41 divided by 7. Good. But Something Else IS GREAT!

Great effort from the Big man last night. There was no stopping Yao Ming, not even Yao Ming.

 

Thanks alot R2K! I liked how you allowed the commentary to continue through

 

I love listening to Bill and Calvin...thought our out of town friends should be able to hear them also...besides...I also like to see the camaraderie between Yao and his teammates as they went to the bench...


also.....added three more vids to that link..

a real nice agressive move to the basket at .39 secs in the 4th...and then the closeup they do after good plays.

and the SF to Yao alley oop in the 2nd

enjoy.

 

ok

 

I hope our big guy is still alive during tomorow's game.

 

thanks alot!

 

thanks

 

that was awesome thanks for the vid.

J

 

Is there any statistics on "touches" in a game for each player? and total of the team?

wonder what's the optimal distribution for our team, or for any team

what's the optimal toal touches for the team?

I hope some expert statistician can collect the data and analyze its relation to W/L?

a good master thesis?

a good lead to a job in NBA?

:-(

 

Rockets2k, those vid clips are awesome.

I didn't record the game cause I thought it would have been an easy and boring win against Hawks. Damn, I am stupid on that one.

 

Yeah, you had to smile last night. Yao showed grit and more stamina than I thought possible.

But the thing is I firmly believe we haven't seen anything close to what a dominating performance from him could be.

I only saw Wilt near the end of his career, but I've seen how Kareem, Moses, Dream and Shaq did it. Super-fan Walton in his original assessement of Yao said it would take 2-3 years in the NBA before people can see what he can really do. I still agree with him.

God knows I've jumped the gun numerous times over the last 2 years, but there's a lot that still needs to come together for this 23 year old - his physical maturation and increased strength/stamina spell ugly things for the NBA.

I haven't been through all the threads yet - so forgive me if this is redundant. But Shaq's comments about Yao at the all-star game were interesting. He sees definite greatness, but can't see dominance because of Yao's disposition not to pop people in the face.

Well, ok, maybe (and that's a big maybe) Yao will never do that no matter how many NBA war's he's fought. I don't know. But it's not necessary. Kareem in his prime could hang 40 on Shaq anytime no matter what the current mindset about Shaq is.

Yao's impossible to compare to anyone, but his body frame only recalls one guy to me - (ugh) Eaton. Bad juju I know, but it suggests much. Shaq's size and athleticism is a fair comparison to Yao in a few ways - but, of course, their skills aren't. And I think more highly of Shaq's abilities than most here.

As a guy who's been watching basketball for 36 years and seen the great big men in Houston do amazing things Yao's been frustrating to watch and the Steve/Cat era has brought a "no patience" mentality to this franchise.

Worse, we think of Moses or Dream and shake our heads. But everything about Yao's unique. The NBA intelligencia is more moronic than we are, but no one's "getting" Yao Ming yet.

His stats are upsetting for an overall first pick who's not a teenager. He's a smart guy that's thinking too much also. He's the most criticized player I've seen too.

Yao's not Shaq yet, but last night - against the lowly Hawks - he really showed what the rest of the league doesn't want to think about (even Stern). If Yao just follows the Divac curve we're talking about a whole new ballgame.

Yao can play now - which is more or less accepted everywhere - but he's still laughed at. When people finally do stop laughing I think Yao's already going to be the best player in the NBA.

He is so faraway from that right now. But he's getting closer. Closer to what I haven't seen before.

 

Declan, that was a beautiful post.

NBA intelligencia is an oxymoron. The talking head "experts" on TV get paid to tell the public what they want to hear... what they can see for themselves that night. "Amare Stoudamire is a force. Watch him dunk." Well... duh.

I have not heard one coach or GM, current or former ever put a ceiling on Yao like the talking heads and columnists love to do. Basketball people that actually know talent don't sell the most papers or get ratings. More important than seeing skills, people that "get it" recognize drive, motivation and ambition in its various forms.

What they see in Yao is a "willingness to be great." Of course it isn't an overt, chest-thumping sign. He is different. He grew up in China. But if you understand people, you will recognize there is no shortage of ambition in the people there. If anything, many yearn for success and will sacrifice far more than most Americans (myself included) to get it. I have always seen that desire in Yao. People get fooled by him media demeanor and his polite attempts to not offend the foreign country he's just moved to.

I believe you're 100% correct. Once the rest of the league and public recognize his fire and not just his skills, the Rockets will be getting fit for rings.

 

Juugie on the other hand, may be a lost cause.

 

I reguards to the Yao and Steve = Oil and Water post, everybody needs to watch R2K's video clip and watch who is the first to greet Yao off the bench and just happens to have the biggest grin on his face.

