I remember when yao was just a 3rd year and ppl would kill him for not rebounding enough. Now he's become a force on both sides of the court. He's averaging 10.7 rebounds a game which is career best and also 3.2 offensive rebounds. What's gotten into him? He's gotten stronger, adelman's created gaps in the offense for him to fight for position for the offensive boards, and his positioning is much better. Thank you Jack Sikma and Rick Adelman. Big man's playing solid right now. One more thing about rebounding... I really don't like transition 3pters when the defense has already recovered and its just someone having a heat check. Theres no chance for the offensive rebound and its selfish basketball. Go ahead and label me a t-mac hater.
Watching the NBA League Pass broadcast yesterday - the sonics announcers also commented a few times about Yao's strength. I remember the stamina issues the first 2 years. I haven't once thought about it this (or last year) As far as transition 3's - I agree that Rafer and Luther are much better spot up shooters and should rarely take transition 3's. But having seen t-mac do it regular enough I don't have as a much of a problem - especially because it helps keep the defender closer later in games so that he has better driving lanes. Now whether he uses those lanes as much as I'd like, is another story.
The increase in offensive rebounding is partly a product of the change in coaching/offensive strategy. Since he gets fronted so often, his defender is often not in position to box him out for a rebound when a perimeter player launches a shot, resulting in many more offensive rebound/putback opportunities for Yao. That said, he also seems to be more aggressive in attacking the offensive glass than usual.
I think 4 reasons: 1: more minutes 2: less minutes of hayes 3: stay in the paint more on the D 4: do not rush back to defend fast break 100% the time on the O
Yao's value is not actually reflected on his individual rb stats, it's on the team rebound total. Most of the time he's the guy who contends the shot near low post or box out so he's not in the position to grab the rebounds, but Houston is number 5 in NBA for rebounds. Also under RA Yao is allowed to fight for offensive boards after a shot is made. Under JVG he was told to get back to D ASAP. This creates another difference.
i always thought Yao should easily get 10+ rebounds with 3+ offensive boards included (all other elite big men seem to be somewhere close to that range).
Yao is doing well in rebounding. I don't think hayes playing fewer minutes it is the reason. I think Scola is a pretty good rebounder. He is pretty strong and very aggressive. He is the type of player I would hate to play against.
That's basically it. Going by rebounding %, Yao has always been a good, but unspectacular rebounder. He was never bad at rebounding, but people expected him to put up Shaq-like numbers once he came into the league, not considering the fact that Yao's numbers were achieved in about 30 mpg.
Its not just minutes but also possessions. The Rox have more offensive possessions under RA then JVG cuz they play a a quicker pace. More possessions means more shots, which means more misses, which means more rebounds.
I really love you guys. When Yao didn't do well in rebounding during his first two seasons, everyone was saying Yao sucked, Yao was too slow, Yao had poor reaction time, Yao was too unathletic etc... Now when Yao is rebounding better, it is because of different game plan, other players playing besides him, playing minutes, etc... No one would recognize Yao's own efforts to improve to become a better rebounder now. Sometimes I wonder how many of the people here are really Rockets fans.
A lot of credit has to go to Adelman...When he was playing Yao really long minutes a lot of people here were complaining, but as you can see it has really increased his stamina. Also Adelman is the type of coach that is really good at getting players to do things that he knows can help them out in the long run...Adelman is the type of coach that is willing to sacrifice a few wins for the long run. (Something JVG would never be caught doing) In conclusion, have faith in Adelman the guy is a genius. We really could not have gotten a better coach then Adelman. Even if we don't make it out of the first round this year I still support Adelman b/c I know he is the coach that will take us to the promise land really really soon.
why yao is having a career rebounding year (and i project by the year end his reb #'s are gonna be a lil better than now)? i think it's "all of the above". basically all the causes have been said here. don't think his rebounding ability jumped. he may have improved a little over the years, but not much (as typical to rebounding). he's always a good but not great rebounder. if he has better hands, he may achieve 12 or even 13. but his hands have not improved a lot.
I'm for sure disagreeing with you...he's hands improved greatly...he has the same position but now he's more agressive and is much better and getting a hold of the ball. That one pass he got from Tmac on the high low was one example...previous years he'd never had caught that and would have fumbled it and made his scrunchy face running back to the other end. Main point is his hands are much better just pay attention next game...you don't notice much because its expected of him
until you said the last one, i was gonna agree. i said his hands haven't improved A LOT. was that so hard to read? i didn't say NOT AT ALL. duh. and don't preach me anything for paying attention during a rockets game. the attention level in my case is a lot higher than the average attention level i have at work, ok? at times yao gets a rebound in a tight situation and he'd just lose tha ball on impact. someone bumps him or something like that, he'd lose the ball. sometimes he gets it back, sometimes he loses the ball to the opponent. granted some bumps are actually fouls but most of them are not called. if yao had better hands, he'd grab one more reb or 2 just by default.
Yao has certainly stepped up his rebounding. I'd say it has more to do with his mean streak as well as having other guys hanging around for rebounds. Makes it so the other team cant focus on keeping him off the boards.
Also he is getting a running start on most of the offensive rebounds whereas before he would just plant himself in the lane. For his size its a lot easier to keep on moving rather than stop and go.
I mean...he is 7'6" after all. Should be averaging at least 10 rebounds a game. I think he still has potential to get better and average a career high of 12 or so one season.
