is a nice person, he won't make himself look selfish by shouting out loud, but he did wave his hand for the ball. If he sitll couldn't get it, guards are more to blame than him.
His touches will go up or down depending on matchups and how teams play him...right now they are stupidly playing behind him...that will change. DD
I don't think there's anybody else on the Rockets who's a legitimate alternative to Yao in terms of number of touches. Maybe Artest now as he integrates into the offense. And again, with regards to using the chart as a means for tracking the team's offensive health rather than purely Yao's, it's probably better for the Rockets if Yao gets more touches than T-Mac instead of the other way around.
I dunno, Brent Barry did the same thing last night kicking the ball over to Rafer when he had an open 3. There's something to be said for getting your teammates rolling and involved.
The high post stuff was cut out very early on and is not much of a factor to the argument. And that's why I called out the whiners. Hopefully these charts will shut alot of the whining.
Yes, he did, and Rafer missed. That probably was a mistake on the part of Brent Barry. But for Yao, it just happened too many times. Like I mentioned before, this could be their strategy, but he could have mixed it up a bit more.
Not really enough stupid , with the current players of the rockets, other teams can not front Yao well, because our players are moving, there is more space for operating, plus that other players can make shots, we will see if this is Yes or No in a long run.
the one thing i have to mention is that none of our stars get touches all the time every time they're on the floor. yao will get touches in stretches, then artest (and sometimes tracy). so therefore, when they do get the ball, it's unpredictable if they're going to do their thing or not. the balance of shots the past 3 games has been excellent and it makes it hard for defenses to hone in on our stars. and to DD's point, he's right. it's baffling that teams have not even attempted to front yao on this road trip. washington played him straight up with a rookie and an unknown until the 4th. dwight howard didn't even try to fight with yao for positioning on defense, so fronting wasn't there. and orlando is one of the few teams who don't double yao. and miami again didn't even try to front him, considering they had no one taller than 6'10. teams will begin to front yao. boston had success, same with portland. different teams think they can play yao differently and these past 3 teams have paid for playing him like that. when teams adjust and try to take yao out, we gotta come up with a new gameplan (a high post offense of artest/scola look good right now).
Badgerfan, you're typical of why I did the first thread about yao touches. Some posters picked up the newspaper, saw 9 shots and created a thread. I have been charting stuff like this since I left college in 95. Even before the when we had film breakdown, you have to watch and monitor a lot of other stuff. If the big guy wants and receives the ball, he has to work for it. Going to the blocks and sticking your hand in the air is not working for the ball. Getting the ball on the blocks 25 times and not getting doubled and shooting 12 times isn't being aggressive. Getting the ball at the elbow and not turning to face the basket isn't being aggressive. I could talk about he couldve had 40 last night but chose to let a double from 6'7 guy make him throw the ball out. The pont is, Yao always touches the ball 30 times or more with 25 being on the blocks. Of course Tracy will touch it more because his scoring position extends to 25ft and he's the best handler and decsion maker on the team. Just because he touches the ball 45 times, he doesn't shoot twice as much. Then you add artest and other offensive threats, everyone attempts and touch go down. The touch reduction comes at the expense of better,more balance offense. He just needs to look to force the issue as opposed playing into a weak gimmicky offense.
why don't people get that? yao gets the ball plenty. it just depends on whether he's aggressive. he can take 20 shots if he wanted to with EASE. but right now, yao's in a good stretch where he's making good decisions. when he does encounter tougher defenses, he just has to fight through it and SHOOT THE DAMN BALL. sometimes yao really gets soft when teams play tougher on him (or if he struggles). it's all up to yao if he wants to control this offense or not and takes as much shots as he wants. since JVG has been here, i've always proclaimed he tried to make yao "the guy." but yao just never stepped up to the plate. the last 3 games have been great. yao's really been aggressive. hopefully he'll keep it up. if he plays like this, no doubt he's the man. but he doesn't do it all the time, esp. the playoffs. hopefully that'll change.
If yao was aggressive every night and ha the stamina and mental toughness, his stat line would be 9-16fg, 7-8 ft every night, but most nights he chooses to give scrubs like mcgee and blatche the night off. He has to realize he can't always get the ball 3ft from the hoop, but even with a double, the step through which sets up the drop step hook, the big step jump hook or turn around. Every thing he do or the defense tries to do, he's skillful enough to counter. I would like to see him just staying aggressive, playing with balance and staying assertive.
First, I haven't seen people whine about Yao's touch when he actually was getting enough, like the last couple games. So it's more like you are wining about some people's concern, not the other way around. 2nd, these charts only showed the recent games, not a good indication of what happened before thant (see Spurs game), so use this to call people "whining" about pervious games is not justified.
