With Yao Ming now limited to 24 minutes max per night, I really hope that the coaches unleash his offensive game. IN particular he does not have to worry about one thing that has been an issue since at least his junior season. Offensive flopping. He has never been one to really punish people offensively using his full strength since players quite successfully flop against him. I never understood this since even when he is holding back his strength, players still successfully flop against him. Now that he doesn't have to worry about fouling out or saving his fouls, I hope he really just throws his weight around. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BwlwdHktFuA?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BwlwdHktFuA?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
True, I hadn't really thought about this. We might see a very effective Yao if he's willing to be fully aggressive and not worry about fouls.
I truely think that Yao is much more efficient when playing less minutes. Yao just don't have the stamina to be a beast for 30+ minutes. I recalled there was one game in Washington couple years ago, the game was paused in the 4th quarter for about fifteen minutes due to the lighting problem of the arena, when Yao came out he turned on the beast mode and brought us a W.
If they call an offensive foul on you, then your points don't count, and the other team gets the ball. Not worrying about fouling out won't solve that. But I do like the idea of Yao being more aggressive. Maybe that will happen. I sure hope so.
Well, he can also be more aggressive defensively and take more chances on blocks. And occassionally clobber people.
Nothing to do with the topic, really, but I wanna see Yao get his hands on some more 3's. It'll be exciting if he can knock em down at a decent clip.
It amazes me how agile Yao was when he came into the league. There is no way you could not draft this guy #1.
All 24 min a game does is prolong Yao getting back his rhythm. Other than injury avoidance, I see no other advantage to cling to.
I don't think there will be that much of a drop in concern for fouls. If he gets 2 early fouls, he's still coming to the bench. As well, I think Coach won't want to put the other team on the line, or be without Yao as an option at the end of the game. Besides that, Yao is going to be a little hesitant mentally and less agressive as part of his goal is going to be to not get hurt. I think that aspect will balance out or out weigh any lack of concern for fouls. To me, the added bonus is more PT for the other bigs, giving RA more/better options in the front court.
My thoughts exactly. Any discussion of Yao playing harder and being more aggressive would mean that he is opening himself up to more contact, more bangs, more bumps, and more falls - all leading to injuries. With Yao, more fouls could very well lead to more injuries. I hate to say it, but if anything, we will see a less physical version of what we have seen in the past. That's why we are seeing offers/rumors of more bigs coming to the team.
Too pessimistic. One, the injuries he'll get from crashing into people or falling down probably won't be stress fractures in the feet. It'd be likely to be more like the soft-tissue injuries common to all the other players. They can be very serious, but different from what has been keeping him out historically. I'm willing to take a chance with those injuries just like we do with any other player. And, the caution this season is coming from the team, not Yao. He might agree to the wisdom of the decision but I'm sure he'd rather go all out if he could. I don't expect to see him being afraid of contact when he's on the court.
Which is why they need to stick to playing him in the second half only. He can play a full 24 minutes without picking up 6 fouls. Even if he picks up a quick 2, you can still leave him in because it would make the officials look bad if they manage to call 6 fouls on Yao within 22 minutes (2 minutes rest + timeouts).
Yao is getting older and his body is not what it used to be. It needs time to rest, and he needs to limit his practice days. Yao is easily the best scoring option in the NBA in the first quarter. Why do you think the Rockets collapse in the third and fourth? Injuries, too many minutes, too much practice, and the most back to backs in the league. These guys are still human and their bodies can only take so much. I don't know how Yao played for the Rockets and for China every off season. He never rested. These injuries were inevitable. The body can only take so much.
Silly to waste an IBTL on a thread to which it won't apply. On the topic, one of the areas of potential good that comes from limiting Yao's minutes is that his total fouls won't likely be that much of a problem, at least not very often. If he's needed late in a game, it's a lot less likely that the team will have to worry about him fouling out during a critical closing stretch (theoretically, anyway).
