Oh come on, this is basically the same style team where Ming dropped 27 and 20 last year with freakin StouDICKmire playing. The problem that he has and will always have is Mental. He is a mentally weak player that cannot tough it out over the long haul. in games he freakin sux like dog dung is where he loses focuses on everything he does, can't cover a man, can't shoot, can't conmcentrate hard enough to time and hold on to the ball on a rebound, becomes austic and forgets that he is foul prone and takes the dumbest ass fouls With Ming it is ALL Mental- which can be somewhat cured if he sees a SHRINK or the Houston Rockets and their fans stop coddling Him. This guy has had a red carpet treatment since he got to the States. Excuse after excuse was given to him. Management needs to bring him in a room with CD and JVG telling him "Son, you are gonna be traded SOON if you play like an austic boy who won't rebound or block shots becus your too chicken of blue collar work. Earn the MAX or get your ass sent to New orleans or toronto! Kapish?
Some of the centers that are playing better basketball than yao now are: Marcus Camby, Metmut Okur, Zaza Pachulia, Brad Miller, Nened Krstic. All of them have scored more points than yao recently. Notice all of them dont have much post game and they all scored 90% of their points using faceup Jumper! I dont know but since yao cannot establish good position in the post and cant beat the fronting defense, why dont we move him out to the high post and open the lane for DA and Head to penetrate or dish to Stro to dunk??? Yao is definitely better Jump shooter than Camby,Okur Miller etc. Just Change our offensive scheme a little else our offense is so easy to predict!!!! GO ROCKETS GO!!!
Of course he also had a healthy Tmac last year to share the load. It's just unbelievable how Yao alone can not even make a fingerprint on the game.
Hmm...this is quite unusual, a Dallas fan coveting YAO even though you guys repeatedly dog him to be overrated and no good. Why would you want YAO if you guys feel that way about Yao? I even read posts on the MAVS forum where they thought Dampier ALONE was better than Yao. I'm confused....DANG'OL!!!
I didn't watch the game (thank god!). But judging from the stats, here are the positives (bear with me ): 1. The team rebounds well (50-44). I am impressed by the guards: Anderson had 9 and Head had 10. Swift had 12 and 6 of them offensive. 2. The 3-pt shooting is OK (36.8%). There's not much you can do when your opponents shoot 51% behind the arc 3. The guards' performance is stabilizing: Head continues to play well, Anderson kept shooting well, Wesley had 5 assists. The only dissapointing performance came from Yao. But I think he just needed some break after the gruelling schedule from last four games. So overall, I think the team is till on track, just a little slower than needed. I predict Rockets will win at least one game by the end of november, quite possibly 2.
Actually I don't think the Mavs fans think him over-rated and no good at all. I think he's a load. What he isn't is an inside-out player, I would just play him as a guy who isn't a scoring threat, in the Mavs case we wouldn't need another scorer anyway, we'd like for him to just rebound and change shots. He gets more fouls trying to roll to the basket imo.
I suppose everyone here missed the part where Walton continually showed how Yao would get open and then the guards could not or would not pass him the ball but I digress... Seriously, this team is bad because as currently constructed, they simply aren't going to be competative against the better teams in the West Tmac or no TMac. At this point there's nothing much that can be done except wait until the schedule turns back in their favor come December. Then, if they still suck this bad, it will be time to start turning up the heat under JVG, Dawson and the rest of the usual suspects.
Actually, a lot of teams covet Yao -his skill set for a man of his size is very rare. Unfortunately, I don't think his strengths are being taken advantage of here, and he certainly isn't getting any love from Rox fans right now .
If you need Yao strictly for defensive presence and rebounding then DIOP and DAMPIER are better than Yao in that aspect. Yao's strongest suit is his offense. He has finesse around the basket and hits a high percentage on his mid range shots. This where he is most effective. Defense and Rebounds are what we as Rockets Fans have been needing him to improve on.
It's a peculiar mental condition that Dallasites typically suffer from where winning makes you stupid...
I agree Gatorfan that they covet Yao but they covet him for his marketability, not necessarily for his "Dominant Strengths." I think if any team is going to try its hardest to take advatnage of his strengths its us and we would have done it by now. But as Will noted in another thread, this is about as good as Yao can be and I agree with him. Tonite was classic. Yao doesn't get it that despite how much the Suns want to run, he himself just has to make sure he asserts his will and makes them pay consisently. This is how JVG ran his Knicks teams of old with Ewing. At some point, the other team will defer and assume the other's pace and style. To date, that team seems to be us more often than not. theSAGE
I should have qualified that a little bit. I would certainly throw the ball into him, but I wouldn't put nearly the scoring load on him that the Rox do. I'd have him concentrate on defending which I'm sure he can learn to do and rebounding. It seems he's being asked to score so much that he already is gassed and he doesn't pass out of the double-team nearly well enough to be the focus. He also knows that if he's in foul trouble the team is done as there isn't much behind him. With TMAC out there at least someone else can carry the offensive load but without him, nada. In the Mavs case there would be a lot more scoring options. Not to say I'm not liking Diop/Damp combo, I'm starting to like it a lot, but Yao is a heck of a load down there.
Well i'm quite disappointed in his disappearing act for the whole game tonight rather than for the usual 2nd half this season. True, season is still early and things could and probably will turn around, but the bottom line is, fans have been preaching for 4 years now how YAO is not used according to his strengths. So how exactly would his strenghts be brought out? JVG is not likely to have Yao stay home on Defense (which relegates Yao to chasing guards all over the place and committing tired fouls). Yao continues to set stupid PICKS for our guards who don't even use them properly. Why the heck can't our PF's only set picks and have Yao flash the baseline on offense? I loved JVG for turning it around last year, but this year, it's a clean slate and we're back to square 1 again.
In the mavs case for example Yao would get most of his points (IMO) from taking a 12-15 footer after a guard penetrates or a dish off from penetration. Not where he has to battle as much for low post position and be the man by himself.
Well outside of Tmac, our guards simply aren't playing smart ball right now. Hope this turns around. Just curious, are you a rockets fan also?
