Anyone who isn't psyched to have Yao is on crack. Amare is a powerforward and they are a dime a dozen. There are 3 star centers in the league. Shaq, Yao, and Duncan. That's it. He's a max player end of discussion. He's progressing, I just dont think he is going to be the type of player that Shaq is and that everyone wants him to be. I feel sorry for the guy sometimes (comparitively to other nba players). China takes half his money, I dont see how anyone can enjoy playing in Van Gundy's system, and it definitely doesn' t suit his style of play. Yao is a talent and proved everyones predictions wrong. Actually caught a Rockets/Suns game tonight and what I saw was pathetic. Has anyone seen how ridiculously hard it is for him to get the friggin ball in the post. Someone through a god *ODSf!!! entry pass. He's fighting off guys who are always smaller and pushing him in the back. Refs never call it because they stop if the ball actually gets in the post. By then he is out of position. All van gundy does is complain to the refs because he's too ignorant to run plays that will free up Yao. Plus Yao a nice guy. Have you ever seen Shaq. He throw visicous elbows, lowers he shoulders, wears a flak jackets and PUNISHES people in the post. Shaq is a smart guy and he CONSCIOUSLY does this, because it puts the onus on the ref to make the call. He will take the one or two offense fouls a game, because the other 80 percent of the time the defensive player is going to fall, or be soo off balance that he will fall, foul, or just give up on the play all together. Yao will never have that mentaility. When Yao actually catches it he must be exhausted. Sura gave him a pass when Yao thought it was a jumper, and he was too exhausted to even react to it. The offense just makes him work too hard. He could have destroyed the sun's interior defense and changed the complection of the game. But instead Van Stupid goes with Deke. I mean, McGrady can at least take over when he want's because he has ball handling skills. He's probably saved the Rockets a couple losses because of this already - despite Van Dumb Ass. If anyone has more time than me, I'd like too see the rockets record when Yao has more than 25 pts or so. Expecting Yao to get his points in the flow of the game is just BS. You need to force feed him everytime down the court. Like rudy did to dream. When the Rockets made their run its because Hakeem was force fed until he was tired or injured. I'm not saying that Van Gundy is a terrible coach. He demands defense and effort, I just dont think he's the right guy for Yao' s development. You have to adjust to your personnel. Look at what Riley did going from the Lakers to the Knicks. Two totally different styles. Yao is definitley more important to the franchise than Van Gundy. CD just extended his contract for the money, and no way Les makes the decision unless the Rockets take a nose dive. Unfortunately that means two more years of this crap. If your a real fan, you need to start complaining more. Complain through the Rockets web site. Print flyers to fire van Gundy at the Rocket home games. Cal into radio shows, and demand a firing. Phil Jackson is the guy. He knows Kobe was as talented as Jordan, but if they wanted to win it had to go through Shaq. He's teams success wasn't based solely on defense. At least he had a clue offensively with the triangle 0. I dont' even know what the hell van gundy's offensive philosophy is. I think the last time I posted was like 8 months ago. I said A. Lakers would have better record with Rudy at the helm with less talent. B. The Rockets would regret giving up on Griffin. What's sad is, its basketball 101. You should build your team around athletic big men. The rockets are mismanaging Yao, and gave up on Griffin. There is a reason tall people play basketball. If I want to be entertained I watch iverson, francis, mcgrady and kobe and all night. But any GM or coach worth his salt would center his philosphy around athletic bigs. 1. Rudy abandoning Hakeem as offensive focal point after second title. MISTAKE. 2. Rockets hiring Van Gundy. MISTAKE 3. Rockets not centering offense around Yao when Francis was here. MISTAKE. 4. Rockets centering offense around Mcgrady now. MISTAKE. Is there anywhere I can formally apply for the position of head coach on the Rocket's web site? I love the Rocks, but I just can't stand this anymore. Somebody has to do something. This is like being tortured by stupidity. THROW YAO THE GOD DAMN BALL!!!
You need to stop comparing Yao to Shaq. And Dream. There is no need for Yao to be as 'mean' as you say Shaq is. Shaq is Shaq, there isn't anyone like him. And Yao probably isn't ever going to be at Dream's level. What we do need is some sort of focus, determination and aggression for all 48 minutes. Yes, sometimes they miss giving Yao the ball in good position. And sometimes they don't. But if Yao could have even some aggression and determination for the entire game and not just a few plays we would see a drastic change. Don't just watch the ball bounce off the rim; go for the rebound. Don't wait for the double team; make them react to you. Don't just lay it up or bobble the ball in the air; throw it down or pull it down. Know that you can - and will - score, or can - and will - pull down that rebound, or that you can - and will - block that shot and let your natural talent (of which Yao has a great deal) do the rest. You know when Sura's pass sailed past Yao? You know what that says? That Yao didn't want the ball. That he wasn't looking for it, that he wasn't hoping to be the one to take the shot, that he wasn't focused and determined to be in that play. If he had that want, that determination, that level of aggression (and we aren't talking about Shaq levels here), he would be damn near unstoppable. The shots would come to him. Because he'd make it happen. If he's imposing his will on the court, even without the ball, everything else follows. But unfortunately we only see flashes. Glimpses here and there. I want Yao to succeed very,very badly...because he could take us to the next level. ANd all the tools are there. He just can't seem to make that mental jump. And that's very, very frustrating.
