It might be part of his attractiveness & marketability for some audiences, but I have been led to believe that the only way Yao will become a driving force in the NBA is if, and only if, he plays in a physical, nasty way that will put fear in the depth of opponents' hearts. Yao is currently portraid around the league as the "Gentle Giant". But the man is 7'5", he towers above most opponent players. I think that opposite teams will fear Yao only when he starts dunking more, fouling harder, and slapping the hell out of players who try to get on SportsCenter by posterizing him. Yao has all the skills in the world, but putting fear into people by his style of play every now and then would greatly benefit him and would scare players off driving into the lane when he is down there. It is just my opinion, you can concur, disagree, but you must give us your own reason and prefered style that you would rather Yao plays with.
I somewhat agree. I dont think Yao needs to become as physical as Shaq (after all, TD is not the most physical person in the league), but he definitely needs improvement in that area. No more laying it in when he is underneath the basket. No more getting pushed out of rebounding position by a much smaller man. More than putting on bulk, I would like to see Yao add to his vertical. He seems to struggle more with getting up in the air than he does being pushed around.
I think all of this will come in time. Not many rookies come in to the league and start pushing people around their first year. I also think a more team oriented defensive philosophy will do wonders for him. Hopefully JVG will bring that with him, I see no reason to expect anything different. My biggest problem with Yao is his offensive decision making. He make good passes as we all know, but he needs to be more decisive. He needs to know what he's going to do with the ball before he gets the pass. That way he can make his move right after he gets the ball. Defenders won't have time to swipe at the ball, foul him or double team him etc. When Hakeem (and later Shaq) learned to do this, they became unstoppable. Again, I think a more FOCKASSED offensive gameplan will naturally help him with this.
ima_drummer2k, i disagree. great offensive players do NOT know what they are going to do before they get the ball. great offensive players make extremely quick decisions based on how the defender(s) cover them. this is especially true when playing in the post. remember the series of hitches and fakes hakeem would do in the post? those were not some predesigned moves so that he could take a shot that was predetermined. those moves are done in order to get the post defender to shift his positioning (ie: leaning on hakeem left v right). once the defender would shift, hakeem would instinctively roll or fade left or right. even with guards, this is true. there are only two great, current nba guards that i believe predetermines what they are going to do, regardless of the defense, and that is kobe bryant & allen iverson. imo, this makes them infinitely easier to defend than say, tracy mcgrady, who is the best guard in the league at taking what the defense gives him and still beating them. this is why mcgrady's points look as if they are coming easily, while AI & kobe look like they are playing 150% all the time. so, when we talk about yao ming and his decision making, i absolutely do not want him knowing what he's going to do before he gets the ball. i want him to make fast decisions, instantaneous decisions, based on how his defender is playing him. roll left, roll right, dropstep baseline, dropstep middle, face up jumper, face up and drive...these are the options he should be picking from. the span of decision making, however, needs to be quick. notice that i did not include the fadeaway. there is absolutely no reason why yao ming should be shooting a fadeaway jumper. given his height and size, it makes no sense at all. the only time fadeaways are supposed to be shot from the post is when your defender is either 1) bigger than you; or 2) is leaning on you, and the lane is packed with shotblockers. well, neither of these should ever apply to yao ming. only shaq is bigger than yao, and i would strongly recommend using the drop step against shaq. that or facing him up. if yao's defender is leaning on him, once again, the drop step (baseline or middle) is the option to go with. yao has the mental ability to make these quick decisions. and i think he has it in him to develop a mean streak. the facials on theo ratliff and ben wallace let me know it's in him. i just need to see more of it.
I guess that's what I was trying to say. The players you mentioned make such quick decisions that it sometimes looks as if they already know what they want to do. Shaq is the perfect example. When he's on, he's making his spin moves right after he gets the ball in the post ala Hakeem. I just don't want to see Yao get the ball in the post, then wait around for someone to cut to the basket. Or put the ball on the floor trying to get better position. He just needs to make his move quicker.
Yao did get the ball slapped away a lot last year. Part of that was not making a decision quickly enough, the other part was that he had not really experienced how fast the NBA game is played. I think that Yao will begin to catch up to the speed of the NBA game. Yao has many things "going" for him, but one of those is his basketball IQ. He is extremely smart and I think can and will be one of those players who make not only quick decisions, but correct decisions. He is just becoming accustomed to the style and speed of the game. I think we will see a big improvement this year.
If Yao Ming is to be this assertive player he must realise that this is his role.I expect that JVG will be the one to bring this attribute to the surface, by insisting that Yao Ming is the scoring focus, rather than him being a passing Center. Now that he is no longer a Rookie,and a lot stronger, we might see him being a little more demanding when in the low post. The Guards will of course need to acquiesce for this to develop.
After reading this post, the only thing I can think of is Yao getting "nasty" on Ratliff. The dunk and the eventual technical foul. Thats classic.
I like Tim Ducan better than Shaq. I like Ducan because he doesn't have to get nasty to get his respect. People fear his presence under the basket, but you never see Tim Duncan lost his cool and go after another guy or try to instill fear by knocking people around and being nasty. I hate it when Shaq use his fat butt to push people away, and flying elbows to create space for him to dunk. It's ugly and it's not basketball is supposed to be played.
Of all the great big men in NBA history, the one who Yao most resembles to me is Abdul-Jabbar. Tall, thin but strong enough, great touch. Kareem wasn't a nasty, in-your-face kind of player, either, but he had so much game that nobody questioned his agressiveness. I think Yao can be a similar type of player -- agressive with his game as opposed to his elbows and his mouth.
I totally agree rvpals. Let's not expect Yao to be something he wasn't. I hate to disappoint some fans but Yao will never be "MEAN". You can mark my word.
American coaches visited Yao Ming in China a few years ago. They told him that he needed to bulk up if he ever wanted to play in the NBA. He took their advice and bulked up his legs. Since doing that he has reportedly lost an incredible amount off of his vertical. I can't remember the exact numbers I heard, but it seemed like he lost 12-18 inches off his vertical
Yao having a fadaway jumper isnt necessarily a bad thing, especially when he faces some of the more athletic, explosive big men like Theo Ratliff.
I mean, is it possible to be Nasty..on the court.. and not nasty.. off the court? I dont think so because your opponent could tell your fronting.. or your a wannabe tough guy. Like for instance, they already know Yao is at that stage of life where he likes to row his boat and meditate in a lake behind his house while his mom makes him chinese soup. Thats not nasty compared to a guy like Charles Oakley who is out playing dominos in the projectx and getting in fights at the local carwash. Or a guy like Barkley who was out at bars throwing dudes through windows. My point is we can't have Yao fronting like he's nasty on the court when off the court he's really not like that at all. So If you want him to be nasty then he must learn to be nasty off the court first. Like instead of putting icecubes in his moms chinese soup to help cool it off, Yao could just eat the soup hot like a crazy man and then next time another player gets in his face he could grab 'em by the throat and say: "you think im not really crazy.. you think im fronting.. look here.. see my burnt, scarred tounge.. yeah thats right.. I eat moms hot soup without any 'icecubes' to cool it off.. because im crazy.. thats right.. im nasty.. i don't need no stinkin' icecubes in my soup... now stop fouling me you sonofabitch!!!" wow, now thats tough.. then he could say his name is Yao, but its Ming when he's feeling nasty.
