Yao has been playing really awful lately. This makes me wonder if he is ever going to emerge into the superstar that everyone makes him out to be. I think his ceiling is probably around Rik Smits stats. What do you guys think?
I think he will ultimately rise to his potential and be a good consistent player in this league. However, I don't think his potential is as high as we originally. I think he will be an excellent '2nd in command' to T-Mac in the future, which is fine by me.
Rik Smits is a career 14/6 guy. I seriously doubt Yao will finish his career 14/6. However, is Yao a Rik Smits type of player? Maybe.
Hype? what hype? Yao will become a top 15 player, if not a top 10, by the end of his 4th season, IMO.
Yao needs an extreme makeove of his mentality to measure up to Hype. He has the potential, but it looks bad right now.
Smits' 1st seasonL 11.7pts, 6.1rebs Smits' 2nd seasonL 15.5pts, 6.2rebs Smits' 3rd seasonL 10.9pts, 4.7rebs Smits' 4th seasonL 13.8pts, 5.6rebs Yao's 1st season: 13.5pts, 8.2pts Yao's 2nd season: 17.5pts, 9.0pts Yao's 3rd season (so far): 18.7pts, 8.5pts well, what makes think Yao can't finish with a better career?
not under JVG...he will never live up to anything. At least under Rudy he had sweet passing game and and outside shot.
YAO will be fine in the long run. When he first came into the league everybody thought he'd be a stiff or at best similar to Smits. Then he showed everyone he could play and they all jacked up their expecatations to unrealistic levels. Seeing as how the rule changes diminish the effectiveness of traditional centers he's still only 1.5 points and 1.5 rebounds from being a career 20/10 guy who shoots better than 50% from the field and 80% from FT. He's what?? 24 years old? Playing in ever changing "systems" with completely new players around him? Duncan had Robinson, Amare has Marion, Shaq had Horace Grant, Hakeem had Ralph Sampson....Who's YAO's wingman in the frontcourt?? Dude....give it time......
I think Yao will plateau around as a 20 10 guy eventually. But he won't be dominate like Hakeem or Shaq, I see him somewhere being something alittle better than Ewing.
I'll be happy he could be as good as Ewing. Rox fans tend to underrate this guy, who is a top 10 center of all time.
If in the right system, Yao can have a hall of fame career with at least 3 rings. I don't know if Yao will ever live up to that. I hope he will for Rockets' sake.
he will never live up to his hype if he continue to a Rockets... He need a coach that push him... I mean bring some coach from china and tell how disgrace he is...
i don't think anyone can live up to the hype yao got. he might become one of the best of all time if we win some rings with him. if we don't then he will be remembered as rik smits. i think yao will get better slowly, but we need guys around him to help. deke is a great back-up, tmac will be great with him, wesley and barry are nice shooters, we need a rebounder/inside defender and a tough perimeter defender who can hit the 3.
I am not so sure about that anymore. Say what you want about Ewing, but he did carry Knicks for a while. I don't know if Yao could do that.
I presonnally think he will have a great career and can win a title here in Houston but, I said NO - because when he drops 25 and 10 on a team people STILL get upset at him and think he is not "imposing his will"
