What's funny is they barely went to him after they built that huge lead. They started force feeding him the ball with three minutes left in the game, after they lost that huge lead. The man is coming off a foot injury, and is tired as hell at the end of the game. Why feed him the ball after he just grabbed the offensive board and dunked it in (anyone have that highlight?), especially in the fourth. Just let him box out and get the rebound. But they kept going to him, and it looks like he lost it for them. If you are going to force feed Yao, do it earlier in the game when he has energy and keep pounding them inside out. Pau Gasol is a huge choker, and has never won a playoff game in his life without Kobe. The only reason he averaged so many assists in Memphis is because he had one of the best catch and shooters in the game, Mike Miller. Any big man who passes Kobe the ball will get assists, just ask Shaq. Hell, even Chris Mimh averaged more assists with Kobe on his team. Gasol is an okay passer, nothing special. Kobe and Miller are instant assists. My original statement still stands, Gasol and Bynum are not going to operate the paint together.
Yao lost the game for China in the last qtr. On defense, he couldn't do anything to slow down Gasol, he was abused left & right by Gasol. On offense, he either turned the ball over, or missed the shot. I don't put entire blame on him since the guy just came back from a major injury, was clearly laboring out there. The coach is an idiot, he made many stupid substitutions, and didn't know how to change the strategy on both ends of the floor when situation changed. It will be lucky for this Chinese team to even win ONE game. The cannot beat the Greece team, the Germany is tough with Dirk & Kaman, even the Angola team defeated this team during the tuneups.
Yao obviously sucked late in the game. And I haven't seen him fall down that many times in a single game. Though he's only part of the reasons that they lost. Their guards are just awful (for lack of a better word) and seem to only have tunnel vision. In several occasions, Yao was already doubled and he passed out to the guards, only to get the ball right back. And who's that number 4 guy? The idiot played worse than a streetballer and rammed into the defender for no good reason.
Another proof that most of the 4th quarter collapses of Rockets are due to Yao's fatigue or forcing the ball to Yao too much.
No. He wasn't as dominant as Pau, but he defended well for China to have the lead for most of the game. International game doesn't favor big guy like Yao, while mobile softies like Pau and Wang do well. Yao doesn't have much space to work with at low post once he gets the ball due to shorter 3p line. It's very crowded.
This never used to be a problem. He averaged around 25 ppg in the World Championship in 2006 and something like 22 ppg in the last Olympics. He has been thoroughly dominant in international play. Right now he is not fully recovered and it shows. His performance was that of a scrub. If he plays like this in the NBA, he might not even get to start. He always used to score on Gasol just fine, yet he missed close shots and got blocked several times.
WTF dude why are you blaming on Yi when that ''Chinese'' coach didn't want him the be the main/second scorer? He shot 50% when he had the opportunity, had 9 boards, 3 steals and 0 TO. Those selfish Chinese ''guards'' didn't even pass the ball to Yao, you expect them to feed the ball to Yi?
Yao always piled up a lot of points against weaker teams like New Zeland. He's been so so against World powers. It's not only his fault. For example, Pau had nice rest while Spain caught back into game with his brother Marc in the middle. Yao didn't have that luxury. Yao was really winded at the end of the game. The pace was for China was fanatic.
Yi needs to find his niche offensive on CNT. Right now he is really lost there when his jumper wont fall for him.
I don't get into a war of words with posters who don't know or have played ball at a certain level. What I will do is educate the ignorant. Ignorance isn't as bad as it sounds. By laymans definition, if you don't know something, but its not your fault, you're ignorant. I will put you in that category, so let me educate. There has been a consistent problem with guys playing with Yao, entry passes. First it was mobley and francis, but they entered to dream and barkley fine. Then its sura, wesley, barry, cnt guards, or basically anyone not named tracy. So instead of looking at everyone, lets look at Yao. There is a saying, low man wins. What they're really trying to say is the man with leverage. This is a problem for Yao on offense and defense. Yao will always have difficult moments when he get lazy with his technique because he's so tall. I know I've been saying that yao plays too high. On the blks, its easy for yao stand up with his feet a 12-18 inches apart and try to receive the ball with one arm up. What happens is guys push him off his spot or reach around. On defense, its also easy to play against a smaller guy like brand, boozer types to stand up like u have a board in ur back and get killed. When u watch the truly great post players and defensive studs, they shrink and get wider. That's why people have been offended when I've said yao plays lazy when hets tired and he needs to get stronger. U ask anyone and they will tell you it takes a strong man in his lower body to play down. When I say play down, that mean in the post, yao goes from 7'6 to 6'11. He shrank because his legs are 2ft apart and bent, with his arms bent in a "L" shape and up ready to receive the ball. That's giving the passer a good wide target. On defense it the same away from the goal. Legs apart and bent as well as his ass down, back bent and arms up. That's why deke does a better job on those guys than yao despite being 50. Until Yao gets stronger in his core and become more of a technician, he will continue to have the same struggles with the transfer of balance on the court. That's why he falls so much. I'm here to school you anytime u need cowboybepop.
