Ah, didnt JVG say this after Walton said on a national broadcast that Yao has to get a new head coach? This taught me, never fk with Jeff
Yao's production is all about T-Mac's health. His game is monstrous when healthy, and Battier will only improve it. But we're doomed to a first round exit unless T-Mac can play off Yao the way he did 15 months ago, and I saw nothing of that last year. If we have open guys knocking down 3s, well great, but we are still going to need guys going to the rack with Yao in the low post and we have a history of guys not being able to do that with Yao near the lane. Everyone talks about Alston's terrible year and we need guys to stick the open 3, but even Kenny and Sam sometimes had to get themselves going with easy buckets, Now, with the fake zones it takes extraordinary skills to do it with 4 guys in the lane - even with Yao "screening". Sura, Wesley and Barry IMHO had more trouble than we remember and I worry that Battier will too. I do believe playing with Yao in the NBA is quite an adjustment, but the only time I saw guys figure it out was that brief moment in the Mav's series (2 & 1/2 games?). To me it's up to T-Mac, and if Yao's among the NBA leaders in scoring then we're wasting him.
