Sydmill, You just don't like the guy. Admit it. 7'6" over 310lbs. and don't have a NBA body???? That's enough. Patience is a something you obvious don't have. When, not if, Yao gets his rest and becomes the "man" on this team, feel free to say, I was wrong but it's OK, all good for the team. But I guess we on this BBS will never hear you say that because you will not agree Yao is great even if the Rockets win the championships and the MVP. Or am I reading you wrong?
One more thing. Just incase you say that you never meant to say Yao doesn't have a NBA body or B-ball talent. You implied it when you him to KG and said what you said. I wonder how many analyst, GMs, headcoaches in the NBA think Yao doesn't have talent or a NBA body?
Seems that you missed the entire point. It wasn't about comparing numbers. If you want to do that do compare Yao's 2nd year numbers with Garnett's, Yao's are slightly better. It was about being assertive and demanding the ball in crunch time. There have been claims here that say Yao will never be able to do that because it's not in his personality. Those same things were being said about Garnett just last year. That was the point.
so whats the point? becaue KG did it Yao is going to? hey, lebron james came in as a hs player and dominated, so JR Smith and Livingston and Telfair and everybody else is going to as well, right? Ok, one more time...slowly. No the point was that just because a player doesn't assert himself and demand the ball early in his career, that doesn't mean that he won't begin to do those things. That was in response to the silly statements that Yao would never demand the ball because it wasn't his nature to do so. As far as LeBron, he's never had a problem demanding the ball, so I don't really see what he has to do with this discussion. The other HS kids that you mentioned, won't come into the league and dominate next year. They're simply not ready. In fact scouts are telling Telfair to stay in school. Livingston has nice size and is a phenominal passer, but he can't shoot a lick.
no, yao ming does not have basketball body. look at the body type of the vast majority of basketball players. they are long and lean. their bodies allow them to move very quickly and the twitch fibers in their muscles give them explosive power. KG has the ultimate basketball body. Dream, drob, duncan, rasheed wallace, amare, marion, francis, mobley, jordan, kobe, mcgrady, iverson...is yao ming a bad athlete? for his size no, but he doesn't have what you would call a prototypical basketball body. i am not cutting him down, shaq doesn't have a basketball body either. if you took what i wrote to mean that yao has no talent your wrong there as well. i meant that he does not have the type of body i just explained AND bball talent. yao is a good basketballplayer because he is 7'6''. if he were not a giant, chances are he would not be in the nba. step off.
If Yao improves as much this offseason as he did last offseason, he will be a 20/10/2 player. Go look up how many people average that. The players who average 20/10/2 at C are always franchise players: Shaq, Duncan, J O'Neal, etc... When was the last time someone averaged 20/10/2 at C and wasn't a franchise player?
aelliot-got my wires crossed, you dont have to be a dick about it. from reading your post it seemed as if you were saying that yao is going to become a comparable player. i honestly think that KG is the Hakeem of this generation, with a little less inside game and a little more outside game.
Do any of these guys have "nba bodies"? Charles Barkley Larry Bird Moses Malone Bill Walton Kevin McHale
so you are saying that Ming will eventually be as good as some of the top 50 players of all time? i would say that malone was just one hell of an athlete that, like shaq, was just so big and mobile that he could not be stopped. ditto with barkley who was just strong. i was going to bring up Bird though. the Legend might be the most talented player to ever walk the earth. unfortunately there are people on this board who are probably better athletes. look, if you dont belive or care about history then fine. but watch the next nba game and see how many guys out there are big and just s l o w and have no kind of explosive ability. i can name one for you who is still playing, Kevin Willis. Willis used to be a hell of an athlete but if I were to compare yao to anybody it would be the current willis. granted yao is muchmore skilled than kev (and kev is MUCH more strong) but just looking at run-jump ability they are on the same plane.
Will you please read the posts before responding. Did anybody say that Yao will be as good as those top 50 guys? No, they didn't . If you'll read my 2nd post in the thread, it pretty plainly says "Does it prove that Yao will develop into an elite player? Of course not, but it does show that he can". Doesn't that pretty clearly lay it out? Nobody is guarenteeing anything, that's impossible, which is exactly the reason that it's silly to guarentee that Yao won't develop into a franchise player. Next you make a big deal that Yao doesn't have what you consider a basketball body. People give you several examples of great, great basketball players that didn't have that type of body. You seem to acknowledge that there are great players that don't have that body type, so then why does it matter that Yao isn't built like KG?. Obviously, having a particular body type and being a great basketball player are not mutually exclusive. Shaq, Barkley and Malone are exceptions because they are strong? Ok, then how about a 7'-6" player with tremendous shooting skills and a high Bball IQ? i would say that malone was just one hell of an athlete that, like shaq, was just so big and mobile that he could not be stopped. Moses Malone was just so big? You do realize that Moses was smaller than Hakeem and Hakeem was himself an undersized center?
