Regress???? More like losing interest since his teammates were so inconsistent. The actual words is 'NO MOTIVATION'.
Well you missed the boat completely. The point is.. he is constantly developing. He is not a 12 year vet who's seen it all. The only way he continues to develop is to PLAY. LMAO at cheap talk. You sound like an accountant telling a business they are losing money because they're open. The only way you get better is to play. And there is no better place to play than the NBA. What part of that don't you get?
That and umm... he had surgery on his big toe. Hmm... wonder if that had any effect on his confidence... you know that with each step his foot didn't hurt worse. Oh right.. it was just because he was sitting out.
Conner I keep reading your posts and thinking wow.. this guy is an expert. Professionalism and pride are two things you should expect from players. Since when is instilling them in a player a bad thing for a coach. So if this happened in practice you would be saying there's no way somebody as great as Yao should be practcing? In fact we should put him in a 3 ft thick led box so as to not injure him. Listen to yourself man. YOU DON'T GET BETTER BY SITTING. If you're not shooting well... you just keep shooting. If you're not hitting the ball in baseball... you keep hitting. You don't just take a week or two off. I would do things the same way if we could go back 2 weeks. To say anything less is stupid. I mean sure I don't want the guy to break a foot, but you can't forsee those kinds of situations. Tell you what... you take a team full of talent... put them up somewhere and let them ride the bench when they get "tired" and see how much they improve. Its called learning to play through it. And for somebody who was struggling he was putting up monster numbers with a good fieldgoal%. Especially considering teams knew what was coming. I know I know watch the game film, but 25 pts is 25 pts... especially when you're shooting for a good %. This is not the YMCA, Yao is getting paid to play ball and put butts in seats and that's the bottom line. It is also a profession in which you are expected to give it your all at all times. The class Yao has shown in doing so speaks volumes of him, he even seems to have caught fire metaphorically speaking. These are all good signs. These are the kind of thigns you want to see develop. Even when he was "regressing" he looked 10X better than he did before that stretch... He has just figured out how to play. Mike
FROM YOUR OWN THREAD Oh and he nailed it man. You're just a JVG hater... this pretty much explains that. Also if you didn't watch a game after the 21st (when you started that thread) you saw a total of 4 games from the 13th to the 21st. That qualifies you to say that he was experiencing regression? At no point can you say a guy who is averaging 25.8 and 10.5 is regressing. Those are his averages in the 9 games you never watched. Sorry to keep posting.. wish i could put them all in one post but this train of thought really gets to me. We all complain about atheletes who don't work hard... who give up... and we've got a man busting his tail... and because this guy doesn't like JVG he's going to dog JVG for getting the things we want from every other pro athelete? Mike
Every time you run out of argument, you just bring up the YOF word. Brilliant. Notice that I am criticizing YAO! If what I post here is in another thread, I would be labeled YOH, right? You guys are pathetic!
If you didn't notice, I was mad with EVERYONE, not just JVG. And when everyone was bashing JVG after he criticized Yao for his defense a few games back, I was much quieter than a lot of you who are labeling me JVG-hater. Yao was averaging 28/16 in that stretch after ASG. He was owning EVERYONE. I watched every game after 3/21. The current Yao is not the Yao in that amazing run. If you don't see it, you are BLIND.
I agree Yao didn't perform as well as the stretch after ASG, then again, I never expect him to put up 28/16 games though out the season. Even Shaq can't average that kind of number in his best season. I am not a JVG lover, I want Rox get rid of him asap. But Yao's injure is not his fault, it was bad luck. Still, the moronic Rox's management has to learn some lessons: 1. Rest is always good for Yao. 2. Playing your star players heavy minutes for some meaningless games is not professional, it is stupid. Some of posters in this BBS call CNT unprofessional to play Yao for Asian Games because it is meaningless, well, JVG and Rox just did the same thing. After all, hey, by your logic, CNT officials are totally right, because all they want is winning, it is their job, right? 3. Would you please find some role players who are not total garbage to help your team out!!! Reduce your star players' minutes in regular season and don't ride them too hard. Otherwise they will either break down or get too tired before the playoff. You want save your star players and let them peak in playoffs, moron!
