Yao Needs Dream's "bump" To Help Post-Up Positioning

Yao's height would make it look much more like an offensive foul than Hakeem.

 

Sounds like a good way for Yao to foul out.

 

I totally understand what you're saying. Yao does this a little bit, he usually drives his hip into the other player to get early and deep post position. Problem is, like you alluded to is that he gets called for offensive fouls when he does this because it seems unusual to the refs that he's suddenly initiating all of this contact when he's mostly a finesse player. Yao is stepping up as a leader and gradually remolding his game to a combination of power and finesse. I really liked a lot of the spins and drop moves he did in game 1, which I felt were neglected in the past two years.

The great thing with Yao is that he seems to be always getting better ever year if he doesn't get injured. Although, his production this year is less than two years ago, he's arguably a much better player. And according to Morey, this is the best Yao Houston has ever seen. In the playoffs, he is proving Morey's theory to be correct. So, hopefully this sight of seeing Yao improving every year won't end anytime soon.

 

Yao's been doing a variation of that for years.

After a defensive possession, he'll run down the court, directly to his spot on the post and bump the guy who is waiting for him. You could see this in our series with Portland where he would bump Pryzbilla chest with his side in order to create space on the post. He has been called for offensive fouls on this move every now and then.

 

Everyone needs to stop comparing him to Hakeem. He's not Hakeem.

Most likely there will never be another Hakeem. Those guys dont come around very often.

As soon as everyone stops expecting him to replace the dream we can all watch a great player play ball.

 

was there as many flopping centers back then? Was the defender much smaller than dream back then?

 

I'd like to see Hakeem try that against Okur or Pryzbilla.

 

Have you seen the offensive fouls call on Yao? Almost of his "push-off" calls are jokes compare to what they allow opponents to do to Yao. But his game is fine and we can't afford him being in foul trouble.

 

Dammit we need Dream to coach the Bigman.

The spark his presence would give the team is "incalculacable"

 

Me too. He'd succeed.

 

Hakeem was delivering a shoulder to the chest of guys like Robinson, Ewing, Shaq. Guys where were his size, sometimes bigger.

With the height disparity between Yao and his defender, he'd have to literally bend down in order to deliver his shoulder to the chest.

Yao has actually done this on occasion while backing his man down, with the ball in his hands. I usually see him do it from the left block, turning left into the lane for the jump hook or fadeaway. Often the defender either falls or flops. Rarely will the defender take the bump and try to finish the play on his feet. Outside of Shaq, there is such a big wieght disparity between Yao and his defender, the flop is believable.

It seems you're talking about Yao giving the shoulder to create space before getting the pass. I still think the defender would exaggerate contact. I imagine the pass would have to be perfectly timed after the bump, because the defender recovers quicker than Yao.

 

swoly fails, back to the hangout, i'll walk you there, we'll even hold hands

 

Ya, he would. Rumor has it Okur attended Juilliard to hone his graceful movements.

 

True, but we are witnessing him becoming a pretty good Yao!

and Swoly is right, Yao needs to find a way to "create some room", as the X's and O's say.

 

I agree.
Yao can only dream that he will get the ball.
Even when he post up deep down low in the paint, RA's son AB wont pass the XXXX ball to him.

 

Keep dreaming, Yao.