This should be the prime of his career. He's 7'6! He should be aggressively rebounding the ball, dunking it on bums who guard him and throw some people to the floor. Instead, he is getting blocked by everyone and his rebounding is weak. Near the end when Yao was going for a defensive rebound against Pryzbilla, they both grabbed it, but who wanted it more? Pryzbilla snatched it from him and there's poor Yao....down on the floor as usual. The boy needs to grow some man balls.
Yao has shot under 43% from the field in 4 of our 5 games. He had a similar rough stretch last season in the middle of December.
Injury syndrome. He's probably thinking too hard on how not to injure his leg again. 3 major injuries will make you 2nd question any move you do on the basketball court. We might not think its a big deal when we hurt ourselves and just keep on playing, because our entire livelyhood doesn't depend on playing basketball. Lets just hope game by game he gets it back, and stops worrying about what people say, and just do what he knows how to do. If I were him, i would put a large banner on my locker that says DOMINATE, and have those banners and notes everywhere I go. I don't think he knows that he's physically dominating, even though he's not athletically gifted as others are.
And DD I completely agree with you. Something is defenitely wrong with Ming, the Dallas game was the only good game he played after five games. It's not just O that is in a slump right now the guy is behind on rebounding and just look lost on the defensive end. I mean yeah its only 5 games but the way he play right now just doesnt look right.
Thats fine and dandy but how do you explain his rebounding? his defense? and why he keep letting no name centers out duel him?
I think its confidence and fatigue, mainly fatigue. What do you expect from a 7'6 guy for playing 40 minutes a game for 3 games? Yao's stamina has improved from his early years but not by that much. He will be fine when Adelman starts to cut down his minutes.
yao is clearly not at 100 % physically and mentally. that's one problem. the other problem is rick adelman. remember last year? this team had no identity at the beginning of the season. it's because rick doesn't define roles. he lets his players work it out on themselves. last year, after they found their roles and the identity the team was clicking. it's the same this year. plus, i don't think adelman's offense is the right offense for this team. yao obviously can't handle it. t-mac doesn't play it. scola isn't used at the optimum with it. even artest relies more on his one-on-one and jacking up some shots.
I agree with this.....the chemistry is screwed with the addition of Ron...however, we are barely losing even while we are discovering our identity, so that is a positive, right? DD
It's completely mental imo. The boston game carried over into the Portland game. For whatever reason, he isn't reacting quick enough. You could see it when he gave up that wide open dunk to Pryzbilla. You could see it when he took too long in his moves and would get blocked. His form and composure are way off on normal gimme moves in the post. Heck, even that wide open baseline jumper near the end of the game looked super awkward for someone who is money from the free-throw line. And that's not even counting all the boards he let get away ... You could tell he was getting frustrated offensively when he kept trying to force his way through the double team to get his, but the problem is that isn't his game at all, so insta-turnover. Maybe he is a player that needs constant practice to stay sharp. Whatever it is, he needs to get his head in the game, asap.
I have watched every single game of Yao since his rookie year. To be frank, I only see this kind of play last year with Cavs, when he got blocked 5 times by multiple players and couldn't even finish the base line spin move dunk(his go to move). At that time, I was like WTF with yao, then he's out for the rest of the season. In the past, he could be struggling at times, but mostly due to foul trouble or double teaming or crazy dog like fronting. He's totally different now. He's struggling with mediocra players defending him not that hard. I seriously think yao is regressing due to all the injuries and have not recovered and may not recover to his old self again. Last night I watched closely and I see yao tried hard to assert himself in the second half. Tried to create contact and went hard to the basket, only get blocked easily. We may have to accept this new yao as a still good but not great bb player.
The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! We've lost two incredibly close games to good teams and Yao isn't playing at his best. No player can be expected to be at their top during the whole 82 game season and if Yao is going to slump its better he do it now than later in the season.
jon feigen thinks it's yao being overthinking, and i tend to agree. more likely cause, to say the least. maybe yao needs to say goodbye to reebok and start wearing nike instead. he needs to say the "just do it" line before the opening tip. the yao thinking "i gotta be cautious on my moves, i'd better block him out" - the worst yao; the yao spewing "you can't f**king stop me!" on the court - the best yao. he needs to go out to the bar with ron ron some time.
I think 3 things are the cause of the problem.... 1.the stress of the married life 2. emotional wear from the olympics 3. the shots are just not going in
Dunno where youve been. But Perkins and Pryzbilla are not scrubs on the defensive end. Does Yao need to play better? Yes. Is he injured or has he regressed as a player? Absolutely not. He's just not comfortable in the offense yet. No one is really.
It's worse than Yao not playing at his best, it's Yao playing absolutely horrid against players who should be giving him no problem whatsoever. Still, it's only been two games, so I'm not really that worried right now.
Yao's not the only problem or person who hasn't been playing up to par, the team has look very sluggish and inconsistent. Artest really has played all that well, except the Dallas game and the first game. The defense has been great at time, but other time has looked sleepy and T-Mac has been inconsistent, and gotten worse on defense. Scola is great in some games, while total non-factor in others. Rafer has a vanilla wafer for every single game. I can't think of one game, this year where he at least had an average game. The ball is not moving around a whole lot, while the team has played at particular high level....mostly just enough to get by. Remember, they only lost by 4 against defending champions from the way the posters sound on this board... it seems like we lost by 25+ points. I had feeling the Rockets who stumble of gate a bit, I won't expect to start putting up alot of blowout wins until about late Dec to Feb....sort of like last year. I think most of you are paranoid, if you think this team is going to play this for the rest of year...they're eventually get better, if they stay healthy. I'd even like to point to San Antonio. Even, if that team goes 1-9 or 3-7, I'm still picking them to get to playoffs...it's too early to start making moves and adjustment...the season is barely a week old. Everyone is already pushing the panic button. I would at least wait until December.
Yao may not be able to handle Adelman's offense right now and it may not be the right one for him, but there is absolutely no excuse for the poor defensive rebounding, poor shotblocking and the lack of finishing point blank dunks. An all-star center may struggle at some point in the season offensively, but he still must be a presense on the court with the rest of his game (rb,shotblocking ect.), everything else cannot just fall apart. It's embarrassing to watch a 6'7 Big Baby Davis outrebound Yao who was closer to the ball then Davis especially when Yao has him by 10 plus inches.