What you say is true but Yao has made great strides in being able to create position in the post and sealing his man to receive a pass. He does fine at it now, when earlier in his career he did not. He may not be as good at it as say Shaq, but that's never going to happen. It is part of what has turned him from a marginal 17/8 type player to a legitimately dominant 22/11 type player. Judging Yao's talent by yesterday's performance is though is kicking a man while he's down and jumping to conclusions. He is NOT 100%. It does not excuse him for sucking, but also it does not suddenly make him a worse player than before.
Magnumpro- I'm not kicking him, I'm just saying. The only thing keeping Yao from being a dominant player on a more regular basis is strength, stamina, and technique. The strength breaks down the stamina which breaks down the technique. The core strength is what gives u stamina which allows to to keep your technique. That's why shaq, dream, mailman and guys like that were great. The had a strong core which allowed them to have great stamina to punish and always have great balance and technique. Yao is stronger now than when he entered the league, but his base needs to get a lot stronger to support the kind of knee bendinghe needs to do. I wonder if yao can squat his weight. I know he has the huge calfs, but the power comes from your thighs or quads.
Honestly, we all agree Yao isn't 100%. On another note, the fact that Yao is one step slower makes all the difference. Remember the last game Yao played for us this season, he was (injured obviously) and he was also a little slower and was completely ineffective in the game.
Yao is strong, strong enough in his lower body that he can actually maintain his position even while he is "high" as opposed to playing low the problem is that Yao's strength does not translate to his upper body. this is manifest in 2 ways. 1) he is easily stripped 2)he doesn't finish well with contact. his stamina, is better. it will never be "good" physical limitation technique. as anyone it can get better. one common problem with all his passers you dont mention is a certain synergistic flaw in out they flash passes to yao in the paint. ALL his teammates including seemingly his chinese teammates have doubts as to yao's ability to handle the ball on inbound passes. unlike say Shaq or barkley who could catch anything thrown in their direction. this causes an extra hesitation where they kind of show yao the ball for a split second before they dump it in to him. the problem is the defender then has time to reach around for the poke. what ive seen over the last couple of years yao actually doesn't get the ball until he has CLEAR position, whereas a lot of players get the ball when they're establishing position. that prep time for the offense correlates to prep time for D on Yao, that's another reason why it's hard to pass into yao. NOT saying that the guards should necessarily be faulted... yao has stone hands and what's developed is a practical workaround to that issue
He doesn't give a good target. He should be the easiest guy in the world to pass to, but he's not. His basic post technique gets broken down and guys either root him out the post or come around and prevent a clean catch. As a player, you want to make sure the guy is going to keep the defender on his back. When u make a entry pass and the guy comes around and steals it, the turnover goes to the passer. Guys wait to pass to yao late because of this
This was a serious problem when Yao was averaging 17/8 and people were calling him an overrated stiff. It hasn't been so much the last few years. It looked bad yesterday though because he's a step slow. leebigez what you say is true but I feel Yao has already made solid strides in those areas from the beginning of his career to now. It's not as bad as you're making it out to be.
I think he's made huge strides and I'm not talking about the game against spain. I think Yao can be great, not just good. After 5 yrs, some of the things he struggles with now, he struggled with as a rookie. He's not far from being great, but right now we can't even get 1st all nba. Even with missing time, he should be at least that by now. I don't think he's as healthy as he will be when the season starts.
