What does Yao need to do to stay out of Foul Trouble?

I think he should learn more about NBA rulers and
ref's custom.

 

He had a bad habit of running toward the players rather than just
sitting back and waiting for the defender to come at him (let his
height do all the work).

Plus, he's not as quick a jumper as the other guys since he's so big.
If he jumps, the opponents will just drive by him. So, he has to make
sure that he only tries to block shots from players that are already shooting
the ball. But, you need a quick jump for that...and this is something he's
still working on...

Third, his lateral movement is not where it can be. Just wait until next year
once the trainers get to work with him. He will get stronger and faster!!!
You just wait!

 

When I played I wasnt a pf or center, but, I felt I was being cheated out of something if I didnt use all five fouls..

I dont think Yao is doing anything wrong, he just has to learn what he is capable of doing and what he cant do. He dosent leave his feet much..thats not the problem. Just needs to learn the NBA.

The Dream had serious foul problems early in his career and had to change to a less aggressive game.
Yao will improve as he learns, and when his game gets smoother, he will get more favorable calls from the refs.

 

Regardless of what you think about NBA refereeing overall, Yao's rookie treatment seems especially harsh. There were a number of calls in yesterday's game that I thought should have never happened.

The other issue is that as the NBA game has evolved so has refereeing, and, like the game, this has been both good and bad. I think in efforts to promote more scoring, etc., the benefit of the doubt goes to the offensive player more often than not. If an offensive player jumps into you, and your not standing squarely in front of him in a defensive position, you will get called for the foul. Of course this has only hurt the game because there are so many players out there that look to take advantage of this as opposed to taking advantage of the fundamental flaws in their opponents defense.

Anyway, a sure fire way for Yao to get called for less fouls woudl be for the rest of the team to play better defense. Yao is rarely called for fouling hte man he is guarding.

 

Last night Yao was trying to be aggressive on the defensive end. On a few occasions he even went to the parimeters to guard. The defensive awareness is good for him. But it worked against him on the foul trouble when he tend to jump at the player.

The best stragegy is to use his height and avoid using his speed. Rocket should use a defense that always let Yao be near the basket. He can make good blocks when his shorter opponents try to shoot the ball near basket near him. Let other players take care of parimeter shooters.

 

You dont like our matador style of defense?

 

I do find it impressive how often Yao is forced to defend an opposing guard driving the lane against our zone defense - which is supposed to make the other team shoot, not drive.

 

Defense is about desire and its obvious that our guards (with the exception of Hawkins), more often than not, are not interested in being defensively sound with regards to fundamentals (footwork, etc).

The sad thing is, our guards have the athleticism to be good defensive players. I still shake my head as to why they aren't.

 

Bribe the refs. I saw some uncalled for fouls in the last game too. Yao made defensive mistakes, the refs were harsh as well.

 

Amen!

Playing defense is a decision, not a skill.

Either you have desire to play defense (hustle) or you don't.

But Francis and Mobley don't like to play defense because it doesn't win them
shoe contracts.

 

He needs to shrink about 8 inches, but what fun would that be??