Advice for Yao: 1. Be confident. You know you are talented. You know you are fast enough and strong enough. Don't lose your heart by thinking that you are just a rookie and can't compete with those NBA "Stars". Just relax and play and then you will be able to play well. Confidence is the key. 2. Shoot the damn ball. Don't be modest. whenever you get the ball, just shoot it with confidence. You know nobody is able to block you. If you don't shoot, you never have a chance to score. You have the same range the guards and forwards have and you have height. Why then you have others shoot. Missing is OK. Who has 100%? As long as your shot is above 45% on average, nobody is going to blame you and you will be in good shape. 3. Don't try to block every shot. If you are not 100% sure, shun away from the silly foul. Nobody is going to expect you to block every shot. Advice for the Rochets: 1. Build his confidence and encourage him to shoot. 2. Play him more and don't be afraid of the foul. even if he is fouled out, so what? He will learn.
Yao Ming needs to use his size better, he is the tallest player on the court. Get those hands up on defense, hold the ball high on offense, these are advantages he has already and did not use. Too often I saw Ming following a gaurd with the ball, he needs to be around the basket more and follow the ball with his eyes until they bring it to him. Then he can change shots just by his size alone. His poor performance does not worry me much, it will take time for him to get adjusted. The offense looked pretty bad last night but I'll wait until we get everybody back and a few games played together until I passed final judgement on that. ISO's suck. I blame the loss last night on the players who were not on the court more than the players who were. It's a shame to waste Stevie's effort though, the little guy played his heart out out there.
Remind me of Stuart Smalley ...."youre good enough, smart enough and gosh darnint ....people will like you"
Yao is lacking confidence and needs to be far more assertive. They've talked him into believing he needs to just rebound and play defense. He looks very slow out there. Nothing that a elbow to the chin wouldn't cure. Get him fired up. Where's Shaq? J/K
Right! Yao Ming is needing confidence. Yao Ming, if EG can take 11 shots, why not you?? If you take 11 shots, think how many defense you could draw. The whole game would have to be changed a lot! Don't focus on block all time, your one block costs you two fouls! Only stupid fouls can kill your playing time. Think more about rebound and boxing out their big man. Raise your hands, ASK for the dame ball, let coach and your teammates know you are ready to attack,to revenge! You are biggest No 1,man.
What Yao needs to do is focusing on offense. Shoot the ball and score. Let the oppents foul him. Don't try to challenge the opponent's guard all the time. If our defenders lose their people, that's their responsibility. Avoid silly fouls and stay on the court. And then he'll see minutes and scores. People care about score more than blocks. Play smart, Yao. Keep in mind: Don't be so modest. You can play anyone !!!
Joeguo, your encouragement is admirable... but if your boy who can basically dunk flatfooted is supposed to be happy shooting ~45%, then he will be happy playing for a perennial lottery team. If he doesn't get frustrated with playing with the gerbil minds of Mobley and Franchise, or being coached by a static monolith who's still hung over from having one of the 5 Greatest Players of all time playing for him and whose approach to coaching shows it, then he's in the right environment for apathetic play. IMO this team was pretty much ruined spiritually by winning 45 two years ago and not making the playoffs. Without a new coach to stir things up, how can things hope to change? Rudy would make a great ambassador for the franchise... kind of the Red Auerbach role. His coaching days are past.
Great post. Yao needs to calm down and focus. I said this in the chat, it seemed like him and the Rockets were hyper. They were so excited to play it threw them out of there games. Yao Ming is a rookie, with the weapons the Rockets have they don't need him to be a monster scorer. But putting up about 10 to 12 ppg, 6 to 8 rpg per game, and blocking a shot or 2 per game and passing out of the post will go a long way towards making this a 50 win team. That's all the Rocks need, hopefully they can get Yao's confidence going. Playing him 7 minutes isn't going to help him get his confidence going. Denver is the perfect opportunity to play him. Their frontcourt is decimated, no Howard and no Camby and No Bateer now that he's gone, this is the perfect chance to give Ming some big minutes and let him learn on the fly.
