Ok. I've been pretty perplexed about Yao's lack of rebounds lately. It seems as if he's now giving up more rebounds on purpose to our guards and small forward. Many times I'd see the ball bounce Yao's way, and someone else would swoop in and grab it. Is Van Gundy too concerned with Yao's hands? It seems as if Yao's no longer required to grab rebounds on defense. Instead he's more there for to challenge shots. The statistics seem to show this. The Rockets have been averaging -0.6 on offensive rebounds compared to our opponents. We're +3.9 on defensive rebounds compared to our opponents. So the Rockets are certainly not a bad rebounding team by a long shot. Anyway, this might just be something I'm imagining. But Yao's rebounding has really been bothering me. And I'd like to know why he's been doing so badly.
A Player has to want to rebound that means getting good position,boxing out and fighting for the boards. You have to go after rebounds instead of waiting for the rebounds to come to you.
Yao is pretty much the only NBA player who boxes out every time. When your teammates don't box out, and you box out, you (and the guy you box out) will not get the rebounds.
Do you think the fact we shoot roughly +4.0% better than our opponents may have something to do with that? I honestly don't know, but if they're missing more than we're missing, there's a good shot we'll be getting more defensive rebounds than they will. I haven't looked too deeply at the numbers, so that's a wild guess. Oddly enough, that's a huge margin. Only Minnesota's is better at 5.2%.... not that that means anything. And it's late, so I may have subtracted wrong.
I was about to say the same thing, this was also my first reaction and i've noticed this since last year. Most of the time Yao is busy boxing out coz he has a wide reach ( but not strong enough ). The smaller guys then take it. What I miss from him is to get at least 2 offensive rebounds per game and slam it to the basket. Thre's a big chnace for him to do this and he he only makes this when he's having fun out there.
Hence, I said "the Rockets are certainly not a bad rebounding team", instead of something like "they're a great rebounding team". Because I realize the low opponent FG% coming into play. I'm just saying that we're not really suffering on the boards despite Yao's lack of rebounding prowess. So could this really be by design?
I have to agree. On the defensive end, would you rather have your 7' 6'' change the shots resulting in poor shooting % by the opponents OR let your opponents shoot with less difficulty in the paint and hope they miss so that your 7' 6" can grab more rebounds? I really think you brought up a good point about our defensive strategy. The stats that you brought up also don't lie that we are not a bad rebounding team.
I want Yao to do both, change the shot and grab the rebound. Hakeem was great at this because he was so quick to the ball. Yao doesn't have that quickness, but he has the size to do more of this. In the middle of year 2, I think he is still learning this 'art', and I don't think it is panic time. Give him a little time to develop. As far as rebounding, I am more concerned with his decline in offensive rebounding. We shoot so poorly, we need the extra possesions.
