I've been saying this the whole time, and I'm sure Dream was telling Yao about it too. Make your move before the defense has a chance to react. he seems to be more decisive about his moves in this series. he just needs to get the ball more.
The good thing about Yao this series is the seems to really know that he is far and away better then the opposing teams big men...when he gets the ball in the paint. he knows he can dominate them. he started the series doing it, he has continued shooting great, he's boxing out and getting rebounds, etc. When asked the problems with the offense, he is repeatedly saying "GET ME THE BALL" he just can't get the ball. You see Hakeem with a lot of offensive rebounds in the clip. Yao had zero last game. You know how many times all season he had zero offensive rebounds before Game 5? Twice - Nov. 29th and Dec. 8th. So he needs to get more opportunities by being more active. Another interesting thin about the clip - Olajuwon was the beneficiary of more bounce passes on the entry than I would have expected...but most of them were good, high bounce passes as opposed to low angle passes. Theo ne low angle pass I noted was at the 2:05 ish mark of the video. Olajuwon had to basically catch a pass at his ankles...and it resulted in a turnover. Something to consider on entry passes.
Thanks for sharing the video. What Yao and today’s NBA big men should do is to study those old footages of Kevin McHale, young Bill Walton, etc., and they will learn all the important skills that a great NBA big man should have.
Thanks for the video, that was great. Wow Hakeem looked great there, never really got to watch any of his first few years, so it was nice to see. To me he's the greatest Center/player to play the game....
It is pretty obvious why McHale is a pretty good coach in the league. He was able to get the T-Wolves going before Jefferson went down.
Except for credit given by long-time Rockets fans, is there a more underappreciated player ever to play in the league?
Joe Dumars while he was playing. I swear he's gotten more recognition after he retired than when he played. Ok... I'm off-topic... bad DoD.
No, you're right. Dumars is another guy that got overlooked too much when he was playing. Good lord, he's made up for it!
I've maintained since late last season that Scola is on the path to being a sort of poor-man's McHale. There're a lot worse things to be than 85% of Kevin Freakin' McHale.
Oh, I totally agree Yao would've been better. We can iso everyone away from him creating enough space that we can actually lob to Yao and nullify the front. Part of Yao's lacking athleticism is that you have to throw a perfect pass not just over Yao's defender, but making sure you don't lead him too much where the defender on the other side would've being able to poke the ball away. If he was playing in the 90's, we'd be happy to park Otis Thorpe behind the 3 point line to give the Yao as much space to catch a lob when fronted. But Hakeem, is just amazing, just things he can do for a guy his size.. ridiculous.
In terms of skill, he does have some of the moves. However, McHale was freak of nature much like Durant is. His wingspan was estimated to be nearly 8 feet wide. That's why he blocked so many shots even though he wasn't very athletic and he was only 6'10" tall.
