Did you watch much basketball in the 80's or 90's? Ewing had a good jumper but was also a force underneath the basket. He could block shots and was a competent to good rebounder, if not great - but good enough to easily grab 10-12 a year during his prime. You rarely ever saw him lose rebounds the way that Yao does, and he didn't get his shot blocked as much nor have the ball swiped from him in the same fashion. He was no Hakeem, of course, but he was very, very good - and he left his heart on the court, every single game. He played hard and with fire. I guess you didn't watch much basketball in the 70's either - if there was one knock on Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who you propose to replace Ewing - it's that he was soft, aloof, and emotionless. Yeah, that's exactly what Yao needs.....
You know what seperates Yao from greatness; Passion, emotion, just pure love for the game. In the Olympics, I remember him pushing some guy for getting in his face. I also remember him yelling at his teamates for not performing. Also, his comments to a chinese newspaper that caused all kind of havic. What happened to that player? He has not shown even half of that passion he showed during the Olympics. What makes it worse, is it is funneling down to the rest of the team. Name any great player in history. I can't even think of one that did not play with passion, strived for greatness, and shook off losses so simple. It doesn't matter what year it was for them; rookie, 2nd year, or 3rd year. Passion for the game starts in the beginning. It is not learned. It is brought EVERY single game. Yao has yet to learn that. Maybe its the coach, maybe its exhaustion, maybe he needs to figure it out.
i would like to see Yao on a another team and like Francis we will see his true potential. This team have ability to bring superstar down to average, example T-mac, he is a superstar but in this system he average about 19 points. Not everybody can play defense and have the energy to run fast break on offense. The rockets struggle because of bad offense coaching and the system is not matching with the player style. So our choice stand either trade Yao or fire Van Gundy.
This is definitely part of Yao's problem. But I'm not so sure it's the main reason for his crappy play. I mean even he had all the passion and aggressiveness in the world, he STILL will be shutdown by a quick, lanky PF who fronts him. He is just too slow to react to the average NBA player's speed. This is 95% of all his problems. And unfortunately, it's something that he can't fix.
You can't front Yao if he catches the ball on the move. If Yao can't beat the front, then dare the D to defend him in both the high and low post.
Is Lopes' article a prelude of internal fight? Is Lopes' article a prelude of internal fight? The way this Houston team is playing, somebody has to take the blame. JVG went to media talking about imminent change. His star players responded with two ridiculous, effortless game. There must be something more than we were told within the team. If this team keep playing like this for one more month, Les and fans will run out of patience. Member of the power trio (TMac-JVG-Yao) has to be sacrificed. Among this three, TMac is an established superstar and a new comer. He is immuned. But he will have influence on who will take the fall. He came here to play with Yao not for JVG. We pretty much know his preference. Yao is every bit of a lost soul these days. The poor guy worked too hard on offseason to swallow such a slow start. His Chinese cultural background is a double edged sword now. At one side, he doesn't has a normal NBA superstar's superego which needs constant massage, at the other side, his self-confidence is really fragile. He is a good student needing teacher's praise. He may never develop into a dominant superstar. JVG is a seasoned politician, which we learned in an amazing way from his dealing with SF3 and Houston media and fans. He is a workaholic and he knows that, if he fails here, his coaching career is done. He will fight very hard. Here is this Lopes' article aiming at Yao. My prediction is Yao's days in Rockets is numbered. He is passive-aggressive responding to JVG's criticism. He is helping the Rockets organization to find enough reasons to trade him. JVG won the battle against SF3. He is winning the battle against Yao. But eventually he will be swept out by TMac. I feel so sad. We were full of hope last april. I saw this coming but still can't face it.
The main problem wiht YAO is JVG system. In JVG system he has to be running too much either offensively and defensively. I remember in Hakeen days, offensively he will go to one side and stay there waiting for the ball. Defensively, he will just cover the middle. In jVG system, Yao has to be running like crazy on both ends. Offensively I have seen the guys get position and then go again to the other side and gain position again, and so and so. Defensively I have seen the same thing. He has to come up to the 3 point line and cover point guards coming out of screens. That definitely is taking a lot out of him. For God sake, he is 7.6 and for a man that tall that is asking to much running.
Stop to force him down low all the time. Even Rudy is more creative is this aspect. Yao is not a traditional low post player, who would have enough problems in today's league anyway. Why not let him play a Duncan-like game, mixing of high and low post? Duncan has no problem getting the ball. He also doesn't outquick people and is turnover-prone at times.
The best thing for Yao to do in that situation is to defend from the elbow area. Let our pg to fight through the pick. Yao will still be in position to either slow down the penetration if it comes or challenge the outside shot. It's lunacy to have a 7'6" guy out near the 3-point land trying to stop a PnR. How often did you see Shaq, Smits, Kareem, Parish do that in their careers. I would blame JVG long before on Yao.
