Without a doubt, he's improved the most in his English vocabulary. He now emphatically hollers out the F-word upon getting called a foul secondary to each Oscar-nominated flop. Keep up the good work, Yao, my man.
It's good to see him catch the ball, but lets see Tom work on Yao keeping the ball. Tom needs to walk up to Yao and swipe them tennis balls out of his hands.
One thing I don't understand is why he doesn't throw out his elbows and swing around when he does grab a rebound. How many times have we all seen decent to better rebounders do that? Yao rarely does. If he did, he would be getting a bit more respect from the opposition, especially after they caught an elbow or two fighting for a board in the paint. I agree that his hands have improved a great deal, thank goodness, but he still needs to work on his rebounding technique, and what I mentioned would help him get more respect from defenders. (not that he doesn't already have a hell of a lot! ) The big guy is getting a lot more respect, if not from the officials, but there's still more waiting for him with more work. I hate to bring up a sore subject, but one can only imagine how good Yao might be today had he been able to get the offseason work every summer, as he did this past summer. Nothing to be done about the past, but lets hope he gets more offseason training in the future. Clearly, it pays off. And it wouldn't hurt to bring up the ball above his head more than he does. He's improved there as well, but he still has a tendency to hold the ball at waist level (where it can get poked out of his hands), and take a dribble when he's swarmed by defenders. Yao should keep the ball high and just take the damn shot when he's double and triple teamed in the low post. And stick out those elbows!
Live on TV? Thought you are in HK, which channel are you watching? Both NBATV and ESPN are not showing the game this morning, you must be in Mainland I guess?
One thing I noticed was the way he grabs for a rebound. He is more agressive now. He now goes for the ball more than just boxing out opponents. I guess he knows what it takes to become an MVP.
Do you know there is something called streaming TV ?? Do pplive or ppstream ring a bell ?? I watched the game from ppstream, relaying live broadcast from CCTV5. You know Chinese TV live broadcast 75% to 90% of every Yao Ming/Rockets game.
I would say that Yao's hands are getting better but I think his biggest improvement has been in the development of his strength and fitness. It wasn't that long ago that Yao was a skinny and meek player. He also ran out of gas very early in games and seemed to become distracted because of fatigue. While he may never be able to run a marathon, he is much improved from a few years ago. His body has made a tremendous change as well. I was at a game a few weeks ago and I have to say that the last 2 years or so his body is much more muscular overall. And he is getting better at banging the opponent and establishing position. If you focus on him during series of plays you will be impressed with how much more fighting he gets involved in inside as compared to a few years ago. He is bigger and stronger and I think that has led to a more aggressive attitude.
I don't think it is a coincidence that Yao hired Thibaduau and Anthony Falsone prior to last season and he has improved significantly in the areas that he was the weakest. Thibadeau has focused on his basketball progress, Falsone on his strength and conditioning and fitness. Those guys are the best at what they do. The other Rockets players should spend some time with those two as well.
Easy pal, just asking. You said before that sometime you might stay in Mainland due to work. Thought you were there this weekend hence got an opportunity to watch it live "FROM TV" instead of "PC", didn't mean to be offensive. Of course one can hook the TV up with their PC, stupid me!
Those 3 second violations were not entirely his fault- sure it needs to be eliminated and we will be better off without them. Ultimately it is points off tunrnovers that matter- very rarely do Yao's turnovers result in fast break opportunities.
GOOD NEWS !!! This is what I read from the Chinese website: Some Chinese reporters asked Yao Ming why there were so many 3-seconds violation, offensive and defensive, called against him in recent games. Yao Ming said the 3-seconds violation calls perplexed him as well. He said: "There is a barometer within me, and there is a barometer within the referees. There must be a difference in the scaling." He further added that he had talked/consulted the referees after the game, and it turned out that he had some misunderstanding of the rulings. He said those 3-second violations should be reduced in future.
Well, Tom Thibodeau is not hired by Yao Ming. He is still officially the Head Assistant Coach for the Rockets responsible for Defense. But starting Yao Ming's 4th season, (i.e. the 2nd year of Jeff Van Gundy's tenure), Tom Thibodeau was designated to coach Yao Ming (replacing Patrick Ewing) in his fundamentals and footworks.
yeah, the rockets can ill afford more turnovers, yao needs to stop those 3 second violations. if he has to count faster or slower in his head, then thats exactly what he needs to do. we're not going to beat the really good teams consistently with the amount of TO's we commit, so even if we can eliminate some of them in yao, it will be a big step forward
I've been really impressed with the development of his post-up game. I remember in the beginning, that area seemed to be a weakness, he just didn't seem to have the strength or skill for it, and I wondered why JVG didn't take him out of the paint where he was getting manhandled and play to his strengths more. But looking back it's clear that he just needed to go through that learning process. He kept plugging away and building up his strenghth, and now he's becoming unstoppable in the paint. It's really a credit to his work ethic.
My mistake. But either way. He hired Falsone and he now works with Thibadeau, and both of those areas (fitness and bb development) have improved dramatically.
