Can we all get off Yao's back? This KID, has displayed talent beyond our wildest imaginations, and lets not forget that there have been plenty of great players with great rookie years.. but there have also been great rookies who turned into flops.. and players who had great beginnings only to turn out to be the Danny Ferry's of the league. Keep in mind, he has the tough NBA schedule, the three years of constant basketball, the international media AND the culture adaptation. He comes from the east people, the adjustment between cultures can be very difficult to adjust to and very draining on a person. So the comparisons to O'niel and Hill, and their limited slumps are invalid. We have never seen rookies have to make a transition like this, the closest are Nowitzki in Dallas Stoyakavich (sp) in Sacramento. Nowitzki averaged 20 min/game with 8.2 ppg and 3.4 rpg in his rookie campain and Peja averaged 21 min/game with 8.4 and 3.0. Now Dirk was 22/10 last year and Peja is a 19/5 guy over the last three years. I epxpect more out of Yao, eventually.. but in his rookie year i'll accept 12.4/7.9 any day. For reference Hakeem was 35 min/game for 22/11. Yao is playing 74% of the minutes that Hakeem played in his rookie year.If you dropped Hakeem to the 20min/game he would have been at 16.0/8.14. That's not too bad guys.. and even if Yao is only 74% of Hakeem that puts him in the league with Duncan, O'niel and Robinson anyways.. So what's to complain about. Mike
One more thing about this struggling Rookie: The NBA has an efficiency/minute rating it is ((PTS + REB + AST + STL + BLK) - ((FGA - FGM) + (FTA - FTM) + TO)) / G and while its not the end all be all of great players it has Shaq, KG, Duncan, Dirk,T-mac and Kobe as the top 6. Yao is number 12. Some other rankings #4 in the NBA in Field-Goal Percentage(0.515) #14 in the NBA in Blocks Per Game(1.98) #12 in the NBA in Blocks(81.0) #15 in the NBA in Defensive Rebounds Per 48 Minutes(9.7) #13 in the NBA in Rebounds Per 48 Minutes(14.1) #11 in the NBA in Blocks Per 48 Minutes(3.55) These are inclusive of his recent slide, and sure I'm dissapointed in his recent play these stats look very promising. Mike
We never criticized him. We do expect too much from him, though. But we need him in order to win. He needs to hurry up and adapt. It has been very tough, but he completed the first step. Now he has hit a wall. Hopefully he can get better...we can't wait too long.
I think of Yao Mings position from a different perspective. I dont think of him being tired out. I think of him being tired of putting in the effort and being excluded from the main flow of the game! The Guards make very little effort to help him along in his game when they condesend to make a pass its mostly to get them out of a sticky situation and the pass is rushed and a bad one at that.Putting myself into Yao Mings shoes I would have been discouraged by the petty selfishness of his team and the lack of coaching and direction. He is just not used to this free wheeling street ball that the Rockets play. I hope that when the team either'Gels'or reorganises that Yao Ming will still be with the Rockets and become their leading player.This make take time and a melding of the wills of Players and Coaches to a common Team Goal to play Team Basketball.Rudy needs to develop the game arround the fact that the ball is passed to players not as an after thaught, or when the Guards get into trouble,but as the first option as decision makers to shoot or pass, depending on how they perceive the situation. At present it appears that his playbook is empty, he should fix this situation quickly and get away from the Players standing arround watching the 'Mobes and Franchise Show'.
