I'm alittle concerned with the way he's been shooting. I remember he was able to do the spin move and complete it with the dunk AND1 easily prior to injury. Now, he hasn't made one of those dunks. I know yao can't jump high, but I rare ever see him make or even attempted contested dunks since he's back as he couldn't reach that high or just isn't as aggresive. Of course he's TO is back to how it used to be, but not his overall game IMO. Maybe its not all about the physical injury, maybe its more mental.
Hell no, he jumps like a one legged midget who recently found out he was cut from appearing on Jackass. The MAN DOES NOT JUMP. He had a bad experience.
Now I think guarding boozer may also be a factor. He maybe too fatigued after defending boozer to play better at offense.
I have no idea what's wrong with Yao. I'd say some of its physical but it's mostly mental. You can tell he's a bit rattled out there and the Jazz have taken him out of his game. He needs to get deeper, make quicker decisions, and hit his fade away jumpers. His rebounding has been good but his defense has been atrocious. Hopfully it's just mental and he makes the proper adjustments.
he is clearly not the same player. i think it may be partly physical but mostly mental. hopefully it doesnt take him to next year to wake up that innerbeast again.
I don't think it is mental. He lost at least a half step. He can not do the spin move anymore. It has nothing to do with mental. If he spins, and can still dunk, then it is mental that his other games are not as good as before. Now if he spins, the defender can always recover, this tells you he lost at least half a step.
As much as I hate to say this: Give Okur some credit. The guy is going all out on defense against Yao. He's gotten away with some fouls, but he has gotten in Yao's head. However, I think the amount of energy he is expending on defense is affecting his offensive game...He is missing wide open three that he normally makes.
Then he is slower than before. Man i really hope he can recover. I hope its not permenant because of the knee.
Someone should have immediately posted, "F no" in response to this question then locked the thread at 1 post...
I think he is afraid of injury again. Being one of top player in Rockets he is hungry for the win. Therefore, He could not bear suffering another injury that could lead longer time to recovery. But when we are progress in the playoff he will eventually more agressive on the board and play above the rim.
Everyone can easily see that Yao is not the same, for some reason. He looks slolwer and more hesitant. He still puts up numbers. But sometimes it's just painful to watch him play. I even suspect that his leg has not completely healed but he just doesnt want to say it at this moment. Remember he used to play with a bad toe for several months. Maybe some rest in the summer would help.
So far in these Playoffs Yao Ming has to say the least looked cautious. Which leads one to consider the possiblity that he is not 100% game fit and/or isn't fully recovered from injury. He is not playing with confidence! On the other hand we must also consider that Yao Ming listens and complies with instructions from the coaching staff, which could be insisting he play a certain way to facilitate the game of the team in general.
I also believe he's not back to pre-injury form. His baseline spin was his best move, now his defenders are able to cut him off. He doesn't look to be covering as much ground when he spins. He almost looks like he's spinning in place compared to before. His other post moves aren't so dependent on explosiveness, so I can't use those as guides. But he's not able to root his defenders underneath the basket like he used to, either. So to me it looks like he's lost a little explosiveness and a little strength.
Yao's shooting badly because he's getting hacked all the time. No one on the Jazz team can man up on him fairly. But they don't have to the way the refs keep swallowing their whistles.
Yao is still wearing tape and stuff on his finger, so that right there is a dead giveaway that hes not 100%
It's not just his shooting, Yao is much slower compared to the pre-injury Yao. He is not fast to begin with, but still pretty good for his size before. He moved like he is in slow motion when he tried that spin move now.