No doubt Yao has regressed since his run from the ASG on until about mid March or so....however, canoner2002, don't you think that has ANYTHING to do with the fact that : A) teams started becoming savvy to the fact that we have ZERO outside shooting, so they forced him to fight through double-teams and pushed him away from the basket B) the teams that we DID face (you specifically mentioned Z and Wilcox) HAVE the support that we so desperately need, with players like Ray Allen and LeBron James picking up the slack You're saying that Yao has peaked in his development this year, and I completely beg to differ. When ELSE in his career is he going to be the ONLY guy on the team to be a threat? If anything, T-Mac going down has been a blessing in disguise because I have a feeling that if he HADN'T gone down, this is a side of Yao we might not have ever seen. With all the bad luck and injuries this team has had this year, this is the silver lining in all of that. We can confidently say now that Yao is a legitimate star, and that he CAN lead this team. He would never have gotten that experience if he hadn't played through this, and BEEN the mule that everyone rode. Not only do we as fans see the change in him, but more importantly, he HIMSELF sees it. In every interview he's done since the ASG, you can tell he truly believes that this team is his to lead, and that he's the one that everyone is turning to. Just because his numbers have gone down, and his defense might have regressed a little, it definitely does NOT mean that his DRIVE has diminished. There is a reason that basketball is a team sport, and those very reasons are why Yao's numbers have gone down. He has absolutely no support, and it just started to show at the end. Even someone like Kobe needs to have a guy like Lamar Odom go off every now and then to take some of the load off. I think it's absolutely dispicable that you are preaching that Yao should have been rested, because where ELSE would he have gotten the confidence and experience that can only come when someone KNOWS they are the team's only hope? I'm assuming that somewhere, along the line, you have played team sports, so you know that a team is only as good as the environment it surrounds itself with. You say that if we knew 2 weeks ago that Yao would have broken his foot, we would all change our tune, and once again, I disagree. The broken foot sucks, no doubt....BUT, think about what the broken foot represents. It represents Yao working his tail off the last 2 months, showing everyone that he IS worth the number 1 pick we used on him....it shows that no matter what, he's willing to go out there every freaking game, even if we have nothing to play for, and still fight tooth and nail for a win. I know that this post isn't going to change your mind, BUT I do hope that it will at least allow you to look at things from the other perspective.
I agree with most of your points. However, I'm wondering what should Yao do when he get the ball at high post? Jumper? Making plays like Miller? I think his lack of dexterity limited his play at high post. ROX need more effective ways to get him down low. Saving Yao's strength is the prime problem for JVG.
No matter what you say, stats don't lie. Above 20/10 is the final score for Yao and that's the whole season's stats, including the games before the break out. I agree with you that Yao didn't show as much aggressiveness as when we STILL have hope for the playoffs. But I guess that's understandable, because you have no goal to play for. Therefore you don't have the same amount of drive.
Putting aside all arguments about whether Yao regressed or not...This has got to be the most bizarre reasoning I've ever heard. You actually believe that successful people are only successful because they don't try things when they're likely to fail? So that means Hakeem Olajuwon had a very raw offensive game when he first came into the NBA, but CLEARLY he didn't bother trying to improve it at the first sign of hardship or failure...because he was afraid his defensive prowess would regress. Moreover, I suppose Thomas Edison failed the first time he tried to invent the light bulb, and he gave up and stopped trying for fear that his mental capabilities would regress. Successful people try even harder at the first sign of failure. They don't just stop because they "already reached their peak." They always strive to be even better. That's the whole point. They never become complacent with their own abilities. If all NBA players sat around satisfied with how they already were, a YMCA basketball team would be able to compete in the NBA.
