Blazer exec: Yao will be greatest center in history of NBA

There was more than one person who thought picking Bowie would be a mistake.

"Who's the next Jordan", you say? Hmmm. I don't have an answer for that one(if there ever will be one). But since you came to good 'ole LakerMania seeking a prediction on the future .......I'll give you a freebie. -->I bet the Bulls are going to be sorry they picked Williams over Wagner.

Thank you. Good night. You've been a lovely audience

 

Yeah, and Eddie Sutton probably said the same about Bowie and I'm sure Knight said the same thing about Steve Alford and Kent Benson.

 

oh please, steve nash is one of the slower guards in NBA, and they cant even contain him(in the Yao's highlight, he just run into the middle easily)

avery johnson is much faster than des gurads in de chinese national team

 

Hahahaa, didnt someone say our guards are much better cuz of athleticism. So I bet Steve Kerr will kick butts in CBA because of his amazing athleticism. MY FOOT. Kerr could contribute solely because his teammates could get him the ball to make an easy open shot. He is an average player in NBA at best. It was the amazing leadership of MJ that made Chicago a championship team. Name one post MJ ex-Chicago player that has become a great, dont even need to be dominating, player on other teams. As far as the Chinese could pose a real challenge to us in 2008, that's a big IF.

 

Of course you don't. That's because it hasn't happened yet for you to make
your "great prediction."

 

great article about yao ming

 

Steve Nash sure seems to spend a lot of time in the middle of the lane in NBA games too.

 

I want to believe...

 

Steve Kerr can do nothing but shoot, there's Chinese guards faster than Kerr if you really watched CBA games. It's not hard to believe that there's at least one guy in millions of Chinese basketball players that's faster than Kerr. Wang Zhi Zhi can probably cross Steve Kerr over.

CBA games in Taiwan? are you sure? There's no CBA games played in Taiwan, but they can be aired there. Are you sure that you were not watching the Taiwan league games?

Actually one of the Chinese guard Wu Wei Dong was invited by an NBA team for workout, but he's injured and cancelled the trip.

If there's one thing the Chinese guards can do it's shooting. They are just too one dimensional to make it in the NBA in general.

That really doesn't mean much, I've seen Steve Nash penetrate in the NBA a lot of times. The Chinese guards won't be defensive stoppers but they can play decent team defense if properly trained. The ineptitude of coaching on both ends is the biggest problem, the current coach must be fired if the NT's gonna put up a fight. I agree that it's a big if China can win in 2008, but I'm not gonna rule out the possibility yet. There's still six years left and a lot of things can happen. Maybe AcBrave, being dominant over the Chinese guards, can join China NT and beat the hell out of the Dreamteam.

 

EXACTLY, Steve Kerr is in the NBA because of his 3 point shooting ability. What does his speed/quickness have anything to do with this discussion? The fact is, Kerr has the highest 3pt shooting % in NBA history. If as you claim, there are Chinese guards that can shoot "a hell of a lot better than" the best 3 point shooter, % wise, in NBA history, then there's bound to be at least a couple of these guys in the NBA. One guy getting an invitee to a training camp isn't the expectation if these guys can shoot as well as you say they can. Because terrific one-dimensional shooters have places in the NBA...Kerr, Matt Bullard, Dell Curry, etc etc.

From what I have witnessed (yes, I have seen several CBA games on TV in Taiwan), Chinese guards are decent shooters, but not up to par with the NBA standards expected out of a one-dimensional shooting specialist.

 

You know, if I was an NBA scout, I'd be scouting guards in Japan and Korea.

Japanese and Korean athletes are traditionally very quick/fast and play a team game. Reflexes, Speed, quickness, jumping. Generally great athletic ability. I'd think these qualities would make a GREAT NBA PG don't you guys think?

Imagine someone 6'1, PG, lightning quick, team-player, who can shoot the 3 (foreign) but can penetraet due to incredible quickness.

 

Like Ichiro with handles. I like it.

 

You guys can watch CBA games in Taiwan? That's cool. Is that only when the SINA team plays? I'll leave the arguments aside.

 

Basketball is not just about shooting, even if one can shoot better than Kerr, it doesn't mean he'll become an NBA player. My point is that Chinese guards are too one dimensional, that they can shoot the lights out but since they are flawed in their games they might be considered not to be suitable for the NBA game. Some elite shooters are too old\slow\uncoachable\bad handles\bad passing\slow reaction\injury prone\foul prone or can't handle the physical play it all depends. As a sidenote, Dan Langhi is a good shooter but he failed to adapt to the NBA game. There's ppl who can shoot 99 free throws out 100 but they are no good 'cuz they only know shooting free throws. Just because some Chinese guards shoot better than Kerr doesn't mean they are better or suitable NBA players.
Kerr has very high 3 point FG%, but he only averaged 6.6 ppg in his career, his high FG% is partly a result of wide open shots, and partly because he made little field goals. Shandon Anderson a bad shooter shot 3s at 50% in his first season for the same reason. Not to mention he had MJ and Duncan to make him as a better player. His high FG% can't be compared to the elite Chinese shooters as they take many more and worse shots in their careers than Kerr. Furthermore, just because he's good at 3s doesn't make him a complete shooter, in some years Kerr shot 3 pointers better than 2s. A great 3 point specialist can't beat a pure shooter like Allan Houston, although Allan Houston's fg% is lower than Kerr's. There's Chinese shooters that can shoot the lights out and dominate a game, for example, last year a CBA player Sun Jun scored 70 points in one game by raining down jumpers and 3 pointers one after one. Of course, the CBA's a lot worse than the NBA in competition, for discussion's sake let's assume it's equal to the US HS(a huge stretch here), if Kerr is such a great shooter I'd imagine he scored 70 points in HS? I don't think so. I've seen Chinese guards nailing jumpers one after one with a hand in his face everytime, something that Kerr can't do either.
To say that there's no Chinese guard who can shoot better than Kerr, as they don't make NBA is to say that every guard in the world who can't make NBA shoot worse than Kerr. A statement that's quite bold to make.
I won't assess the shooting touch of Chinese guards in general based on just a few CBA games either.

