[Chron] Yao's Return Good for Hayes

I beg to differ. He does need to improve his jump shots and ability to finish lay ups. I look at Udonis Haslem when I look at chuck. both are sort of undersized and are hustle players.

 

I claimed him first!

There are a couple of good clips on youtube of things he did in college. (if anyone wants them I can send you a few more links, but if you search for his name with UK or Kentucky you should be able to find them on your own) He does have other moves besides the little spin and hook. The thing is, he isn't being asked to do anything like post up moves.

The guy knows his job description when Yao is on the court and that's what you're going to see him do. The exception to him ever trying something out of the ordinary is when the shot clock is expiring.

Also, Chuck didn't develop the jumpshot hitch until he started playing the center position so much in his junior and senior year of college. Up until that point he was playing strictly power forward and occasionally shooting forward and was more comfortable on the 15ft jumper. Coincidentally, that is also when the free throw shooting hitch started, in his senior year.

I keep saying all they have to do is ask and I would be more than willing to work on his free throws with him.

 

Wherever Hayes got it, JVG certainly has been unable to correct it. So that says a lot about JVG's coaching ...

 

Maybe. But Shaq had been in the league for 7 years when Jackson took over the Lakers, whereas Chuck was fresh out of the D-League when JVG reluctantly recruited him. Older habit tends to be harder to overcome.

 

Distorting fact, how so? You mean JVG had no say in acquiring a player out of D-League?

JVG may not be Hayes' shooting coach, but he is the guy overseeing all players' development. Hayes' shooting may not be a pressing issue for the Rockets at this moment, but you never know when it will be one. You can't absolve JVG from allowing Chuck's ugly shooting mechanics to persist and not be corrected. It's to the detriment of his growth as a basketball player.

 

Have you lost your mind? I'd rather have Hayes guarding those guys than anybody else on the whole team. He should guard them until he gets 6 fouls. Hayes is the best post defender we have on this team. JVG will even tell you that.

The one thing I am sure of. Hayes will not be the reason for our demise in the playoffs. Quite the opposite, he will be one of the primary reasons we get as far as we do. I could care less if I never, ever, ever see Juwan on the same court with Yao ever again. What could lead to our demise is two slow footed players playing too many minutes side by side (Yao and Juwan).

Chuckie gets an unbelievable amount of bad calls against him too because the officials are predetermining that he doesn't have the size to defend the longer bigs. He has almost perfect technique and goes straight up on the shot defense. All he's got to do is learn a little bit of the Battier hand in the eyes defense instead of going straight up and he won't have to worry about getting those fouls where they shooter brings their arms into his straight up arms. Once he gets a little more respect, look out. He can be a 10 point 10 rebound a game player very easily. All he needs is another 8-10 minutes on the floor.

One thing people consistently miss about Hayes' game is his ball handling and vision. He is one of the best ball handling power forwards in the league. This is probably aided by his size, but he is a very good ball handler. And he sees the court better than most of the power forwards in this league. There's a whole lot more to Hayes' game than just a few boards and a few fouls.

 

"You can't absolve JVG from allowing Chuck's ugly shooting mechanics to persist"

I've heard it all now. It's JVG fault that Chuck's still has poor shooting mechanics. How ridiculous will the criticism of JVG get? There are legitimate items on basketball strategy to debate and criticize JVG on, but this is just juvenile and nutty.

 

i agree. a lot people dont watch Hayes' games too much just automatically asume he can't guard those bigger PFs, because he's shorter. that's not true at all. he has proved not one PF can outbody him, cuz the guy is so strong.

 

Man, it is just Hayes' shooting habit. It works for him and I don't expect everybody shoots FTs like Novak... His layups though, need some practice.

 

chuck has something Haslem doesnt have, which is 1. faster footspeed 2. the ability to set very good picks 3, the ability to finish layup really fast 4. he knows where to be to get open lay-ups

 

It isn't that Chuck is so strong, it's his low center of gravity that gives him leverage. The problem is even when he has position, players go over his back and snag rebounds from him like he isn't there. Josh Howard made it look easy one time. Chuck, Tim Duncan and Yao all have the same vertical: 2 inches.

 

Yes, and Chuckie should finally get the benefit of the whistle being blown on a lot of that stuff. They go over his back, but most of the time there is plenty of contact. The officials give them the benefit of the doubt because of their size. But there is no way they can go over his back cleanly. Hayes is too consistent and technically perfect on the boxout and getting the contact on his back and keeping his opponent on his back. He is not getting those calls right now. But, they will come as he gets more respect. Opponents simply cannot go over his back clean. Those are over the back loose ball fouls that aren't being called right now.

 

Unless he gets off the ground and initiates contact, the calls may never come. Some of the times this happened were on his non-"energetic" days of the past couple of months (and there were quite a few). With the energy he's shown recently, the other player shouldn't be able to cleanly swipe the ball, which will help emphasize to the refs there was contact between the two players.

 

I will challenge anyone to find video footage of 3 plays in the last 2 seasons where an opponent went over the top of Hayes without creating contact or pushing him off first.

The opponents do not go over him cleanly. And I don't know what you mean by non-"energetic" days. Hayes may have gotten into early foul trouble, but I don't think there is 1 game where he hasn't played hard with a lot of energy. You must be talking of a couple games where he was going 150 miles an hour instead of 200 miles an hour because he was dinged up. Juwan never makes it up to 80.

 

LOL! I'm not saying there isn't contact, it's just that sometimes it looks so easy and the refs doesn't think there was enough contact to call a foul. For the most part Hayes is energetic but he had some complete stinkers in January and February. Hopefully he keeps up the productivity the rest of the season and also avoids the dumb fouls so Juwan can get his beauty rest. It's been so long since you bashed Juwan I had almost forgotten your negative feelings about his play.

 

LOL. Well, I haven't been bashing Juwan because for the most part, he isn't on the court with Yao. My beef with Juwan is and has always been he should not play with Yao. It makes us too slow. I know it seems to be working with Deke, but Deke is a defensive stopper and the top rebounder per minute in the NBA. And we still got toasted by the more uptempo teams with those two. But I still feel that Juwan has no business being on the court with Yao, except for one way halfcourt offensive sets when we need somebody to hit that top of the key jumper. Then, we've got to get a timeout and get one of them out of there.

I do not want to see Juwan teaming up with Yao.