Compare Hakeem's fouls to Yao's Fouls per minute of action Hakeem year 1: 8.4 minutes per foul year 2: 9.1 minutes per foul Yao year 1: 10.33 minutes per foul. year 2: 9.4 minutes per foul Hakeem year 1: 344 (82 games) year 2: 271 (68 games) Yao year 1: 230 (82 games), year 2: 133 (33 games)
(sigh) I think we've been over this. You are technically correct, if one ignores the fact that he averaged 6.9 or more rebounds in four consecutive seasons. In any season that his conditioning and his nagging injuries and foul trouble actually allowed him to spend more than 25 minutes on the court, he averaged about 7 boards. See the stats for yourself, in their complete form. Look, give or take a rebound or a block, blah blah, the guys play a lot alike at this point. I think Yao can be a lot better than Smits in Smits' prime (especially defensively), but somebody answer one question for me: Name a player who spent a couple of years playing soft, passive basketball who then suddenly found a pair and became more agro? Just one convincing example. I want to believe.
minutes for each rebound: Olajuwon Year 1: 2.99 minutes/rebound Year 2 3.15 minutes Yao Year 1: 3.5 Year 2: 3.7
Not sure why you are sighing. I cannot remember "having been over this". And the "or more" is obviously incorrect.
Rodman also elevated his game to hyper aggressive. Interestingly enough a life event (his daughter) triggered it. But Dirk is probably the best example ever. Rony Seikaly is another good example. Very soft in college. Well more like a bumbling goofball. But in the pros he buffed up a bit and got agressive in my opinion.
Sorry if I remembered you participating in a couple of threads that you did in fact not participate in. My bad. As for Smits' stats... Again, that's not my point, but we can continue the game. 94-95 7.7 rpg 95-96 6.9 rpg 96-97 6.9 rpg 97-98 6.9 rpg So, let's see... yes, in fact, for four consecutive seasons he obviously averaged 6.9 or more rebounds per game. Again, I don't really care about the stats, but they seem to interest you. Dirk is an interesting example, but was he really passive when he started? And did he suddenly get agro in the paint? He is definitely a more confident offensive player than when he first started, so maybe that's a good example of what could happen to Yao. The example of Rodman (thanks, PSJ) is an interesting example, but I don't recall anyone calling him soft when he started his career. He was hyper from the start. I'll stick with Dirk and Rony for examples to hang my hat on for now, especially as they came from overseas origins and had more of a learning curve. I so want Yao to get more mean.
He already has aggressiveness in him watch the asian championships, sure its against lesser competition but you can atleast see its there. And the comparison to smits is stupid comparing a 2nd year player that has different intangibles to smits like having to deal with so much more pressure than smits ever had in his career adjusting to a new culture society playing year round ball, etc etc...
Oh, thank you very much. Nice discussing basketball with you. Again, I call what I see on the basketball court. And again, if Yao has a slightly better than Smits career, that's pretty damned good, (especially for those of you old enough to really have watched a lot of Smits -- he was nails, especially in a lot of big playoff games). I strongly advocated drafting Yao, but I didn't expect him to become some sort of dominant superstar. I'll be happy if he does, but it's more fair and reasonable to just enjoy whatever he contributes. He's a unique player, and he's obviously trying.
I think Tim Duncan I dont know if you could call him soft but he wasnt that aggresive and he still isnt. He is always calm and quiet very stoic at time. Yao reminds me alot of Duncan.. Quiet / Calm but plays hard. Everyone wants Yao to become Shaq but I think Yao's playing style is modeled after Duncan. Yao still has a long way to go.. but he is in his second year and doing way better than last year in terms of FG%/ ppg/ rpg and other stats. Im just worried our expectations are too high and that is why people are bashing so early into his career. He is still doing way better than EGriffin at this point last year... what im saying is before everyone jumps on or off Yao's bandwagon I wonder if we are expecting too much from Yao because we know he is capable of it. But is it really fair? In response to this article I think its crap.. I believe this ticky tack fouls are curbing Yao's aggressiveness you can tell he seems mad he these days maybe even frustrated. I think NBA refs are the worst officials in sports.. veteran plays get veteran calls while star players get star calls.. that ridiculous. They should drop all that kind of BS and just try to make the right call. Right now Yao is playing with one hand tied behind his back (foul prone) but once he gets his other hand free I think we will see his aggressive nature come out. I look forward it.. J
it's his own fault that he couldn't average more than 30 mins on the court. if Shawn Bradley could stay on the court for 35 mins every game, he'd probably surpassed hakeem as the all time shot block leader by now. Yao's already a better rebounder, shot blocker and probably defensive player in general than Rik Smits ever was, period. but Yao's not as good a offensive player as Rik in his prime, imo. that guy was capable of dropping 20 on Shaq every night! Yao'd be lucky to score 20 against Shaq.
