We should get Yao steroids.... NO! Let's get him to train with Chuck Norris! Chuck Norris, the name you'd like to touch, but you mustn't touch!
how come CD did not work briefly with Yao during the Rudy T rookie year in 02-03 ..........besides his GM duties
Well you're right the article says he never had a session with Yao until this month. That's strange because I thought I remembered more than one occasion in the past with Rudy even a couple when Jeff was coach where Yao was talking about Dawson showing him things on the court. I guess it's the first time they actually had their own session together, not just going over a few things.
i actually love it. even dawson admit yao is soft in that article. if he can make yao tougher, which will easily make him a better player on so many levels, it can only help the team and force the defense to key on him more so tmac can operate, the team can only benefit. u gotta underestand, its very easy to criticize yao when i see a shorter PF dunk on him repeatedly, a white european blocking him here and there, and turning the ball over more than dwayne wade on his worst days. that's not signs of dominance or tough. so dawson and hakeem working w/ him will hopefully limit these occurrences and more of yao dunking on others instead.
I love the part where Dawson is teaching him to creat seperation and cutting down on his turnovers. No more eight turnover games! I love it.
I believe he's legally blind in one eye, but his other eye is good or at least somewhat ok. I know he's had problems with both eyes. The guy has been through hell in terms of his vision. Back in the 80's he was hit by lightning or something and had both of his retinas messed up. The Chronicle wrote an article about him a couple of years ago regarding how he's never down about the stuff he's been through.
He was a car salesman in Houston. He apparently now has his own car brokering company or something. I'm sure there have been many sightings around town of a 7-foot 300+ lbs. man selling cars.
What did Dawson help Hakeem with? I recall it was something (jump hook maybe) but I don't remember exactly what....
If I saw Stanley selling cars, I'm asking him to come test drive the Mazda Miata with me, just for the hell of it.
(1) Do you see shorter players dunk on taller players or taller players dunk on shorter players more often? And when was the last time that a PF dunked on him repeatedly? Be more specific. (2) You mean game 1 in the playoff series? Can you get a bigger sample? You are just a hater. Admit it.
Buy "A Rocket at Heart : My Life and Team".... Rudy tells you how great a coach Carroll could've been and how much he worked with the players but nobody outside the organization really knew how much he worked with them. He was supposed to have been the Rockets' next coach, but due to health issues, they chose Rudy instead. Here's an excerpt from the book that seems to state what he's doing with Yao, he did with Hakeem : "Basketball remains Carroll's first love. He played at Baylor and later coached there for fourteen years. Unlike me, Carroll always wanted to be a coach. It was his calling. He has the perfect personality to deal with people. Most of all, he loves to teach and is great at it. Nothing gives him more satisfaction than helping a player learn something new to add to his game. Carroll understood he would rarely be recognized for his help. It didn't matter to him; he was just happy that the player got better. I believe Carroll was the best big-man coach in the game. When he taught his men the fundamentals of the inside game, every detail was covered: how to get position, how to give a good target, how to catch the ball, locating the defense, making a quick decision on what shot to use. He drilled the centers and power forwards each day : jump hooks, step hooks, drop-steps, turnarounds, face-ups. I've seen him do wonders with players who came to us without a basic shot... After working with Carroll, players began to have confidence in their inside moves. They began to feel more and more comfortable using those shots in a game. I believe Carroll played an instrumental role in the development of Hakeem Olajuwon. With all the constant drilling, he helped Hakeem become one of the most feared inside players in the history of basketball. I realized what a great teacher Carroll is when I was still playing. He was born to be a coach. I can only imagine the disappointment he felt when his time came to move up to head coach, and it was blocked by his health situation."
I don't get how people can say Yao hasn't shown signs of dominance. Oh, how quickly a bad playoff perfomance where he wasn't 100%, can quickly erase the past year and a half.
I think the biggest thing Yao has to understand is that there is no one way to play - he's got to have multiple go-to moves because defenses will adjust and he's got to be comfortable shooting from whatever position they put him in. He also hs to be able to force the issue and get those shots he's comfortable with. Personally, I think he's halfway there - he already has a myriad ways to score, but he looks awkward at times when he's in a position to score he's not familiar with. I have no idea why a sky-hook hasn't been in this man's repertoire. He's always had that jump hook, but although it worked, he went up kind of weak with it in comparison to someone like Kareem back in the day.
Yoa doesn't dominate consistently. When a team focuses on stopping him, they are usually successful. You look at big men who dominate such as Shaq and Dream, they get their 30 and 10 even when they are doubled and tripled. And they go off for 40 when they are single covered like Dream did to Robinson.
True, all I know is that I hope RA incorporates Yao into a threat at the top of the free throw. He obviously can shoot a high percentage there and he has good vision. I want to see him do those nifty passes he did during his rookie year with Rudy. I wouldn't mind him going out to shoot three's either.
Yao is adding to his arsenal gradually, you can't be teaching a kid, even a smart and hard working kid, calculus when he's still working on understanding algebra. Van Gundy and Thibodeau seems to have simplified the game for Yao, especially at first, then gradually added moves and responsibilities onto him. I can't say it was the wrong thing, given the fact that during the early years he struggled being a primary hub on offense and was more used in the catch and finish role (McGrady tried deferring to him early in 04/05.. didn't work, that's when McGrady and Van Gundy had the talk and Van Gundy told him to go ahead and take charge). He has a good base of skills-- you don't average 25 ppg without those, and I hope he's ready to diversify his program now with the help of Dawson, Adelman, Sikma, etc. But you can't blame the previous staff for doing what they did any more than you can blame the 8th grade algebra teacher for not teaching calculus.
Tell me what happened to Lebron James when the Spurs focused on stopping him. Yao is a work in progress, but he's come a long way since 02/03.
I'm cautiously optimistic. Yao's been told to "be dominant" from day one, so I don't know how much CD can really impact that message. But, I am really liking the emphasis on the sky hook and minimizing turnovers.
