Until Yao gets into a good offseason weight training program, he won't be able to muscle his way into the paint against guys who even though shorter than him are more muscled up. Yao's upperbody is not developed at all. Yao needs to get out of his obligation to China to concentrate on weight training next summer. Height doesn't equate to strength, but there are many uninformed people out there who think it does. Like I said before, take a skinny 6 ft Asian kid to the local basketball park and have him try to post up a 5'6'' black kid with muscles. He isn't going to do squat. He'll just get embarrassed play after play. Yao should try to bench at least 3/4s of his body weight before he thinks he can take on the big guys in the NBA with any force. When Yao does indeed put on some muscle mass, it will be no excuse for him not to go to the basket more. Shaq is probably the strongest guy in the league, but Ben Wallace looks like he is 2nd. Yao is not in the same league.
mobes i see passing out of the double more than before (although not nearly enough). he doesn't try to split the double as much as before either; but i can't give credit him for doing less of something he should never do. francis, *sigh*. i still see his dribbling backwards waaaaay too much when doubled. no need to explain the lunacy or ineffectiveness of that maneuver. i do see him passing out of doubles more when he penetrates, yes; but i can't help but think of hakeem olajuwon when he does. his teammates damn near have to be cardboard posters for him to hit them. he has to know *exactly* where they are ahead of time, else turnover. that disturbs me greatly. then again, it disturbed me greatly with hakeem, yet he was able to give us 2 championships. the difference, imo, is that dream was so, so dominant that this negative didn't overcome his greatness. pgab, i've come to a conclusion regarding francis. he'd be a phenomenal 2nd scoring option. the end of shot clock guy. the "carry the offense when the franchise is sitting" guy. but i have serious doubts with his ability to accept such a role. this, of course, means nothing until yao gets the gumption to b****slap francis et al into giving him the ball and proceeds to b****slap any defender who dare to even think about stopping a 7'6" angry baller. as much as i ride francis...and you know that i ride him a lot, i see yao's flaws, too. i guess i tend to be more patient with yao, because i see that yao has the ability to dominate the league. francis, imo, doesn't even have the ability to truly dominate his position. sure, he may drop 20 on you and snag some boards, but his defense, decision making, and subpar pg instincts negate sooo much of it that he ends up barely making a net positive impact many, many times. i was a huge francis fan at first, but these flaws have turned me away. i can tolerate him being that 2nd option, if circumstances allow it (he & yao embracing their respective roles). but, if the opportunity ever[/i] presented itself to trade steve for say, tmac or jermaine or carter or harrington/artest, i'd giftwrap him with a #1 pick and call it a night.
Yao does lower his should and bang! But Oster is not Vlade yet thus the result might be too dramatic even the refer did not bite.
I thought the half-arc only apply to secondary defender? You can still get a charge if you run over your primary defender even if he's within the half-arc. Right?
First the fact that the first kid is Asian and the second kid is black has no bearing on it. I'm white and I've taken on black guys they are no different than any other player. It all comes down to who puts more work into it. Not to mention which one knows how to use what they have to the fullest. Finesse can beat strength if it knows how and vise versa. On the second part. I've read about Ben's workout regiment and I'd put him ahead of Shaq in a heart beat.
Hello?! Real translation: I can't take over games until I learn to take care of the ball. Van Gundy is PO'd at all of us for the turnovers.
Translation: I now have faster and more ball hogging guards who suck almost as much as the coach's offense and those pathetic little gnat guards did on my national team...
Yao sure does have bad luck. He plays for a sucky national team with sucky guards gets drafted by a sucky NBA team with sucky, ball hogging guards has to play against sucky big men that foul him and with sucky refs that never call it. One day all the countries, and guards, and fouls and refs will get out of the way and Yao will truly be able to do something. I've never seen a dominant player need so much help to be dominant in my life.
Well, w/ him passing, that's fine. But when you have Ming on the post w/ the ball, it seems like Francis and Mobley want him to muscle in and draw the foul (or score). They should be moving around to get open. Guards need to be positioned back for the opposition streaking guards or cutting for the ball. Forwards need to crash the boards instead of standing there and watching for 3's or for someone to dribble out the shot clock (Francis or Mobley). This team just needs to learn how to PASS and MOVE AROUND instead of watching.
