I am not fortunate enough to have watched Kareem Abdul Jabbar play, but I have heard his Sky Hook referred to as an indefensible on many occasions. With Yao's having at least 4 inches on ever player guarding him and a shooting touch that at least equals any center's I have seen play (including my favorite Hakeem), can he not follow Kareem's lead and develop this shot or his own indefensible shot? I see the Shanghai Shake as a little too Kevin-Garnett-low-percentage for a greatest player in the league, though the Dream Shake worked well.
Right now......he's too weak and too slow and too unaggressive. But I think he can develop a great one..........
I don't think you have to have all the physical tools to have A Shot. But I don't think Yao will have one. He's got such an amazing repitoire of different tricky shots that he likes pulling on unsuspecting defenders. Personally, I like his "back-to-the-basket-spin-around-and-dunk-it" move. You know, the one he pulled on Big Ben in Detroit.
as long as he sticks to playing in the paint, he'll eventually learn what shots are the most effective for his game.
Lol...........The "back-to-the-basket-spin-around-and-dunk-it" move is nice. But sometimes he gets called for an offensive foul......UGH. Well he will get more experienced at it. I like that one too. I also like the one where he pushes with his butt into Theo Ratliff and dunks over him and yells. That's a nice move. A Shaq-like move. Yao shouldn't fadeaway though. I don't know why he does fadeaway shots......He's so tall....but gets blocked...... Sometimes he is way off like once every 10 games. Don't know why...fatigue...or something. Oh well. I hope he has a lot of potential.
"I hope"???? Tit's amazing that you have so much in Juaquin. Wait and see a well rested Ming in the next season.
Yao has to trim down his repertoire and focus on 1-2 primary moves. He should stop centering his post up game on trying trick or fake out the defender and just perfect a move that the defense knows is coming but has no way to stop, just like Shaq and Jabbar did. He simply does not have the cat quickness that Garnett and Hakeem have to base his game on a large repertoire of moves to juke the defender out. As far as what move to use, I say some form of a hook shot would be ideal, whether its Sabonis’s sweeping hook, Shaq’s baby hook, or Kareem’s sky hook. He made a very high percentage of his hook shots this season. Don’t understand why he didn’t shoot it more. It beats his “Shanghai shake” which he missed like 75% of the time.
Yao Ming's most unstoppable shot: dribble to the three pointline and dunk from there... I am sure no one can stop that, not even Earl Boykins!!!
I agree with KeepJuaquin. Yao is too weak, slow and unassertive right now. He needs to work on that first.
I guess we need to see what a well-rested and more experienced Ming will look like when he comes back.
BTW, the fact that you can count on ONE hand how many times the skyhook was blocked during a 15+ seasons career says a lot about the shot. I think Yao is not half as athletic as those guys, and doesn't have half of the pgo-stick ability Hakeem had, so he's going to get blocked a fair number of times.
So did Wilt. Hadn't heard of Willoughby, but the fact that all these years later we remember the very few who did block an individual shot really proves the point about how tough that shot was to defend.
I, too, am looking forward to seeing what an 'off season' will do for Yao. As for a 'shot', every player needs to have at least one 'shot' he can rely on. Kareem's was unique -- never replicated. Magic had the 'baby hook' but no one has ever had a Sky Hook to compare to Jabbar's. Shaq has a 'shot' -- the awesome, power dunk. Stop this! dunk. As for Yao's strength and athleticism, I am confident his maturity will confirm his entrance into the pantheon of great all-time big men.
Yeah, if Yao's shooting a jump hook regularly, I just can't see how that shot would get defended very often. I'd say that's a good go-to shot, but I honestly like the variety of looks Yao brings to the table. I was a little sad that he stopped going to his left hand midway through the season. Having the ability to go up with either hand when your close to the basket can really make it hard for the defender.
Yes, it was almost impossible to block. In '86, during the pounding the Rockets gave the Lakers getting the WC championship, Jabbar was stopped more by the defensive scheme of the Rocks than by straight up D by Akeem or Sampson. We sent in help from different players/directions so effectively that Kareem himself commented on it, saying something like (I'm not getting the quote right word for word)... "It wasn't just their big guys, Olajuwon and Sampson, but every time I turned around Lloyd, Wiggins or someone was in my face. I couldn't get comfortable (get the spots to shoot that he liked) at all." Jabbar had a near unstoppable shot, but a well designed defense (helped by 2 great big men) could stop it. If Yao could develop a hook shot anything like Jabbar's I would be ecstatic.
