Yao had an off-game...isn't it great that we can say 'off game' and he still had 18-9 at the end of regulation. 3 rebounds and 2 points in 10 mins of OT with only 1 play being called for him. Granted he does need to more aggressive calling for the ball, but he's doing fine and will be better with more strength and experience...he'll get it guys. Give him time. Now Steve on the other hand...25points on 27 shots? 1 assist? Does he even remember that he's a point guard that 'sets up others for good shots'? I wonder what kind of numbers Yao would put up with 27 shots. Hopefully we'll find out someday soon...
Are you really sure about that? He's good at getting one hand on the ball, it's coming down with it with both hands where he has trouble. It may be related to fatigue, but there's no question the balls have been slipping through.
I don't know what's happened but he doesn't look like the same player we saw in the preseason. He's not knocking people around and attacking like he did in the preseason. More importantly probably, him not demanding the ball today in two overtimes just speaks to how big of a wuss he is. Don't give me this respect your peers nonsense, not calling for the ball in two overtimes when your teammates are totally ignoring you is just being a wuss. He needs to step up and smack someone or something to demand that ball consistently. Ewing has to get that in his head. He has to want that ball and call for it because we know what happens if he doens't.
Yao has great hands. He has a great shot. He has coordination. He is fine in that regard. Everyone wants to jump on steve for his aggressive shot selection.... but I didn't even get the sense that Yao wanted the ball. It seemed like he was relieved when steve took a shot and he certainly didn't do a good job of getting in position to get the ball. I know Yao will be fine, I am not saying trade him or anything. Believe me I don't want to trade him. I am just saying he must do more to demand the ball down low and he should have been attacking the basket on all of those missed rockets shots at the end when he wasn't involved. He wasn't even going to offensive boards. He needs to attend the Kellen Winslow "I'm a soldier!" school.
I'll take what Yao gave stat-wise in the Raptors game minus the turnovers. I don't like what he gives emotionally. For the love of all things holy, you do not layup a 2-3 foot shot. Slam that thing. This is one reason why people that are 6'9" are blocking his shots. They don't fear his fadeaway 2-5 foot jumpshots. People feared Hakeem in the paint. People feared Barkley in the paint (and he's over a foot shorter than Yao!). Yao needs to make people worry about being posterized. Right now, Yao's getting posterized. Yao's still lost out there on some plays. I can see it. You can see him wandering around the paint not knowing where to be. In the past 2 or 3 games, he could've easily been called for 3 sec vio's. In the Raptors game he could've been called for a 10 second vio as he roamed the lane. One thing people need to adjust to is the fact that Yao will never be an explosive player like Hakeem. Those players don't fall off trees. Don't judge Yao by what Hakeem showed you. At this point in his career, Yao will be woefully lacking if you do that. However, Yao does need to step up the aggression or people are still going to keep challenging him. People will still strip him because they don't fear him going up and ramming one on them like Shaq does. When he does fadeaway jumpshots from the paint he will still get blocked (which is sad for a guy his height). Yao's still learning - bear with him. He's only 23 years old. He may never get that aggression we all want from him, but he offers so many other things. I just wish he could get that killer mentality and get rid of that fadeaway 2-5 footer when he's swarmed - that may work in the CBA, but it won't in the NBA.
screw david blaine. yao's disappearing act for two quarters and two overtimes was simply magnificent. joking (kinda sorta). all in all... the guy is getting better. i saw several times that the guy was really muscling up antonio just to get off his shot. it's an improvement. he just needs to learn how to initiate the contact before the defender does and be consistent with it so the refs won't call that bs offensive foul on him all the time. grouper's right. could have easily been 25/14 today (well... it could have easily been a little more than that). it's funny thinking about yao taking "baby steps" to learn, but perhaps he does. he'll be alright once he decides that he's had enough.