I really think it's going to take some time for him to fill into his body. I mean Yao doesn't have the upper body strength that is needed to play down lown if he is going to bang. Take a look at Garnett when he came into the league everyone questioned his size cuase he was a toothpick. Over time he developed himself into a great player with a great body. I don't think there is a such thing as an NBA body as shown by having players like Mugsy Bogues, Manut Bol, and Oliver Miller. Height at the position you play is important and your skills are as well. You can be a sorry offensive player but still be in the league based on rebounding ala Rodman or just Defense. We have to wait and see if he will fill into his size or just stay kind of scrawny.
It's nice and optimistic to compare the situations. I don't think they're as similar as some think however. KG didn't demand the ball as much, but he has always had that intensity and passion. That's what people are wondering about. It's the whole thing about Yao's culture...like not wanting to dunk, being humble, etc. Yao has shown a little of that fire, but very little. Often he seems so soft. No one can really say whether he's going to change, but we shouldn't decide to build around him until we have a better idea. I do think that he has improved his attitude some, but still has a way to go.
There is no reason that Yao has to demand the ball. If we are more apt to win when he shoots the ball, then it is the coach and teammate’s responsibility to make sure he gets the ball. This is not street ball. NBA teams have game plans and plays designed to get certain individuals the ball. I am tired of seeing Yao come off of a pick and roll, and be wide open, and never get the ball. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cat pass the ball on a pick and roll. Sometimes Steve will pass, but the ball usually gets thrown to Yao’s knees or somewhere that puts Yao out of position.
I don't know about you, but when I watched the Rockets played the Wolves in the playoffs years back, Garnett looked lost. And the old, over the hill Rockets just obliterated the Wolves in that series. Quite frankly, I think some people are making too big a deal about this whole "playing with fire" idea. The guy looked timid in the playoffs, no doubt. But it was his FIRST playoff series. Not to mention he had to match up against veterans like Shaq and Malone. Bashing Yao for his bad playoff games is like bashing Yao after he started his rookie looking like an absolute stiff. Geez, people. Let's give him some more time. Surely 5 games doesn't make a guy's career.
For those that are curious, KG averaged in his first play off series, 17pts 9rbs 1blk 47% shooting Yao Ming averaged in this years play offs, 15pts 7.5rbs 1.5blks 46% shooting Both made the play offs in their second season. Yao Ming is older than KG was but remember that YM is only in his second season playing american ball and KG had been playing it his entire life. Also remember that YM has been playing ball year around with out the benifit of Rockets off season program while KG had the full benifits of the Wolves off season. Just a few other observations about YM that supports aelliott's point about YM. Dirk Nowitzki came into the league a very timid player. He was accused over and over of not being very aggresive in his rookie year. Yao Ming appears to be about where Dirk was in his sophmore season in respect to being aggresive on the court. I would say that Yao Ming is a little ahead of where Dirk was in overall basketball skills and production. Certainly YM has a much bigger impact on the floor as a sophmore than Dirk did as a sophmore. Who here would love to have Dirk on this team now? Remember how people said that YM was a project and would take 3 or 4 years before we saw this type of production from him? IMO Yao Ming is light years ahead of where most of us thought he would be at this stage of his career. I think he spoiled us with his outstanding play during the middle of the year before he lost his legs to exhaustion. One last point about YM's growth is his dunking. When he first came into the league he never dunked the ball. It was considered bad maners in his country. Now we see YM dunk the ball regularly (although not with the athourity and regularity that we would like) which in my mind is a sign that he is adjusting his attitude towards the NBA style of play. There is no question that Yao Ming still needs improvement but there is also no question that he made a major jump from where he was last season. This year he will have a short break before the olympics and should be back in Houston before the start of trainging camp. I don't know why anyone would not think that Yao Ming will continue to improve his game in the coming season like he did this past season.
crash, I'm more than pleased with Yao's progress. Like most around here, I never expected him to be a beast in his second year like Akeem was. I'm most concerned about his fall-off in production towards the end of the season and in the playoffs. Any ideas about how that will play out going forward?
