Yao in the 3rd Q: A glimpse of how he should and can play

I agree he did seem more determined, but I think this also had a lot to do with the refs giving him a bunch of calls after he nearly got his head taken off. If you remember, he ended up going to the line a bunch of times.

That's not a negative, however. How many times have we seen Yao pass back out instead of taking it in strong? Too many. It was good to see him get some fire going, and the refs were on his side for once. If we can get those two factors to work together in tandem consistently, Yao will be pretty unstoppable man-to-man. That's a huge if, of course.

 

Yao is a player that can easily earn his keep at the free throw line as much as he is double and triple teamed. He needs to be more aggresive plus add in a handful of tricks to his bag and refs would give him more calls. As of yet, he hasn't earned their respect yet since he's been soft around the bucket. Show more authority Yao and you'll get at least 10 shots from the line everygame.

 

Kinda off topic here, but didn't dream used to have a really hard time getting calls since he was always fading away? Thought I would throw that in there... since someone had mentioned Yao and the refs. Yao gets no love form the guys in the stripes, that is for sure.

 

I remember Dream getting a lot of calls when he was hit on the elbow when shooting his fadeaway. In the playoffs he'd foul out center after center because they kept trying to block it.

 

The best thing right now is to have someone thats able to make that pass to Yao whenever he's being fronted. He has the height advantage, I dont understand why it is so difficult. The smartest thing in my opinion is for yao deep inside closer to the basket when being fronted, and a quick pass over the top. That will allow yao to make a quick layup or dunk before he's doubled or tripled. We saw how bad he struggled against the Celtics. We'll see how he handles it tonight.

 

Pretty arrogant tone for only being about half-right.

You're utterly right that Yao needs to be more aggressive. I agree with you (and Jeff van Gundy) completely there.

But the question isn't really whether Yao should be more aggressive. For all but the total r****ds out there, that's a given.

The real question is whether van Gundy is trying to mold Yao into Patrick Ewing too, while ignoring their different skill sets.

I think that he is (and in general, I'm a JVG backer). JVG really wants Yao to be Ewing II, maybe with a bit better jump shot.

My vision of Yao is somewhat different - a vision that's derived from what Yao actually is. I want him to be able to mix it up inside - but also able to play a game out of the paint, drawing out the defense to open up the lanes, shooting unstoppable jumpers, and directing the offense from the high block.

He has the ability to be able to do both. If JVG is just adding the aggressive, low-post game... great. But it looks like he wants that too exclusively.

Don't argue against the opposition's weakeste argument.

 

God Forbin Yao turns into another Ewing. All great Centers have their own style, and Yao seems to have his own. Lets just hope he gets a little more aggresive, and lets allow him to develope his own game stronger.