Today is November 6th. The guy has been in the country less than 3 weeks... whole new team / players / level of play / plays etc. etc.! I'll give him 16 more games, then no excuses... They need to find a way to get him looks when he is facing the basket. He also needs to get the ball closer in. He's letting the opponent dictate how far out he gets the ball. He is slooooooooooooooooooooooow. But he will adjust. He needs to be more aggressive. He's way too timid / thinking too much / afraid of mistakes. He needs to let his instincts take over...
A Sports Illustrated article "First-year Follies - NBA's top draft picks getting a lesson in humility," dated Monday November 04, 2002 by John Hollinger, CNNSI.com, echos some of the comments in this thread about how long we can all expect it to take Yao and other rookies to develop, particularly when making a transition to a new country: "Nearly every foreign player has made major strides in his second season in the league, after figuring out how the game is called and how it differs from European play. While older European imports have been the most game-ready rookies the past few years, they've still needed time to acclimate themselves. All that makes what's happening this year less remarkable, but the trend is still worth noting: Top draft choices aren't paying immediate dividends. Take this year's draft, for instance. The top pick, Yao Ming, is a project with a capital P. He needs to learn a new language in addition to new rules, and jumps into the NBA schedule despite not having had a rest in at least two years." I think Yao will be great but it is unfair to him and the team, particularly Rudy, to expect instant success in my view.
Which team do you think will use Yao and don't care about winning? I feel Rudy is the best coach you can find for Yao. He has given Yao way too many minutes. Which team's fans have more patience than Rockets' fans? I've visited many BBS's. ClutchCity is by far the most civil one. On other BBS sites, the f word is all over the place. If fans don't care about winning, they are not true basketball fans. If we don't care about winning, we might hire Coco Lee to play center. That way, the "fans" may be happier.
Oh my goodness, after reading almost every post in this thread, I am dissapointed with half of you here. I was the biggest person against drafting Yao #1 when we got the pick, however I got blasted when I came here and post my thoughts. Now that we have what most of you wanted you are getting mad because he is not producing up to your expectations. Although I would have likes to see us use the pick on someone else or traded down to obtain more future pic's, you guys havent even given this kid time to develope into something. Although I did not want the Rox's to pick this kid, I do understand that it will take time for him to be where we want him to be. Look at Kwame Brown he was a lame duck last year but this year so far he is BALLING! Ming will not be able to contribute very much until 2 maybe 3 years from now. He wont even get the playing time needed to learn the NBA type game. Instead of being disappointed in Ming you need to be supportive. I re-iterate I did not want the Rox's to pick him! But I do know that given tim he will be a half descent player and alot of you are not giving him time. You guys put unrealistic pressure on this kid. I remember during the off-season half of you hear saying Ming will put up 15 pt 10 reb. a game you were kidding yourselfs. Its unrealstic given the amount our other players shoot the ball. Give the kid some time. Look for him to be a good contributer at the end of next season. And eve when he does contribute, he will never dominate like a SHAQ! All you folks who said he would kill SHAQ! You kidded yourselfs! He will take time and even me being a Ming-Hater, I think it is unfair to put all that pressure on this kid. If you steal his confidence he will never be anything. And that is whats being done in these types of threads. God forbid someone reads these threads to him. I did not want Ming, but he is a Rocket now and whoever is a Rocket I try to be optimistic and Realstic for them. Supportive and all. He is what you all wanted to dont let 4 games past and call him a fluke. Give him time... He will be okay... But remember he IS what most of you wanted, dont re-nig now......
well, this assumption that Yao is not an effective player is horsecrap. Did you see the Seattle game, when Yao got the ball in the post Seattle was double teaming him (like they did to Hakeem in his years here). Yao provides open shots for his teammates, but it is up to Steve, cat and company to provide good passes around the floor to find the open man. So far, the lack of ball movement right now will not get the Rockets very far.
u851662-Damn bro, that is exactly what I am saying! I was totally against drafting this kid for a variety of reasons that are all coming true much earlier than expected. First, Yao will not help us this year. He will have his good games I am sure, but he'll probably end up with stats pretty similar to or a little less than EG from last year. When the guy fouls every time his man makes a move he cant be on the court. I thought that he would be able to atleast board and block a shot here and there but he cant do that even. Secondly, the rox now have two groups of fans those of the team adn those of Ming; this does not work well unless Ming is doing well and that isn't happening and probably wont this season. I just cant get past the fact that we could have had a rookie project like Skita, Hialrio, or Dunleavy and Lamar Odom on this team this year. Ming will be good in a season or two, but this team had a chance to be a contender starting this year and we blew it.