I am not the biggest JVG fan, but in his defense, over the past 10 games or so they have been running a great play to get Yao the ball deep in the post. For some reason, they didn't run it last night. The play I am talking about is swinging the ball from the top of the key to the corner and then downlow in the paint to Yao. I think the problem is that his teamates aren't always confident that he is going to catch ball so they hesitate to throw it in when there's an opening and then the oportunity closes up. I play soccer, and if you don't make the pass when it's there, the lane closes up in a split second and the opportunity is lost.
I thought the guards efforts at feeding the ball into the post were pathetic at best. There were several times throughout the game that Yao had position and a guard looked him off or waited until the defender had help before passing the ball into Yao. Wesley, Sura and Barry all get an F for their half court offense last night. I thought Yao Ming was on his game last night, he rebounded well, changed a ton of shots on the inside, especially against Amare plus he shot well when given the opertunity. Yao is not and never will be Shaq so we should all start appreciating what it is he does because it is still pretty damn good. I tend to think the most of us have been so spoiled by the play of Dream that we tend to think any center we have should play like him when in reality he was one of a kind.
Dime a dozen? Why can't we get one? Duncan is a PF more than he is a C. I agree with your main point that Yao is one of the bests C's. Hopefully we can resign him for less than max contract. Don't know if it will happen though.
Oh, BTW, Yao got some shots early and the shots kept going in and out. I play Basketball all the time, and when someone is cold, I definitely try to find the hot hand. That means I do not keep feeding the person that's been missing all night. If he wants a shot, he needs to grab offensive boards and get some putbacks. Unfortunately, the person with the hot hand was undiscovered against he Suns.
you don't run teams that run better than you - you run teams like Golden State and Utah that can't keep up the pace I team like the SUns you have to slow it a little and pound it instead - otherwise you will kill yourself (I mean they took 3-4 seconds to score at times last night !!)
Every great big man is one of a kind. They were all unique in the way they played the game, even unique amongst themselves. Yao is no different. Yao needs a Nachbar type player, tall and rangy, who can bust the 3, and who will play the 2 man game from the corner, dumping the ball down and resetting up a little higher at the bend, and then catching the ball back and allowing Yao to reset deeper, and then throwing the ball back to him. Then Yao has the choice to take the shot in the deep paint or throw it back out to the tall, rangy, 3 point shooter in the corner for the wide open 3. Boki was our best player at getting the ball to Yao in the post and playing the 2 man game with him. It's too bad that they were not allowed to develop their chemistry and skills further. Instead we got Yao playing the Ewing game, and Boki taking up shooting practice in NO. Don't make sense to me. You don't have to be in the NBA for 30 years to understand what players skill sets are, what they are good at, and what they are bad at. Yao is at his best with the ball in his hands, and options to pass or shoot...............quickly. He gets worse the longer he has to hold the ball and dribble it. So you design the offense so that he can get the ball early, and often, and get the ball back quickly, and make quick decisions with it.....period. Yao is a reactionary player, with a good mind. He is not a self-imposing player, like Shaq, that seeks to impose his will on a game. He is a chess player, able to see what the defense is doing, and go away from what they are doing, and still create. He should be allowed to do so. When the front him, all we gotta do is throw the ball off the window........quickly, as soon as you see his hand go up. When they start to double him, move him out to the elbow and let the open cutter get the layup. If he has a size mismatch, then he will go down to the low block and do his thing.
I think JVG need to give Yao some actual goal--hard number before each games: " Yao, I need you to score 25 point and 10 rebound today! Don't dissapoint me!!" We will see then Yao ming then works his ass off to get those numbers. For lots of Chinese, they are very good at achieving the goal when giving them concrete numbers and goals, however, they are not really good at achieving such vague goals as "please be more aggressive" "You need to be more assertive"... We'll see a different YaoMing then.
