Including the playoffs, he's now played in about 180 games. More and more I feel like what we see now is what we get. He's a very inconsistent player. He continually makes the same mistakes on defense. His hands are about as bad as any big man I've ever seen. He's easily stripped. He can't hold onto rebounds and has no anticipation on rebounds... or anything else for that matter. He has the worst balance of any player I've ever seen, period. Many of these abilities are inate, not learned. It's not about whether you get better. Kevin Willis has played 20 years and his hands are still horrible. Nobody can tell me that Kevin wouldn't try to get better, if he could. I've always believed that great players have at least 3 dimensions to their game. In other words, rebounding, steals, scoring, assists and blocked shots. His scoring is definitely good. He averages maybe 2 blocked shots a game. That's not upper echelon. Jordan could get you that and he's a foot shorter. We know he's not an upper echelon rebounder and he doesn't get steals. As a passer, he shows flashes of greatness but, like every other facet, he's very inconsistent. I'd give you maybe a 1.5 of those 3 dimensions. Yes, it took Hakeem awhile to win a championship but he was in the Finals in year 2. He had no Francis, much less McGrady for the next few years. But the bottom line is that Hakeem was always at least a 4 dimensional player. We all agreed that the Rockets will go as far as Yao can take them. I just don't think he can take them that far. If you play one great game in 3 or one in 4, that doesn't help much in a 7 game playoff series. McGrady is good but he's no Michael Jordan... so Yao has to be greater than Pippen for us to win a championship. Right now, I'm actually scared to death the Rockets will give Yao a huge multi-year contract. I think we get fooled because we're in a time where there's no good centers and only one great one. Yao's ability gives us hope and, yes, I've spoken hopefully about Yao before because he teases us with flashes of excellence. I'm afraid he's like many beautiful chicks that we've all met.... a great tease but, when it counts, they don't deliver. Yes.. the Rockets have a bunch of holes. We all know that. But the bottom line remains Yao Ming, Yao Ming, Yao Ming........ and I see Goodness in Yao but I don't see Greatness. Thoughts?????
I think Phil Jackson might nail the point: Yao's improvement will be incremental. He won't jump to superstardom like Amare and Lebron. But after hitting his prime, Yao should be able to dominate most nights. He dominates 15% of games in the rookie year, 30% last year, and about 50% this year (expected). I really doubt JVG the right coach for Yao. Yao simply is not strong enough to fight down low most of the time. His game should be a mix of high- and low- post. Yao also has too much duties on defense which causes him foul-prone.
Let me list the things that most players don't have: 1) He wants to play a team game 2) He does not care about his stats as much 3) He trusts his teammates 4) He has the demeanor to be a clutch player 5) He is competitive and he knows his strength and weakness 6) He has a good perspective of life and sport 7) He knows greatness is earned 8) He is young enoug to wait for history to define him as a player 9) He can't be anybody other than Yao. Once the players around him learn their roles, knowing the ball comes back from Yao and Yao continues with his "gradual improvement", I am very optimistic with any team with Yao on it.
The one thing i want to say is that if Yao is getting low shot block is because nobody go in and challenge him ...or rarely ....where as other players in the league like Ben Wallace getting a lot of blocks cuz they challenge him and so he will block...but teams that play against Houston learned about Yao and rarely penetrate and so Yao hardly get any block at all.
This cannot be any further from the truth. Ben Wallace gets the majority of his block shots from helping his other teammates. Nobody ever challanges Big Ben and yet he is still a Defensive Player of the year canidate. Everyone challanges Yao cause they know he is too soft to go up and block thier shot, instead his instinct tells him to try and draw a charge. Yao will never improve his D skills and his rebounding . He doesn't know how to rebound in traffic and gets beaten on the boards by scrubs like Muhammed. Comparing Yao's D to Ben's D is like comparing Yao's offense to Shaq's Offense.
His many fouls were caused by his teammates bad defence.Yao is good enough,but his teammates is not so good.
I can't believe I am agreeing with Amed. What's next? Artest tackling fans? People have been taking it straight at Yao this year. I still believe refs have more to do with Yao's softness. To ref's credit, Shaq had been getting a lot of fouls called on him too, and it's bothering him just as much as Yao.
