The current mix of players make the game hard. Our offense is sooo tortured, lacks utility and flow. Turnovers wear you out! They are a huge fatigue factor, before you get to one end of the court, you must run back to the other. Defense requires more energy and that is the team's focus. HOWEVER, when most of us were 23 we didn't know what "tired" was. At 6 ' 4", 220 I am older but still have a lot of energy. I used to play 3-4 hours of pick-up games every day. But I am not 7" 6", 330. I still have trouble understanding Ming's fatigue. Kobe was exhausted before and after game five, but "rose to the occasion." Ming didn't.
I think Yao is not interested in the playoffs only. He is interested in the championship. He sees that there is no chance to get the championship this season, so he just fulfilled his duty to bring the team to the playoffs, that is it. In the first couple of games when he played the lakers, spurs, kings, and dallas, Yao played with full energy. After he knows he can compete with those teams, he dropped his intensity when playing those teams later on. His goal this season is just playoffs, not championship. For Yao, there is not much difference regarding experience in regular season and playoffs. Talking about consistency, I do not think a player can be really good for whole two months followed by completely two bad months. It is not possible to be good or bad all the way, but it should be consistently good or bad with occasionally bad or good. And the good or bad should randomly distributed among the bad or good.
No, we ask players to represent us in the Olympics. China tells Yao when to show up for practice, it is not an option for him. So it is different what KG and Shaq are doing. Well, that is what I think anyway.
What a rheologist talks may confuse you. The rheologist meant that Yao has played professional BB for years and he should be consistent at the same level for the same role (playing the center position) once he gets used to the NBA games. I belive he is now used to the plays in the NBA. He played pretty well in the first half of the season. He should be able to play the second half well too. He should simply play the whole season well, with a few bad games occuring randomly, if we call that inconsistency. Yao knows the team can only go to the playoffs, not the finals. So he just played his way to the playoffs. He also knows he won't be traded. But the other players have to play hard in order not to be traded. I am not bashing Yao. He is just realistic.
I do not give up. The next season the Rockets will be contender after acquiring the right piece. I believe the Rockets will be the champion in a year or two.
Basketball if played the right way is simple as abc. Magic's lakers, Bird's celtics, Jordan's bulls,Thomas' pistons, i believe aside from the greatness of the players mentioned, their teams played basketball the way it should be played. Fastbreaks, defense, pick n rolls, unselfishness, team work, big brother-small brother relationship, they all got it. Thats why they won championships. The lakers of shaq and kobe, they are just dominant and big time players. And besides, eastern conference representatives just sucks. So i dont think that team is comparable to the teams i mentioned above. Now my point is, we all know that yao got a short supply of stamina, i believe in jvg system, he is using too much energy with his picks above the ft line, and what i hate is once he rolls, the ball doesnt go backto him, energy wasted. Then when he has a great position inside, most of the times he will be ignored. Again, energy wasted. We must remember that yao is not one of those who are physically gifted big men in the game. Even shaq gets winded when he doesnt gets the ball inside after battling positions with yao. it is very evident in the playoffs against yao. He hold him to one of his worst scoring games in the playoffs. Thats why i love jason kidd, Steve Nash, Mike Bibby, Tony Parker. They have a tremendous understanding of the game. They want their big men to be happy so that they can feed off from their energy. Especially jason kidd. Hes so unselfish and so smart. His passes to rj and kmart are a sight to behold. Its just awesome. Basketball is easy. magic and kareem played it easy. Bird at his best wont sweat in the game because he played it the right way. Jordan is just god. But even he knows how to play the game right. With a thinking point guard, thinking players surrounding yao, i believe it would make the game easier for him and would save his energies in succeeding games. But with his current teammates, coach, i doubt it.
Someone mentioned the solution earlier. It is no accident that Del Harris is now coaching the Chinese squad. He is there to take care of Yao properly during the offseason. Teaching and allowing him to rest.
Ok, I'm missing the logic here. Why is a Dallas Maverick assistant going to help Yao be better next regular season?
for one, he's not going to run Yao into the ground like his previous coaches. Del will certainly run the team as he ran an NBA team. Yao can only benifit
I'm still missing it. Yao's going to play fewer games? Practice less often? It's not like Yao was playing huge minutes in the games last summer.
Seems like most people on this board still don't get it. Yao has stamina problem since day one in the NBA. Don't think it has anything to do with his race, but perhaps with his nutrient intake, exercise regiment, body size and physique. Don't think his stamina will get better simply by taking a vacation or an extra week or a month off in the summer (he is now taking an extended vacation, and let's see how he performs under Harris. But then the Olympics is a short tournament, and not a grind like the NBA). He is simply not mentally and physically strong enough to go through an 82 game NBA season. Shaq was smart to start skipping games (sometimes dishonestly) the past few years. However, Yao's 2nd year stamina was indeed better than his first year's. Bottom line is, unless Yao Team find enough help to make Yao's stamina improve each of the next 3 to 4 years (after that he can only go down hill), Yao will never be great like Hakeem and Shaq. He will need to start skipping games here and there to help the team play better comes playoff time.
From Ron413's thread, "I don't think it should (wear him out)," Van Gundy said. "When one of your two best players has such a production decline in the last month of his only two seasons in the NBA, included in that is the playoffs this year, ... there has got to be concern and you have to find out the answers, because if ... one of your best players doesn't play his best when his best is needed, then you're going to be continually frustrated. Certainly we've got to come up with, along with Yao, a solution so he's playing his best and we have a chance to play our best in April and hopefully May and June." But as Van Gundy offered praise and raved about living in Houston, he was talking about a season that was over in April, and no one had to ask what was wrong with that picture. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2543047 I feel a little better that JVG is fully aware of this situation.