Great post! I thought I was the only one who would scream out loud THROW HIM THE FREAKING BALL EVERYTIME!!!! I know people think Yao is soft, and he is to some extent.....for now, but the offense MUST run through him. FORCE THE BALL IN THERE!! FORCE IT! Dictate to the other team. Force them to respond and use their fouls. Make them defend us. Double him - front him - make Yao LEARN to demand the ball and learn how to get it in anyway possible. DUMP IT!! DUMP IT!! DUMP IT! Then toward the end of the season, after we've learned how to score in the middle, let the guards penetrate and shoot and then DUMP IT DOWN AGAIN!!! And then DUMP IT IN AGAIN..AND AGAIN..AND AGAIN..shoot a three and then DUMP IT IN AGAIN!! Get Yao 50, in their face, over their arms, in their chest, over their flops, on top of their shoulders RIGHT IN THEIR FREAKING GRILLS....and then DUMP IT IN AGAIN!!! Pound them in the face until they (or Yao) can't breathe anymore....an then????? FIRE GUNDY!! and THEN DUMP IT IN AGAIN!!!!
If he needs a babysitter or tutor, get rid of him. He should come to play every night and score and rebound whatever he can. The goal is to win a game and to do it to the best of his abilities. The goal isn't to score x points and get y rebounds.
That's exactly my point. It is not that he need babysitter or tutor, it is because he is not really sure what coach expect him to do. Terms such as "Be more aggressive" are against his nature and it is tough for him to really translate into the game every night (Referee did not help him either). He comes to play every night with great confusion and timid, goals such as "Give me 25 and 10 tonight will give him more stright forward thinking when playing the game. And the minutes he begin to work on those goals, we'll see a much more aggressive Yao, which will translate into more wins. The point here is not help him get his point or rebound, but to help him to more aggressive and help we win more games. I am not saying JVG need to do this forever, but once Yao begin to get used to that kind of play style on the court, mission accomplish and we could be a contending team again. JVG is always talking Yao is "Thinking too much on the court" "He need to figue out himself", those goals will help Yao not think too much on the court and figue things out himself on the court in the hurry.
dragon -- i'm certain that yao has some statistical goals for himself...i'm also fairly certain that van gundy has sat down with him and discussed statistical goals. that's pretty routine in all sports.
For a NO.1 overall pick in his third year in the league, 18/9 is not a special goal, it is the mimimum requirement. It could be a fine goal if 18/9 translate our records into 10 games over .50, but we are sitting at .50 right now. Either the goal set by Yaoming/JVG is too low or Yao Ming have trouble in delivering his promise. If he can only put up 18/9 when he is promising 21/10 to himself or coach, then someone need to remind him: " Dude, what's going on? Where are those 21/10 you promise to me? Where are the wins you promise to me??"
I think you guys are wrong in assuming if Yao is being so called "aggressive", we're going to win against the best teams. Yao can be as aggressive as he can and score 50 points, if no one else can hit a shot, we're still going to lose. After I watched many games this season, as of late we're improving. However, there still are some holes we need to plug for this team to work. Whenever we play a good team, our weakness get exposed. We need consistent fire power from outside, not just 3 pointers, mid range jumper. We might be able to win some game by shutting down opponents, the good teams they can put the ball in from almost every positions and every angle. All we have as consistent scorers are Yao and TMac. They can combine for 70 points and we can still lose. Last season, we can have Yao get about 20 points, Francis 20 points, Cat at least 15 or so. My prediction, the make up of this Rox team right now, the best they can do is be as good as the one last season, maybe worse. Maybe barely getting into the playoff and lose.
B]Oh, BTW, Yao got some shots early and the shots kept going in and out. I play Basketball all the time, and when someone is cold, I definitely try to find the hot hand. That means I do not keep feeding the person that's been missing all night. If he wants a shot, he needs to grab offensive boards and get some putbacks. Unfortunately, the person with the hot hand was undiscovered against he Suns.[/B] Yao got 3 offensive board in 27 minutes, how many you want him to get to make you think he is not a pus or passive? Why do you think T-mac can shot as many as he want while he is shooting under 30%? Becasue the miracle against Spurs? Any logical here? NO, only race problem,The way you guys talking about Yao make me sick. Unfortunately? last 30 games or whole player carree, who shot more accurately? Who should be a Offensive focus? Yao only had one turnover in 27 minutes last night, Does that made his teamates hesitate to throw him The frig ball? Bye the way, that turnover is at late of game, and still not sure who is one reponsibel for that.
I honestly can't fathom a superstar or a player wishing to become a superstar needing someone to tell him what he should shoot for in terms of statistics in a game. That just seems SO odd. First of all, if the defense dictates what you do as a result of say, double teams, are you going to pass out to the open man or think "oh wow, I need another 6 points to satisfy my statistical goals for the night". Ultimately Yao is the one who has to decide he needs to take over and what he needs to do to win. That being said, I could've sworn JVG gave him some numbers to shoot for last season or during the off-season.
\ What the hell is superstar??? is somebody launch 25 bricks or steal some rebound from his center and lazy on the defence, if that kind of people call superstar, the league could have full of superstars. I believe Yao don't care whatever you call him, he just a good player, stick to the game plan and try as hard as he can to win the ball game, simple as that.