Are you kidding me, what games have you been watching????? This year, people are driving in the lane with the anticipation that Ming would put his hands up - like he was interrogated by the FBI - and not even attempt a block shot. 90% of the time they are getting the block calls becus no ref would consistently give a guy that is 7'6 and 310 lbs a freakin charge call. Who in the league would? Without Cato this year it has really exposed this guy's defensive deficiencies: horrible lateral movement, poor aniticipation on shot blocking and poor reflexes on defensive rebounding. Last year with Cato, how many times did he bail out Yao thru rebounding, covering on the weak side, "taking fouls for Ming" Do you guys remember how many times Cato would gesture to the Refs that the foul was his so that Ming would still be in the game with less fouls. He also dished out hard fouls in the paint as an exlaimation point which was the reason why team's were scared to regularly drive in the lane coupled with Yao's size. This year as long as the refs call it as it is every team will continue to drive down our throats knowing Ming will just stand there waving his hands up in surrender and giving that perplexed look after each blocking foul call. If we don't get another bruiser PF in the defensive mold of Cato soon Ming will sit more time on the bench than in the game and forget all that BS about him Morphing, distorting, and diverting shots on the defensive end becus anyone watching the game can tell he gives up almost as many points as he scores in the game. How many times have we seen him make a bucket but on the immediate play afterwards some guy drives hard into the lane and pushes him back a couple of feets with his hands in the air, while the refs calls a blocking foul on him, or the guys scores, or it is an And1 situation? Juxtaposed that with him making a bucket and the play afterwards he makes a defensive stop either directly or implicitly. The former rather than the latter has been a deluge, too many times I lost count.
I don't worry about Yao's techniques, skills, and physical condition. What I worry about is his attitude, his determination, and his psychological toughness. Is there any enticement for him to play really tough? The day Yao Ming gets rid of the facial expression of Mom-they-make- me-fall-again helplessness when he gets up from a fall on the court is the day he will become a superstar. I see expressions of anger, indiganation, revenge, devil-may-care, even tolerance, forgiveness, and magnanimity on tough palyer's face when somebody else caused them to fall, but I seldom see the expressions of helplessness, being-wronged, or grievance on those players' face. It is difficulty to feign one's expression when he or she is caught by surprise.
I do not know what Yao is afraid of. He is certainly not afraid of contact because he wants to take a charge! Who told him to take a charge? Why can't he just slam the penetrator to the ground a couple of times? He will get called for fouls maybe flagrant, but he IS called for fouls for contact anyway.
Right now, at this point in his development, I'd say 1-3 are all negatives. I want him to be a ballhog. I want him to score as much as possible. If he is double teamed, and there is a wide open teammate, he should still try to score! This is the only way he's going to get better. 4 - If he really has the demeanor to be a clutch player, then why is he so passive late in games, like he's expecting TMac to take over.
Absolutely agree. You have to learn how to be a consistent 20+ PPG player before being effective at passing out of double team. Why can't Yao recognize this? I don't think it is a cultural thing. There are a lot of aggressive Asians out there.
lol, I've said this many times before: Yao needs a posse. He's just that big Chinese dude in the NBA right now. He must feel like he's that big Chinese dude in the NBA. This is not a league for mama's boy, unless you are on the Spurs or the Jazz. Yao needs a FRIEND like Oakley, not Boki.
Another Yao doubter, add them to the list, the more the merrier. I believe in Yao, after all said and done Yao will prove all of you doubters and haters wrong! Have faith in the big man my friend, his journey has only just begun.
Yao is what he is. He's a sometimes dominant scorer. He's an average defender. He's dependent on the referees calling the game his way. He makes money for Les. I honestly don't think he's having fun out there. I thought he didn't have fun last year too, but Steve was his buddy, so it was cool with him. The guy is a drone now.
The beauty of human life is that you can't relive any moment. For all the greats out there, there is no way to know if they could have been greater in their achievement if only they change a little, a litle bit more faith in your teammates, pass a litle bit more, but you never know... Yao passes too much, Yao may not be aggressive enough. Let's not judge him too soon - he might achieve just as much, or may not. in either case, I don't know if you can claim those qualities have helped. Just like you never know how many Jordan should have won, How many Hakeem should ahve... Yao is neither great, nor awful at this point. It is our expectaions, think about all those comments on Jordan before and after he won...
It makes me wonder who on this current team is happy.. JVG is known for doing more with less. He might be known before long for doing less with more if the dice does not roll his way occasionally. It is odd for me to say, that as much as I like JVG as a Game commentator and a coach to some degree. He may not last long in Houston. I wonder wat a standardized stat (by possession) will look like for Houston's defense standing.. The low possession philosophy makes chance more of a factor in games. When all players are robots (with JVG's chip installed) - it will be in JVG's favor in the long run, but players are not robots
Yao should have called Les and vetoed the trade. We should have traded Mo for Turkoglu and still pick up Sura to play the point. And, sign Eddie Griffen for cheap! Francis Mobley Turkoglu Griffen Yao Sura JJ Whitherspoon Cato Nachbar
