Official Thread on Yao Ming's Summer Activities 2006

Not trying to blame Yao or anything, since he obviously is still rusty and not up to game condition. But it's not fair to totally blame on "no support" on his teammates. I lost count how many TO Yao had, but more than half is his own fault, like lose the board after Brasil's free show...

 

Yup, let's be honest with ourselves, Yao sucked in this game, turnovers, couldn't hold his position on the block, and couldn't catch a defensive rebound to save his life. But, since this is only his second game back, we will let him slide on this one.

Chen the wonder kid came back down to earth too, showing that he is after all only a 17-year-old kid. But I still think he deserves a ticket to Japan, if only to give him more seasoning. He is a big part of China's basketball future.

The other wonder boy Yi was wonderful. I think he was the highest scorer for China, and he was a rebounding machine. Lottery pick, no doubt! And I think he is a much better complement to Yao than Wang is.

Wang wasn't really ready to play. He was just out there to warm up.

Another young Chinese pg, Zhang Qing Peng, who came on in the 4th to fuel the big rally, was also impressive. Deadly three point shooter and good handles. With him, Chen, and a couple of other kids I have heard about, China has got a good crop of young pgs coming up. They are just too young still.

 

Any torrents for this game? thanks!

 

I wouldn't worry about Yao. He clearly looked like he was running half speed, Still at times favoring his good foot as not to reinjure the other. Also he is still not in shape and seems mostly out there to get the game experience. I am not saying he isn't trying but he is putting his best effort maybe 80%. By World championships I expect him to be 90% and he will get better from then on.

 

Zhang Songtao did not play in this game... Is he the odd man out??

 

LOL, same typical Yao turnover, from Houston Rocket to Chinese National team.

 

watch out for yi jian lian to make his name in the coming world champianship.

 

On the other hand, gotta give props to the Brazilians. Since I couldn't really tell who is who on the small PPstream screen (except Varejau with his big hair ) I cann't comment on them individually. But as a team, man they are good, constant motion on the offense, good hard pressure trapping defense, I can see why they are the South American Champions ahead of Argentina and why they gave the USA so much trouble.

 

Yes, I agree. Yao seemed like a step too slow in almost everything he do on court against Brazil. I will take Yao words that he needed games' practise to get from 80% to 100%.

Hopefully by the end of the World Championship, Yao will be 100% ready for Rockets coming season in NBA. I don't know why, but I'm more exciting thinking about the coming season than the World Championship.

 

One more thing, watching Yi operate next to Yao, you can see what the Rockets had envisioned last year when they got Stromile Swift. Yi is the Stromile Swift who might actually work out.

 

I didn't see Yao and Swift play together enough to say they weren't a good pair.

 

If anything, the World Championship actually helps Yao in his recovery (as long as he does not get reinjured, knock on the wood).

 

No, Xie and Gong would be the 2 men out of the final roster. Zhang was needed to be a backup for Yao and Wang who had just recovered from injure and not in good condition.

 

When is China's next game and who do they play?

 

Against the Aussies, two days later.

 

I don't really agree with you on this... Chen Jianghua and Xie Libin are about the same age and Zhang Qingpeng is only one or two years older than them, only thing is that Zhang has more CBA experience, but that doesn't really help much don't you think?

I agree that Zhang is one of the better young point guards in China, but Xie seems more like a combo guard to me, and shouldn't be one of them fighting for the last position at the PG position. In terms of ball handling, court vision and shot selection, I also don't see how he's better than Chen.

Xie should be the one competing with Gong instead, Xie seems to be more energetic on the court, but Gong has the height advantage and has more international game experience than Xie, so I think Gong would make the roster.

IMO Xie is definitely out of the final roster cut, now the other player to be cut should be one of these three players: Chen Jianghua, Zhang Songtao or Sun Yue (since he didn't have good performance in these preparation games)

Alright I'm just guessing...