Yao's skill set is a little further behind than we'd like to admit. I don't think he positions himself very well for rebounds, he almost exclusively uses his height to rebound and that leads to over the back fouls. I just don't see a high level of court awareness from him. He doesn't follow the flight of the ball for positioning very well and doesn't seem ready for the laser passes on offense or defense. He also tends to lean into his man defensively when his man drives on him. 7'6" guys stand out on the court and the referees are gonna notce them a hell of a lot more than most of the other players. He can't afford to pick up silly fouls. Hakeem went throught the silly foul stage early, maybe Yao will make it past this stage too. I like him and I think he can learn. He's got a ways to go though and I'm not talking about just learning the plays. As far as his shooting goes, I think he's a fine shooter and displays decent offensive moves. Someone needs to teach him the phrase "Gimme de bowl", it worked for Hakeem when he used it as a rookie.
The trio of Hilario, Tskitishvili and Chris Anderson played well last night. I caught the last part of their game on DTV League Pass last night. Tskitisvili looked like a polished player. Hilario was not bad either. It looks like their is a good crop of rookies this year. I've see Gooden, Garicek, Ginobili, Hilario, Stoudamire, Hilario, Jay Williams and Tskitishvil so far. Not a bad group. The only way Yao is going to learn, is to play. I wouldn't waste any time on Collier. That time should go to Ming.
Not starting Yao last night sent a clear message from the coach: you are NOT ready to start and you are ROOKIE..... This could be a mistake because it has nothing to do to build his confidence. Why not just start him and give him a boost??? Some of the fouls he got were close call. we should not blame him all the time. We should challenge the damn refs. See what the lakers did for Shaq in the play off? Be smart, Rudy. What troubles me is that some teammates tried hard to drag him to the positions. Just don't do that. That humiliated him and had nothing to do with building him up. Just let him play. The more minutes, the merrier
I've got to diasagree on the team mates dragging Yao into position as a totally bad thing. It's bad that they had too. If the offense is not run right, you get what we saw last night. The play breaks down and an "And One" highlight reel develops. It's painful to watch but his teammates did the right thing. At least Yao has a reason for not running the plays correctly, he doesn't know them. Some of his teamates don't run them right either and it's not like Steve or Cuttino need much of an excuse to abandon a play and freelance......
Those damn Rochets. Who was that guy that used to bust druggies with Tubbs...? Oh yeah, Crochet! And what is that place where rednecks keep their Copenhagen...?
RudyT is a match=up coach and these three look like good match=ups for Yao. Expect extended playing time for Yao Ming against these guys. Yao Ming is a ROOKIE, a very raw one at that. He might need a few practices with the team before he can expect big minutes.....
Rockets: please don't give Ming heavy minutes ultil he is ready. insert him only in the situation he will get touches and he is expected to do well in the matchups. The team is able and should win with or without Ming. Don't listen to these fans who ask for the minutes. Ming, just relaxed, do what you do. I hope you know what you need to do when Rudy put you in. Just focus on that, defensively or offensively. Don't listen to fans who's quck to criticise or put pressure on you. peace.
Payaso, Finally! Ruined Spiritually! Static Monolith! Thank You! Everyone harps on what the players need to do to win. I'm thinking that if a coach is getting $4 million/yr, he should put you in a position to win. Rudy treats the team like they are his 3for1 Happy Hour drinking buddies. Les has better things to do with his money. Ming will become a star when they bring in a teacher and a disciplinarian. What do they practice? They can't run a 3 on 2 fastbreak properly. Everytime Ch 26 is at practice, they are gambling shooting half court shots. I would like to see comments that Rudy outcoached someone in the 4th for a win! COY Don Chaney didn't not receive a honeymoon this long. No Playoffs!