Yao's sub-his-own-standard games are mostly a result of lacking the goal for playing, first time in his career. Ask Yao if you don't believe me.
I forecasted above in my thread of 3-21. Still Yao himself became less aggressive too. As I predicted, playing under such situation will make Yao take steps backwards.
Who said that? There is future. He can develop further once we come back after the summer, with a better roster. But with this roster, his development peaked 2 weeks ago. This is similar to trading stocks, you sell your holdings from time to time, not because you believe the market is doomed, but because you believe the market is going south for that moment, and you want to save you profit until next entry point.
Right, the guy has 'regressed' from 28/16 to 25.88/10.55 (the last two games playing with an injured foot).
Why didn't Dream demand to be traded to a completely scrub team? Why do we all think Kobe was stupid to think he could do better with Shaq? Why does KG demand Twolves to get him help? Look, you do go around looking for troubles. For every exception you can think of, there are 1000's of examples of successful people who succeded because they find themselves environment friendly to their development, and there 1000's of examples of "lossers" who failed because they took impossible challenges.
Your counter-examples make no sense to me. Dream => What does demanding a trade to a scrub team have anything to do with it? I was just stating I'm sure he failed many times as he began to develop his offensive game, but that didn't keep him from trying. Kobe => From the looks of things he STILL thinks he can succeed without Shaq. He obviously hasn't given up yet. Garnett => He demanded help after how many seasons of first round exits? He realized his limit after years of trying his hardest and getting nowhere. He didn't stop after a few tough games. There's a difference between "realizing your limitations" and "quitting when the going gets rough." Look at what you're suggesting...Yao had a few "subpar" games after the Dallas game, so he should've just quit completely? The man was still trying to improve his game and hit a rough patch. If Yao were the type of player who quit that easily, I'd have to reconsider having him on our team. His broken foot was just an unfortunate byproduct of the effort he was putting into improving himself. It'd be different if this were 3 years from now, he was clearly at his peak, and the team was still going nowhere, but from all indications...Yao still had some room for improvement this season. Good teammates CAN make you better, but you don't NEED good teammates to make yourself a better individual player. Criticizing him for trying to improve his game at this point is ridiculous. If you honestly believe that quitting the moment things start to go a little wrong is the key to success, I shudder to imagine the type of life you're leading. What did you do in school? Drop out after a few bad grades? What about your job? Resign your position the moment some stress starts to build up? What about marriage? Get a divorce after your first fight? What about kids? Abandon them the moment they stop doing what you tell them to?
My bad about the YOF and JVG references. I'm not going to tell you where you stand on that kind of stuff. But... The point I'm trying to make though, is that even with meaningless games etc.... Yao should be playing. Once TMAC is back defenses will be more lax etc... he will have more room to operate. Thankfullly there is a limit to how many times he gets a chance to get experience at being the ONLY MAN on the team, but you better take advantage of it. You don't expect him to win 70 games with a team of scrubs, but then when he has more talent around him. He gets 82 chances a year to face NBA talent in a game situation. You don't waste those. Now if you want to argue that he should play 30 mins or 32 mins instead of 35-37.. I'll hear that... but even in that situation he would still be out on the floor. His injury wasn't fatigue related... it was contact related. The arguement that you sit him or play him 20 mins a game is just crazy. As far as his development... there was a dropoff from his post ASG performance, but it was like coming off of a hot streak... its not like the dropoff was to pre ASG levels. My point is, that he had finally learned to play. This is the first time he's really had a team to himself since he's been in the NBA. It was Francis team first. Then it was TMAC's team. Something changed in Yao when it was his team. The more exposure to that he got the better. That's my point. He gets better playing by himself for a while, and the oportunity to learn in that capacity is limited (hopefully) so you have to take advantage of that. Calling for him not to be on the floor in the 1st Qtr is crazy. Absolutely nuts. Mike.
