Are we utilizing Yao to his full potential?

Considering Yao turns the ball over more than any other center in the league, I don't think its in our best interest to force feed him more than we do now. We are winning and that is all that matters. He could be a 7'6" decoy for all I care.

 

Yes. We are seriously not getting Yao enough touches and thus reducing his potential effectiveness.

Yao, being one of the most efficient juggernaut offensive weapons in the whole league, is just not getting enough shots, especially compared with our 2nd-rate guards. I am not a Yao-only fan or a AB hater, but watching AB take those high-volume shots he takes makes me think why couldn't we just pass it to Yao or maybe even create for Yao. He is a superstar if the situation is right for him. Right now, Yao is simply not getting enough shots from his teammates

I think our whole offense should evolve around Yao most of the time. Yao needs to be the big tree trunk that holds the branches together.

When the ball is swung to Yao, a few things could happen:

1: Yao is engaged in an ISO play with someone who is shorter than him,(duh!!) and he dominates him.

2: Help comes for the Yao defender and Yao, being the awesome passer he is, kicks the ball out to a cutter and an easy layup is giftwrapped by Yao.

3: Help comes for Yao and Yao kicks it out to the perimeter where someone is bound to be open. With our passers we swing it to the open man with a few passes along the perimetre and we get a wide open 3 point look.

I know Yao is turnover prone, but when he can dominate every other big man, INCLUDING DWIGHT DAVID, (my name is david haha), we SHOULD AND NEED to give Yao 15+ shots every game.

Now, if we still have Aaron taking all those out-of-control mad drives, getting blocked by his uncle every other layup, and hoisting up 30 ft 3's early in the shotclock, while Yao grinds hard to establish a great post position only to see AB chuck up a fadeaway 20 footer, how does he feel when a 2nd year 6 ft rookie takes more shots than he does. AND HE SHOOTS 10 PERCENT BETTER.

If you don't trust me, STILL, then look at this:

WE ARE 20-2 WHEN YAO SCORES 20 OR MORE.

WE ARE UNDEFEATED WHEN YAO SCORES 25 OR MORE.

Are you saying we can get Yao 20 or more points if he took 15 shots per game at least? Show your support by replying, "I agree". =p

 

Balanced scoring is the key to winning not relying on one guy to do it. Kobe learned that in LA and Tony Parker said it's fun to be scoring all the points while Manu and TD are out but he's more interested in winning rings.

Adelman is doing great with the offense. Adelman scrapped the idea of using Yao in the high post more often and we're back to using Yao in the low post almost exclusively. I like the new wrinkle where the team runs on the initial outlet and they let Yao catch up, sort of allows the team to play exciting fast break offense and a half court set offense with Yao. The Rox are much more fun to watch than under JVG.

 

Yao's strength is in his efficiency. When he catches the ball and is decisive quickly, he is at his best. Unfortunately he is just not always like that and if you try to get any more out of the guy, he is a turnover waiting to happen. He is not a guy like Shaq who can shrug off smaller players and never gets the ball stripped for him. Unless Yao literally is catching the ball everytime at the rim and scoring right away, he is not going to be a much higher PPG guy than he already is.

 

I have a better question, is Yao maximizing his potential?

Shaq was a dominant players from day 1 and is a freakish type of player. You can never expect Yao to do what shaq can do.

 

This is beyond silly. Watch the games--Yao gets ample touches, he's just a very different player than Shaq. Yao is slow and methodical in the post, wheras shaq is a power player. Because shaq is a power player, it's easier for him to (a.) score quickly, and, (b.) score through double teams. When Yao tries to score through double teams, he tends to turns the ball over at an alarming rate.

That being said, Yao, with his deliberate and technically precise moves, is nigh impossible to stop 1 on 1. Every time Yao has a one on one opportunity, he looks to score. That's a fact. The thing is, other teams realize this (duh), and send double teams. Yao, being a SMART player and a TEAM player with a full knowledge of his own limitations realizes the higher percentage play is to kick out of the post for a wide open shot by a teammate rather than trying to fight through a double team and, likely, turning the ball over of taking a low quality shot.

This is what he's worked on in the past few offseasons (and why, when he talks about his game, he always says "I have to keep my turnovers down"). This is also why his teammates always say things like "we ran through yao and got open shots." BECAUSE Yao gets double teamed, and BECAUSE he kicks out instead of attacking, the REST OF THE TEAM gets easy shots and our overall offensive efficiency increases.

So yes, Yao might be capable of scoring more points, but given his skills and limitations, the best thing for our team is exactly the way Yao plays now.

Further reasons why this argument is silly:

1. The raptors coaches are dumb --the reason Shaq scored 45 is that the toronto brain-trust decided he was old and washed up, and elected to single cover him for most of the night. With Andrea Bargnani. And chris bosh. People respect Yao too much to give him this sort of coverage on most occasions.

2. Pace Factor--Against the Cavs, the rockets attempted 71 shots and had 12 turnovers for a total of 83 possessions. Against the Raptors, the suns attempted 98 shots and had 12 turnovers for a total of 110 possessions. That means the Suns, in shaqs 45 pointer, had a total of 27(!) more possessions then the rockets did in yao's 28 pointer against the cavs. More possesions --> inflated numbers.

