Part of me feels bad because we're wasting Yao's best years. The other part of me feels worse because Yao is wasting Yao's best years.
You can keep blaming Adelman for Yao's weaknesses if you want, but reality is we've already seen the best of Yao when Thibodeau was teaching him. It's not that Adelman/Sikma aren't doing well, it's that Thibs was the best. Thanks a lot Les Alexander.
Yao starts to start playing like he did in 2007 when he averaged like 25pts a game. He need to do his Shanghai Shake more
I think there is still some room to improve but I don't think we will see any appreciable difference between now and in the future.
I think this all depends on the coach. Yao will only get better, the question is will the coach realize how to utilize him.
Unless he avoids, or at least cuts down, his committments in China during the off-season and use all available time for recuperation and practices to improve his game.
same here. to the op - what have you been watching? of course yao is in his prime. has been for a few years. does he has room to improve? certainly. to me the biggest part is his passion and mentality. i've said this for years that only when yao has the same passion he possesses with his national team, the rockets will become a true contender. will that happen? i have no idea. and if he can get back his mid range j this summer, it'd be nice too.
That's deep But it really speaks the minds of a lot of people. All the whatifs, if Rudy hadn't got sick and we would have had Suns' playoff seed, and Yao would have had Amare's ROY title. Maybe everything would look totally different. What if Yao hadn't got those injuries in the past 3 years, especially last year. What if JVG had the luxury not to start Hayes but Scola. What if TMac had rehabbed well last Summer etc etc. Time flies by really fast, 7 years already. Hopefully Yao can have the full summer off to work on his game, both mentally and skill-wise, so that he can come back refreshed and ready for the almost final push for the next 2 to 3 years.
Yao seems to have taken a step back this year as compared to before his injury last year. He looks more tentative in his moves when he does get the ball and is m ore bothered by double teams. Maybe because when T Mac was on the floor that the other teams could not double so quickly and aggressively because T Mac made them pay. I wonder too if he is more tentative becazse of all the offensive fouls he has been getting and the flops that other teams have done that have been called as fouls. Yao seemed to play better under JVG. I just don't think Adelman is that great of a coach, he has more talent than Van Gundy but the team really is not improving. On a side note, Battier plays 34 minutes and is 0 for 1? The Rox will never win in the playoffs playing 4 on 5 offensively.
it's easy to show passion when most of your opponents and teammates are inferior to you. i don't recall chinese nt yao showing much passion against team usa or in games that his chinese nt got blown out. he only showed passion when he dominted the opposing center and his chinese nt had a real chance to win. now nba is a different story. he's up against the best players in the world every night. i don't think yao is going into the game every night thinking he's gonna dominate the other team because he knows he can't. he certainly doesn't have the same level of confidence as he does with the chinese team. i think that may be the reason you are seeing a different yao.
--------------------------------------------------------- ur hatred towards Yao is simply beyond my imagination. it would be a total waste of ur talent of hating if u dont claim urself as the number one Yao hater in Houston. i think the problem with this team is they shoulda never let Hakeem go neither should they have got Yao as the first pick in year 2002.
I'll echo this and tell you it's why I think comparing Yao against Hakeem is fruitless. 1. Hakeem could back out and it was a real threat he'd find a way to dribble and shake around you. Can you honestly imagine Yao doing that?? Of course not. He'd turn the ball over if he even thought about doing it. 2. The difference in the mental makeup of the player. Hakeem was aggressive as hell. He kept coming after you, on both ends of the floor. Yao doesn't have that. This is why I think it's ridiculous to talk about Yao at the high post. The best basketball we've seen from Yao is in the low post under JVG. He showed he has the potential to be a real force like that. Bringing him away from the basket neutralizes the things he does well down there (namely being 7'6" and shooting from point blank range) and enhances the chance of mistakes Yao is prone to make. You smother a guy who comes out to the high post if you know his only options are shoot or pass. It's too limiting. High percentage shots are what matters most when you're 7'6" and can't dribble. Those shots are found closest to the basket. In the low post. That's how you maximize efficiency for a player like Yao while cutting down on turnovers. To his credit, Yao has way more coordination than most guys who've played at his size. Probably more than all guys who've played at his size. But basketball can be a pretty simple game if you're 7'6" and you're coordinated enough to have a few different low post moves.
Look at his name and you know what is coming......the question is "Did Dream fund terrorists in his prime?"
The best I have seen Yao was at the start of the 22 game winning streak last year. But I would not say he is declining. I think we will see Yao play his best basketball around 31-32 years of age. The only problem is that I am starting to think that we will not see him do that in a Rockets uniform.
