In an article (I believe it was Houston Press) before the season started, Daryl Morey said that the Rockets were going to assume that Yao is not going to get much better as a player, and that he is currently in his prime. Yao is 27 years old, which is the average peak age for NBA players, though big men often tend to peak a little later than that. Does Yao seem like the kind of player who has already maxed out his potential, or is there still room for improvement? If so, in what areas can you forsee Yao getting better at this point in his career? People calling for Yao to become a beast on the boards or to start dunking over people like Shaq/Howard are deluding themselves, in my view. People make too much of Yao's mental makeup (there's nothing more aggravating to me than the "he's soft" criticism we hear regularly from the media). The simple fact is he has significant physical limitations that will prevent him from being a big time rebounder or dunker or shot blocker. I can see Yao improving his passing ability after spending some time within Adleman's offense. He can become a smarter defender around the basket and avoid those silly fouls, but defending smaller, quicker players who play away from the basket will always be a serious weakness. Yao can become a more consistent midrange jump shooter. Right now, he's only comfortable taking that shot off a catch while his feet are set. If he can start hitting it consistently on the move or off one or two dribbles, that could really help his overall offensive game. In time, I think he'll improve his ability to pass out of double teams, but scoring in traffic with defenders around him is always going to be a problem for him. In essence, the ways Yao can really improve from this point on is his decision making. Maybe he can also refine some of his passing skills and skills facing the basket. As a low post scorer, I'm not sure how much more he can improve, as his skill level is already very high. He's never going to have the fluidity as a low post scorer that Hakeem had, because of his physical proportions and he his inability to react instinctively to defenses. I think physically, he is what he is and we shouldn't expect more from him in that regard.
i think yao works too hard to not improve his game daily...his inside game is already good so I think he will improve his outside shot tremendously. Also since the refs are suppose to not call when players run into him, I think he will be a lot better at blocks. The referees are just adjusting to that new rule, so you'll get that call, but it does look like that rule is benefitting Yao a lot with him playing a lot of minutes every game
if theres one thing i want him to get better at its passing. people were quick to say yao was a good passer, but i always thought he was an average passer. little did i know he's a very below average passer. his passes always get picked off easily and he passes to his teamates' feet. if he could improve in that one area then thats enough. he'll always struggle defensively and on the boards.
There's always that small spark of hope inside me that one day he get's more physical inside, but nah, I think he isn't going to change much anymore. He might improve on his shot more but in 3 years he probably won't dunk ever..
Right now it sure looks like he peaked before the knee injury last year. He was averaging 27/10/2/2 as of the game before the injury and was becoming a consistently dominant force on both ends. He just hasn't been the same since the injury and this year looks out of sorts in Adelman's offense, not dominant at all and reminiscent of his uneven play of 2004-2005 and early in 2005-2006. I don't remember him passing this much out of double teams ever before, it must be an adjustment to Adelman's coaching that he should create for his teammates rather than just get his. Of course Rafer makes it look bad when he shoots an airball on a wide open shot create by Yao....
As you noted, Morey is most likely operating on the basis of general trend among players at a similar level at a similar age. Yao may improve-- but it would not be wise for a GM to operate on that assumption. Most likely Yao will pick up more skills like outside shooting and maybe passing. His 15-18 footer are pretty good, particularly for a big. I can see him do a semi-relianble 3-pt shot in the future. His post skill may even improve in certain parts (like a more reliable hook shot). Familiarity with Adelman's system would mean he, and others on the team, will likely get better with all aspects of team offense, too. But offsetting the added skill is the unavoidable reality that wear and tear on his body will start to catch up to him, like it does for everyone else. He'll likely get even slower as time goes on. In the end, Yao Ming is not going to be Shaq or Olajuwan. The question for each fan here is whether that means you cannot cheer for him.
i don't think he can sustain that number over a full season. last two seasons numbers can be misleading cause he only played half of them. i think when all is said and done he's going to be at the middle of the pack among #1 picks.
Depends how you use him. He can continue to improve and be a top 5 center of all time if used efficiently, i.e., an offense that looks to get him the ball in the low post as the first option. But Yao is a system player..you can't throw him out there and expect him to dominate in an egalitarian offense a la Hakeem or Shaq. He's more like a Walton, Sabonis-esque center with a more dominant interior game. As he's currently being used by Adelman, he's really not much better than Vlade in his prime, which is sad to see.
He has peaked, and the only way he gets better is if he starts dunking the ball. I imagine he loses a bucket here or there becasue he didnt dunk it when he really had the opportunity. I know he missed a couple baskets last night like that. It will keep him in the 23-24ppg range instead of the 25-26ppg range.
The change in Yao that allowed him to put up those numbers was mental and strategic rather than physical. So YES, he would have continued to post those 25 / 10 numbers for a full season had he not been injured.
wilt, shaq, kareem, hakeem, russell, patrick, david, did i leave out a few? even if yao scores 25+ consistently as a first option, he doesn't have the intimidating defense, shot blocking, rebounding numbers to make top 5. all those guys i mentioned (w/ the exception of russell's offense) are both GREAT on both sides of the ball (shaq is just intimidating so that makes him great defensively).
Patrick and David??? You think if Yao won 2 championships and he was the centerpiece of the team he wouldn't go down as being better than these two? Really??
well are we a championship team? patrick got to the finals without a star guard in a TOUGH east. yao can't even win 20% of the games w/o tmac. david robinson consistently led his teams to the WCF w/ avery johnson and sean elliot. yao can't do that. yao is a great player, but he's NOWHERE near even the level of patrick or david right now. until yao can lead this team JUST A LITTLE BIT without tracy, then he'll gain some respect. but this team is horrendous without tracy even with yao. that means he's not truly a franchise center.
Yao's defense is underrated. since we've got yao, this team has allways been a top 3 interior defensive team. even under rudy we were a top 3 interior defensive team. Yao's interior defense is amongst the best in the league.Defense has never been a issue. Yao's pretty much entering or is pretty much into he's prime. but people need to keep in mind that big's usually enter there prime in there late 20's and early 30's. hakeem, Ewing and so on started playing there best ball in there early 30's.
He certainly has the ability to score way more than that, even when slowed down by that knee injury. I suppose Yao is in some sense doing the right thing by being unselfish, but he became a dominant player because he changed his mentality. Now if he changes back and goes back to deferring to his teammates, he won't be dominant and will play unevenly like he did in 2004-2005. McGrady was better that year, and we didn't win in the first round. Personally I think it's a shame that Yao has been pressured/forced by Adelman or whatever to be more of a passer and defer to his teammates since that just blunts his aggressiveness and makes him softer. He became a dominant player by going the other way, and this line of thinking just takes him back to the bad old days of 2004-2005. I wish the dominant Yao would come back but with Adelman that seems like a more and more unrealistic hope.
Yao is certainly peaking with his laziness on the court. He is the only Center in the NBA who can lose a rebound to Brevin Knight! Dude is just too damn lazy.