QED.

 

It is entirely on Yao, no one is holding Yao back but himself. Yao is the one who needs to overcome his mental shortcomings. He is as skilled as any big man to have ever played the game (outside of Dream and Kareem), but he has never taken that next step of becoming dominant in a way that would make opposing coaches lose sleep the night before playing us.

Yao is who we thought he is: a gentle giant. Is that good enough for the Rockets to win it all? I don't know the answer to that question. But I think the Rockets can make up for some of his deficiencies by continuing to surround him with 'pitbulls' like JVG used to say, that itself might rub off on Yao and force him to be in attack mode all the time.

Of course his health is always the big question. Those legs/feet of his are like a ticking time bomb, you just never know when his 7'6" awkwardness might cause him to break another part of his delicate lower body.

 

I think Yao could definitely be putting up 25/13 rebounds a game. But that would involve more minutes and knowing his history with injuries, I am super happy with his production.

 

No, I am sure he has crossover in his arsenal

 

Lol. That would be the slowest, most awkward, painful to watch crossover this league has ever seen.

 

The Raptors trade away JO, they didn't have much of a choice. The only thing i see that they would have done different on Yao was front him. That type of defense has never worked on Shaq and it still doesn't.

I do agree with the Pace discussion. A major reason why I never liked all the hype run and gun teams' players (from suns, warriors, mavs, etc.) got. People would look at their stats and do crazy things...like give them 2 mvp awards.

The one thing that sticks out to me is Shaq's efficiency. He's having one of his best seasons in terms of fg% and even ft%. I'm sure the OP noticed this as well. It's amazing to see that a near 37 year old is easily the 3rd best center in the league and is scoring more efficiently than Yao probably ever will. Of course, Yao could never play with the Suns. He doesn't have the athleticism, the strength and quickness that Shaq has, to finish easily on the mismatches that that style of offense creates. When a foward rotates on Shaq he's throwing it down.

 

Alot of you boys must have not have watched Yao at all over the last 7 years. Or else you are having selective Yaomnesia.

Let me introduce you to the pattern.

Yao has a series of good games, somebody (fans, writers, whoever) proclaims "Yao has ARRIVED! He is now a TRULY ELITE DOMINANT SUPERSTAR, this is YAO'S TEAM NOW!!!"

Yao will then have a few of his patented "aw shucks!" nights where he gets pushed around by lesser players due to his inherent physical limitations, or he breaks a bone in his leg or foot.

Repeat ad nauseum.

He is who he is, which is what he is now.

End of story.

 

No we never have! I am not sure that Yao Ming wants to be the dominent player! He seems like he will follow orders though. Possibly the coach should sit down with him and tell hime what he requires of him and then unleash the new Yao!

 

Good points. IMO, the only thing holding Yao back is he's trying to model his game after someone else. If Dream or Kareem tried to model their games after Shaq, they would not be the players they were. What Yao needs to do is play his own game and figure out what works for him, not what worked for another player. Also, there's more to basketball than scoring or stats. All the great players do everything well, and that usually includes scoring efficiently. I'd like to see Yao shoot 60% or better while taking the same number of shots and be more committed to playing defense (I think he's been slacking off little because he wants to take more shots).

 

Yao is a 'Team' player, he plays team ball, he might sucks some nights, but overall he's a decent player, superstar or not, I prefer he take 15-20 shot a game, knock down 10 or more, get 10 or more rbs, as long as he passes the ball, attracts double T, give other decent chances, he can keep that for at least 3-5 years, full potential or not, he would worth every penny, Les throw on him

 

No.

Yao probably is the only player who shoots 87% at FT line and doesn't shoot many 15-18ft jumpers.

Not saying he shouldn't play in the low post, because he should, but adding another arsenal wouldn't hurt especially when he couldn't get the ball down low.

 

Try physical regression. He's slower than then.

 

This is true and something i neglected to mention earlier. Fronting defenses are far more effective against yao than they are against shaq due simply to agility and ability to catch the lob pass.

When teams front shaq, Shaq dunks on them. When teams front Yao, we have to move the ball and find the player they are leaving open (3 pt shooter on the weak side/scola flashing to the middle) in order to cover behind the lob. When we do this right, we get open shots and Yao improves our offensive efficiency as a decoy rather than as a scorer. When we try to force the ball into Yao (which would improve his numbers) we end up with what happened in the 4th in portland--turnovers and bad shots at the end of the shot clock. This is another instance where the best thing for the team is not to inflate Yao's numbers, but to use the defensive attention he demands to get better shots for everyone else.

 

I think Yao is the one not maximizing his potential. Unfortunately, part of the reason is due to setbacks caused by injuries. But aside from his physical limitations, his mental approach to the game has to get better. There are games in which he is able to read and anticipate where the double teams are coming, but there are also games in which he doesn't do that and the result is a turnover. It also seems to me that on the defensive side of the game, he is holding back and not aggressively going for the block when opposing players are getting into the paint. I could be wrong, but this appears to have happened after he suffered the knee injury and became worst after the last season's foot injury.