Mobley talked with the Kings radio announcer after the game. Some of his comments (reproduced as best as I can): On his shooting in the 2nd: "Had to be patient because both his ankles were sprained...took what the defense gave him" On beating the Kings: "With respect to the Kings, since they're a great team, we gotta defend our home court" On Yao: "He has great heart and he's modest. He does so much for the game and the team." He really stepped us for us in the 4th. In the 2nd, i made the shots. In the 3rd was Steve making the shots. In the 4th, it was YAO-TIME!" Compared with Dream (when Cat played with him): "Dream was more aggressive tonight but Yao passes the ball BETTER. No disrespect to Dream but Yao just passes the ball better" I didn't catch the game on TV but everyone was raving about his passing. I remember Dream being a pretty good passer in the championship years and until late in his career. What do you guys think...Is Yao a better passer than Dream?
Go to espn.com and view the highlights. There is a pass from EG into Ming in the post and Ming just swats the ball quickly - it looks like he reached for it and missed because I wasn't paying attention but he just cupped it and swung it right at Francis as he was driving baseline for a reverse layup. It was sweet and sounds much more complicated than it was in real-life.
man!! that pass to Steve have to be on this weeks NBA action!!! that is just so sweet..... how the hell did he manage to find Steve.....
yao ming is far and away a better passer than hakeem was at this stage of his career. dream worked on that as he did everything else and became a great passer. yao does it incredibly on instinct. wow.
Olajuwon eventually developed into a good passer out of the double-teams. What's so striking about Yao is that his court awareness at age 22 is phenomenal. The Moochie pass was sweet, indeed. It's funny, but most of the camera angles shown don't do it justice. He didn't just drop it off to Mooch, he actually no-looked it while leading him. The slap-pass to Stevie was Pistol Pete-like. Dream developed into a good passer out of necessity. He was doubled and tripled during the prime of his career. Ming seems to love to make the pass. His court vision and the instinctive anticipation of where his teammates are in relation to his making the pass are above Hakeem's. To help illustrate his passing proficiency, look at how many times Yao threads the needle when a teammate cuts backdoor and the teammate isn't even looking for the pass -- because most big guys in the league wouldn't even THINK about making it, much less pulling it off. Cuttino said straight up that Yao was a better passer than Dream. I would have to agree.
Dream was really never known for his passing other than throwing the ball back out to an open man. He was never a flashy or even a very good passer. He was horrible early in his career and became much better later in his career. On advantage Ming has is that he's about 6-7 inches taller than Dream was. But then the fact that Hakeem was only about 6-10 1/2 or 6'11" tall makes it even more incredible the stuff he used to do. Anyway, I agree Ming is instinctually a better passer than Hakeem.
It seems like most foriegn centers are good passers .... I guess technically Dream is a foreign center too, but you know what I mean. I love dream, but Cat has a point. I never saw dream make a pass like the one to steve, it was j kidd-esque.
My once interest in acquiring a point forward type for this team is now officially dead, dead, dead. We have every reason to run the offense through Yao. Get the ball to Yao in the high post or the low post. The possibilities from there are endless.
Ming is definately a better passer than Dream. One big reason is that Hakeem started playing basketball so late. His first Bball games were at University of Houston. Considering how late he started, he did excellent in passing out of double teams in his prime and late in his career. But his passes were very mechanical. You could tell he followed Rockets game plan and the players knew where they had to be and he knew how to spot players in those open spots. There was nothing flashy about it. Ming has an advantage in this area. He has been playing ball for a while now. And he has always been "the man" for all the teams he has played so far, and thus, been commanding double teams. He has had lot more years under his belt passing the ball to open teammates and, it shows. And yes, his passes are more natural and within the flow in the game. To sum it all up. Hakeem was an excellent passer in inside-outside game but he would make a very poor passer in motion offense. His lack of passing insticts would hinder a motion offense. Ming has the capability and the instincts to pass well in both offensive schemes, motion, and inside-outside. If Rockets were to utilize both motion offense and inside one and run it all thru Ming, it would make it a nightmare for opposition to predict and stop them. Just imho, of course.
Dream was a member of the Nigerian junior national team and played with the regular national team for awhile. His first game was [n]not[/b] at U of H
I agree. His on-court IQ is refined and polished. It makes you wonder why all 7 footers don't have that giraffe-like advantage...
Beautiful! You nailed it! While watching the game, I almost jumped into the ceiling fan when he made the pass to Francis. I watched as many highlight shows as I could after the game and that one and the pass to Moochie were shown alot. On one show, they played the one to Francis THREE times in a row(slower each time). After the third time the guy simply said, " sick ".
He he he he You got that right. It was only when Hakeem's assists outnumbered his TO's that Rockets became a real force. He was literally shamed into passing out of double and triple teams after defenses continually stripped him of the ball. He was not the instinctive passer Yao is. This guy is blossoming in front of our eyes and will change the game. I don't think we've really seen anything yet re. how good he is going to be....now that's scary! Dallas Rocket
Can someone please post a link to highlight video of that pass! I am dying to watch it... Preferably not RealVideo, but I will settle for that. Thanks, Soulsong999