No thanks, I got it the first time. That's why I asked - Isn't I-10 and highway 6 basically Katy? Ladies and Gentlemen, your Katy Rockets! I'm guessing you live in that area, otherwise you probably wouldn't have this chip on your shoulder about it and about the supposed yuppie types who live inside the loop. Ricerocket has a good point - what makes you think these people WANT to go to basketball games, but are just SO TORN UP by the fact that the arena is so far away? do you have 15,000 friends who sit at home and say "boy, I'd like to go to the game, if only the arena was right by the supermarket down the street!" Here's an even better question: did you vote for the arena? The majority of Houstonians that voted said yes (obviously). Do you remember what you voted for? That's right!! The downtown arena! If you voted no, why are you going to games in the first place? I think maybe you've gotten things mixed up. You're the one spewing all the anti-'hooty-tooty, inside the loop' rhetoric. Let me remind you: This really sounds to me like someone who has a chip on their shoulder. I don't even know what you're talking about here. I'm sure all the folks in 5th ward are too busy drinking lattes and polishing their Bentleys to go to the Rockets games. and man, nothing brings a city down like "civically-minded and active people". How terrible these people must be! As for defensive rhetoric, well.. That's a mighty fine solution. It seems more reasonable to me that the arena be placed where other points of interest are. When people see pictures of Houston on postcards or on the news, they're not showing Katy, that's for sure. And I think that the geographical center is just as reasonable an answer as the population center, if not more so. (setting aside the fact that I-10 and Hwy 6 is KATY, not houston) That way, people from all surrounding areas have similar distances to drive. Moving the arena to one edge of Houston doesn't seem reasonable to anyone except the people who live there. When you say: "Sorry to say to the fans who live on the south side, or NW, but the population center of Houston is about 15 miles WEST of the Loop, NOT INSIDE IT." you sound just like "Tad and Biff". Yes, and you contribute to this by choosing to live in the suburbs in order to have your big house, yard, dog, 2.3 kids and 3 car garage full of gas-guzzling SUV's. See how easy stereotyping is? Finally, the point of the issue. I agree with this part. That doesn't really explain or excuse your baseless anti "inside the loop people" ramblings. First of all, I'm not sure anyone is criticizing you as a person. I sure wasn't. I definitely have a problem with your ignorant stereotyping of the people who live inside the loop. This doesn't relate to you having "a regular job" or "a family with kids." Sorry if you feel the need to get defensive, but I'm not trying to personally attack you. But it's definitely not hypocritical for you to criticize these so-called "hooty-tooty" people who "think they're rich" and wouldn't dream of moving "out to the boonies". The evil puppetmasters who decided the arena would be near the (gasp!) cultural center of the city. Whatever, man. 80% of your post was rambling complaints about food prices, drunk people bothering you, the team sucking, your wife making you go get food.. none of these things would change if the arena was in Katy. Urban Sprawl sucks. And making the arena in a different area of the sprawl is not a solution. As you note, this is a problem that Houstonians are gonna have to live with, so we'll just have to agree that the team needs to get consistently better.
Imagine someone in Kingwood or Clear lake or The Woodlands or Sugar Land (even) trying to get to I=10 West at 6:30 to go to the new arena 15 miles west of 610 on I-10. They would arrive about 9:30. Amazingly, they probably would easily make it going opposite traffic the other way....
Uh, okay. I'm sorry if I was mistaken. You seemed interested in the stats when you said: and Again, I just mentioned some qualitative words in which I find the two players to be similar. But I've learned my lesson. YAO IS THE FUTURE GOD KING OF THE NBA. I GROVEL BEFORE HIM... ... and from this lowly, prone position, I knock the ball out of his generous, kindly hands.
I actually need to address this, because I do not appreciate your slightly condescending tone, which started with the "sigh" as in "do I have to explain this to you again" when I do not even remember having talked about Smits. I mentioned that he only once averaged more than 7 rebounds merely to point out that Yao probably already is a better rebounder than he ever was. I don't care if it was twice 7.2 or three times 6.9 rebounds or whatever. You asked the question what could be the difference, I tried to think about it and mention one difference. Simple. Then you come back and meticulously list stats for the four out of 12 seasons where Rik Smits had 6.9 or more rebounds, but feel compelled to point out that you do not care about stats, but "they seem to interest me". If I have 10 seasons where I average 6.9 assists and one where I average 7.7, it is also "6.9 or more", when the "or more" really only is a fraction of what actually happened. This is so pointless - as I said, the only thing I tried to do was to answer your question what could be a difference between Smits and Yao, so no need to be nitpicking and then saying "but it's not me who cares about stats, it's you". Again, I dislike your tone, and I have noticed something there for a while now. You can be really funny, but sometimes you can also be quite unpleasant.
Well, same to you... well, except for the really funny part. j/k, SJC. I was a pseudo-troll here about the stats, but I was bringing along some wounded bile as I remembered posting about his stats in some similar discussion that didn't involve you, and I am going to lay off the Smits stuff for good now after this post. I don't recall asking for differences between Yao and Smits, but I asked Indiana fans (if any are around here) if they griped about Smits and had high hopes. I do appreciate the several counter-examples people gave for players that became more agressive after their first couple of years. I'll sign off with my bottom line: Yao should have better career than Smits, barring injuries. I agree that Yao is already a slightly better rebounder and a better defender. Yao's first couple of years are already better than Smits' first couple of years. I like Yao and I like Smits. Peace.
Yao is better than Smits defensively and on rebounding, but he still is not as polished as him on offense. That’s where the Rockets need Yao most, and he’s not delivering. I would take 7 rebounds from Yao if showed any semblance of a consistent/dependable offensive game. On offense, I would rank him 4th among players on the team, behind Francis, Cat, and Taylor. The Rockets are not going to reach the promised land until he’s the best offensive player on the team.