 

yes i think team sina is quite big in taiwan.
and since taiwan has like 200+ channels on cable, one of them is sure to carry their games...

i really don't know, but from what i read in the taiwanese media, the team gets plenty of coverage and it sure sounds like it is the case their games are aired. (haven't been back there in years)...

however, i do think we should discount LilStevie's comments, because aren't Team Sina cellar-dwellers (last place) in the CBA? If a someone was watching Golden State or Bulls last year, I am sure he would get the impression that NBA guards sucked too...

and yes, i do think that china is emerging as the lead contender against team USA in the 2008 Olympics. they've got a thriving basketball league, 3-4 nba starters, and they'll be the hosts... if that doesn't make them contenders, what will?

 

Panda,

We are in agreement about Steve Kerr, he is a one-dimensional player as you stated. He's a 3 point shooting specialist. THAT IS MY POINT. You mention that the Chinese guards are one-dimensional as well, which would put them along the lines of Kerr in terms of style of play. So if these guys can shoot "a hell of a lot better" than Steve Kerr, who in his day, could shoot the absolute lights out, you would see some of these guards in the NBA. As I pointed out earlier, there is room for one-dimensional shooting specialists in the NBA provided they are up to par. Thus, it is a very dubious to state that there are Chinese guards that shoot a hell of a lot better than one of the best 3 point shooters in NBA history.

It's not as if I was watching one or two shooters when I was in Taiwan. By watching these CBA games, I was able to observe the caliber of shooting as a whole. If I was observing a single shooter, then I wouldn't be able to judge from several games. But I was not concentrating on a single player, I was observing the games as a whole. Thus from watching several games, I was able to get a feel for the caliber of play in the CBA. The caliber of play is not up to par to the NBA...the caliber of shooting, while decent as I said earlier, is not either. As I said before, if the caliber of shooting by the Chinese guards were as good as you say...there would be Chinese shooting specialists in the NBA.

BTW, your previous mention of Bateer being as dominant as Tim Duncan in the post is laughable. Duncan is the best post player in the NBA in terms of moves/footwork since Dream and Kevin Mchale. But I like the way you support China...keep it up.

 

I remembered SINA finished at 8th(out of 13) in the CBA,the last team made playoff.That is not too bad isn't it ?And i thought SINA's strength is their backcourt,a 33 years old 5"9 point guard, who leads at assist, a 6"0 SG who leads at 3pt made.Both of them go to All-Star game.If someone thinks they are not good,then probably CBA guards really not paly well.

I think Taiwanese backcourt players are a little bit better then CBA's.If i remember correctly,at the begining of this season,Sharks(Yao's former team) wants to sign a PG from Taiwan's Mars team to help them to win the championship.

BTW, if anyone has noticed this week's Taiwan sports news, you probably already know that , a Taiwanese swingman who and Yao was both selected as best Asian young player in 1998 are invited by Kings(yeah, Sacramento kings)to their preseson camp.

 

Facelift appointments...

 

That guy Chen Hsin-An, right? Yeah, I've heard many Taiwanese fans rave about his athletic ability. Hope he does well. Would be nice to see some Asian non-centers play in the NBA.

China also has several more up-and-coming young players who is already on the radar screen of NBA teams. Players like Tang ZhengDong, Xue YuYang, and Mo Ke could become 2nd round or late 1st round drafts in the next few years. And a 15-year-old 6-11 phenom named Yi Jian-Lian is already being billed the next Yao Ming. Could become China's next lottery pick in the NBA. By 2008, China could really have 7 or 8 NBA players.

I gotta speak up for the Chinese guards. True, they are the weakest link right now in the Chinese NT. But all this "beyond horrible" or "I can beat them" BS is getting out of hand. Both Chinese PGs on the NT right now are good atheletes and good shooters. They are just not experienced enough, nor true PGs, ie. they usually look to shoot first, pass second. With more international exposure, especially the younger one, Liu Wei who is the same age as Yao in fact his closest buddy, has good upside potential to develop into competitive PGs. And there is another 19-year-old PG back home, Hu YunFeng, who is not on the NT because of injury, that's got everyone excited. So, don't write China off on the guard position yet. They may never develop NBA-caliber guards, but they would improve so they won't drag the team back in international competition in the future.

China's goal in 2008 is to be a medal contender. Beating the US would be a big stretch, unless the current trend of each Dream Team being worse than its predecessor holds.

Anyway, I better shut up, coz this is the Rockets board after all, not the China NT board.

 

Thanks for your input, Yeo. If there will be an average of one Chinese player per year coming to the NBA, then it will have something to do with the Rockets, b/c they might draft or trade for another Chinese stud.