Yao played poorly in the first half, but he stepped up in the second half and played well. Instead of taking fadeaways 15 feet out, he was more aggressive taking the ball to the basket and drawing fouls. He played 50 minutes today and I'm sure he didn't have anything left in his tank to bang inside. That's the best reason I think he wasn't calling for the ball. But for most of many possessions, the ball handlers were just dribbling the ball up top opposite Yao's side. They could've dribbled or passed to Yao's side to help with setting him up for the post play, but then again, he was probably too tired.
Frankly, Yao bobbling the ball all the time is starting to piss me off. Just squeeze the stupid thing, your hands are huge. On one of his few late touches, he starts to make his move and the ball just pops straight up into the air. Also, when he made that nice pumpfake, he went hard to the basket, Carter taps him on the elbow and the ball goes flying. He's gotta finish that with a dunk for an and-1. Sometimes he tries to catch it with one hand when he should be using two, and it slips out of bounds. I've been defending him and making excuses for him for a while now, but i'm tired of this crap.
Dr of Dunk, Yao cannot dunk when he is 2-3 feet away from the basket! he needs to be like 6" away from it...HE CAN'T JUMP!...that's why he resorts to his fadeaway shot, because he KNOWS that it's harder to block that shot and he knows if he just jumps up and tries to dunk it, the other person will be able to block him. Yao has horrible jumping ability!
I agree with everything you said except the part about 3 second violations. Yao was called once for that and that's the only time he was there for 3 seconds or longer. In several plays, I was counting to myself how long he was in the paint. Many times, he'd just step out of the pain at about the 2.5 second mark and then went back in again. He went in and out and in again, that's why he seemed to be in there for so long.
I can see it too...too often... I completely agree with the thread. I've been saying that for a while. Yao is too soft. His lack of rebounding is driving me crazy. Tonight he didn't do to bad on the boards but damn, he's the tallest guy out there, always under the basket but he's not looking where he should be. He gets pushed around all the time. And on the offensive side, he just looks afraid. Opponents should be fearing him. Somebody said here a couple days that they did not understand why teams were doubling Yao when he was shooting like crap. I think you will see less and less double teams on him until he starts to show some aggressiveness and passion out there...
I know what you mean KeepKenny, but you have to wonder what it is like to use that big a body. It can't be as easy as it is to use one my size. The thing is though is that I have seen he go strong to the hole. Just not for a while. DoD - emotion is the key word. If Yao doesn't get it, he will never be the player he can be. I agree he won't be the same type of player Hakeem was, but there is no reason that he can't be as effective a player. He HAS to demand respect and the ball like Hakeem did. Can you imagine what a meek Olajuwon would have been like with Vernon Maxwell in his backcourt? People think Mobes takes bad shots.... youngin's don't know shizz.... Yao has to be as mean as Olajuwon could get in a game. He is still young, but I don't think it is something that takes years to learn. He needs to make the conscious decision to be more aggressive. It is JVG's job to instill it in Yao. If Yao fails, it is directly JVG's fault. The good thing is that I think JVG knows that and we all know how much JVG likes to fail.
whats up, What's up? If you go back and watch the Raptors game, trust me on this. There was one play where Yao was completely lost in the paint and didn't get called for 3 secs. A few of us in chat saw that he never completely exited the paint on that play for at least 7 seconds. He roamed trying to find out where his man/position was. Luckily he wasn't called for it that time. There was a game earlier in the season where he could've been called for 3 secs far more than that. Yao was being blocked out VERY well by Antonio Davis tonight, btw. I think he was just dead tired by the end of the Raptors game - he couldn't fight for position anymore. Ok, let's make this thread non-game-specific now or take it to the game thread. I don't want to get banned. 12345, Yao can jump. He just can't react quickly - and that kills him. He still hasn't adjusted to the speed of the NBA. Maybe I'm expecting him to be a Dirk Nowitzki or Pau Gasol at that height and I'm expecting too much.
dod, u think jvg will even play yao tomorrow? yao played 50 minutes today and i think he might die from heart failure if he player tomorrow!