Steve wants Yao to dominate just like we do and gains respect for Yao every time Yao plays like he can. These guy that Yao is playing against don't deserve to be on the floor with him, and when Yao figures that out we are going to the finals.

 

Hardly fair:

2000 Draft #1: Kenyon Martin, in his second year, averaged 14.7 ppg and 5.3 rpg at 34.3 mpg.

1999 Draft #1: Elton Brand, in his second year, averaged 20 ppg and 10 rpg on 39.3 mpg.

1998 Draft #1: Olowokandi, in his second year, 9.8 ppg and 8.2 rpg on 31.2 mpg

1997 Draft #1: Tim Duncan, in his second year, 21.7 ppg and 11.4 rpg on 39.3 mpg.

1996 Draft #1: Allen Iverson, in his second year, 22.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 6.2 apg on 39.4 mpg.

If Yao was playing 40mpg, he'd be averaging 20.7 ppg, 11 rpg this season. That puts him way ahead of Olowokandi and Martin, and on par with Elton Brand and Allen Iverson... and just barely behind Tim Duncan.

Of course, there's a key "if" there. But I think the reason Yao isn't playing 40mpg isn't because he's foul prone or a liability, but strictly a question of stamina, an issue that most of us believe he's improving on.

If Yao maintains only 32-34 mpg the rest of the way, then his disappointment status (for a #1 non-teenager) would be confirmed. But I personally don't believe that will happen.

 

I wouldn't mind if Yao averages 32-35 minutes per game for his career if we can get his shots per game up to the 15-17 area. In fact I am in favor of limiting the minutes Yao plays to maintain his health over his career. With Yao shooting 53% that translates into 17ppg without ever taking a free throw and he will probably average 7ppg off of free throws. A 24ppg career would be great for Yao. Hopefully we can up those minutes to around 40 and shots to around 20-22 during the playoffs.

 

When looking at Yao's scoring average you also have to factor in that the Rockets are only averaging about 88 points a game. I don't have enough time to figure this out now, but if you compare Yao's percentage of the Rockets points, I bet it would compare favorably to a lot of other guys in the league who's teams score more points (like Miller in Sac or even Nowitski in Dal). Also, you have to consider this when comparing his stats to other players in previous seasons where scoring around the league was much higher.

 

ha ha ha..i thought Yao was gonna collapse before the game is over....

 

That was an excellent post, declan, really excellent. I've been around that long as well, and I really hope you're right. If so, then we're amazingly lucky.

 

Thanks pcheung and Deckard. heech, I'm not sure how much I disagree with you so I'll just say this: if Yao should/could play 40 minutes a night you'd have a valid argument.

I'm not a big JVG fan, but clearly he's yanked Yao out of games for fatigue/listlessness far more than he has when he's been frustrated by Yao's play.

And heech, reread my post. I was calling for more patience and if you think my remark about his stats are unfair go back and look at Ralph's and Dream's stats their first two years. Do you really expect me to compare Yao to Allen Iverson in any way? I grew up watching E, Moses, Ralph (sigh) and Dream and don't delude yourself that Rockets fans my age (41) and older don't watch Yao and wince in most games.

I love the guy, that's why I said what I did. Foley thought Yao should average 26 ppg this year. And it's not about his size, it's about his skill with that size.

And yeah, I wan't to tell you that I hope 50 years from now Rockets fans in Houston see a 2nd year center averaging 16.9 ppg 9 rbs and say "yeah not bad, but..."

I don't care if that guy's from Louisiana, Philly, Virginia, Nigeria, China or Antarctica. It's my obligation as a Rocket's fan to feel that way out of gratitude for what I've seen.

And don't be surprised if Yao doesn't feel similarly if he spends his career here. About a week after Cato signed his $6 million contract he defended one of his no-shows by saying something like "Dream had his struggles too, especially offensively, I'll learn" and someone asked Dream about the remarks in the locker room after Cato made them.

Dream called him an idiot and more or less tore Cato up publically. I'd have killed to know what he told him in person.

Ten years from now if some Rocket center makes cracks about Yao's "struggles" I expect the same response that Dream gave. That's how much faith I have in this guy.

By the way, Kwame Brown was a doubted prospect and Olowokandi was just the Clippers being the Clippers. Duncan was a polished gem when he came into the league. K-Mart wouldn't sniff an all-star game in the West and that wasn't a good year to have the overall #1 either: most weren't.

Brand, well the Bulls should have picked Francis, ask him .

Yao was far from a sure thing, but don't believe what you may have read, every GM in the NBA would have taken Yao.

Comparing Yao's stats to those guys is senseless. But when Houston picks a center overall at #1 he'd better embrace what he's in for. I have no worry about Yao Ming.