couldnt agree more. i get absolutely livid when i hear rudy go on and on about our "promising" rookies and then only plays them 5 damn mins a game. WTF is that all about?!? how do you expect these players to develop if they're just rotting on the bench game in and game out?? the same damn thing happened w/ Griffin last year. how long was our losing streak? and approximately how many minutes did Griffin play? it's absolutely absurd. if rudy is going to rant and rave about the players he's drafted, then he should put them in the damn game!!! it doesnt take a f*ckin genius to realize that the way players develop is not in practice, it's in the actual game. where the hell was Boki last night when we were getting humiliated?? for what reason was he not out there getting some playing time when the guys we had playing couldnt do a damn thing?!? it's just frustrating. i mean if i can realize this, then why the hell cant rudy??
If things continue like this I am going to go find all those "Ming-haters eat your words" threads. A lot of us here got berated for saying that things might go down just as they have. A lot of people might have to eat THEIR words when all is said and done.
Yes, it sure is a game I can win. All of these players you mentioned were high-schoolers (17-18 years old), except for Baron who was a sophomore out of UCLA and Dirk, who was still young. There's a big difference between 18 and 22. And who's to say these guys (except for Kwame) wouldn't have played better if given the minutes? The argument could be made for these young guys not to play that many minutes in their rookie year because they had other people who could fill the role in the short term. But these teams didn't have a gaping hole at the position these guys played like the Rockets have at center. I don't care what props are given to Cato, we've got to get more points out of the center position than just rebounds. Cato played just about all the minutes last night at center beyond Yao's minutes, and how many points did Cato score last night? And how many does he score each night?
Once again there has never been a successful basket ball system where players who perform poorly are given more minutes. Ming should be comfortable with the little playing time he has now, before adding more minutes. Leaving a guy out there just to give him more time of being eaten alive at both ends of the floor isn't good for Yao, or the Rockets.
Right on. Cant agree with you more. What do you expect a Yao Ming to do if her is not a part of the system. He only had 2 shot attempts in 15 min last night. Run the offense through him more often, he's not going to learn if he is not invovled.
Right, he is only playing 10-15 minutes per game anyway. He doesnt need to be fearful of foul troubles. My observations of him is that when he defends, he is worried if he will be called, and embrassed too much. Look that brzial kid Nene in Denver, he just play whatevet he want to do, and I dont think he is as good as what he showed off, but that kid is fearless.
Mr.Kay If I saw your name next to the post, I just skip it. Natually I didnt read this post either. Save your some time by not posting here anymore.
Why does age matter? The relevant consideration is the relative levels of experience. Peja Stojakovic came over here when he was 21, and played only 21.4 mpg... playing *behind* Tariq Abdul-Wahad and Corliss Williamson, NBA bench-players that clearly didn't have his potential. Dirk Nowitski is the perfect example you can't ignore; he came here when he was 20 years old, and played fewer minutes than Cederic Ceballos. I certainly don't know for a fact they could've been better players if they had played early... but it's not my position to prove that, anyways. It's *your* job to convince all of us that unless Yao Ming gets starter-minutes immediately, he won't develop to become the player that he can be. And that's clearly and obviously not true. International players need time to develop, grow, and learn the game. Given that time, they can become super-stars.
It's no doubt a huge adjustment for him -- he's trying to fit into the team concept, not do too much on his own, not step on the toes of the established star guards, etc. There was a play last night where Yao got a pass in the paint with a decent available shot, yet still tried to pass to someone he thought had a better one. At some point, he'll figure out that nobody will be offended if he gets nasty and starts marking his territory a bit, but that's not going to come in these first few games.
In order to better organize our opinions concerning Ming's performance, I've set up a poll at here: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44825
I think comparing Ming's minutes with others means nothing. How many touches of ball did ming get each game? How can he show you that he can score if nobody is passing to him and he is forced to stand and watch the SF and Cat dribbling until the buzzer and jacking up wild shots?
Ok I'm sick of Kwame being compared to Yao, two different players. Kwame was a player who got frustrated and let a bad attitude get in the way of his playing time, so far Yao just looks like a stiff
