He missed ALL of last year, significant time several years before. The guy is 7 foot 6, he's going to have more health problems as he gets older, especially if he continues playing in China over the summer (this is the first summer he didn't). He isn't going to get any faster, any stronger... what you see is what you get from Yao from now on.
Love doesn't even measure a legit 6'10, I don't think any slasher would find him intimidating what's so ever! Long story short, the guy is not a center! ......
The guy can rebound, get steals, run the offense. Adelman's good centers/PF tweeners have always had these 3 characteristics.
He will have his minutes increased by playoff time. Do you come on here at all and read the articles about Yao increasing his minutes progressively throughout the season? Maybe you just live under a rock?
I don't know about far from done -- he's very fragile, and an injury to his foot would likely force him into retirement. He has trouble elevating to grab boards, and he's clumsier than Clark Griswold. But, as of right now, he's the center of the future. His recovery is going to take time, people. He underwent serious surgery, and expectations of him immediately returning to his '08 form are unreasonable. He's still very effective when he establishes deep position in the paint, and I remember one specific instance in the Minny game when Yao caught the ball in a dominant position, Martin's defender collapsed for the double, and Yao kicked it to K-Mart for the three. It was beautiful, and it punctuated Morey's vision for this team when he traded for Martin. I watched the play 2-3 times, and after Martin's swish, the FSN cameras zoomed in on his face and he had this smirk on his face as if he realized the true potential of RA's offense with a healthy Yao Ming.
You don't think the guy will get hurt or at least have a setback? He just admitted to not being 100% a few days ago and he's only playing 24 minutes a game.
Wait, you guys realize that the whole reason he's only playing 24 minutes is so he CAN play 32+ in the playoffs right?
I stopped reading the original post after the first sentence. Does the BBS need to maintain some kind of daily average number of idiotic thread starts per day?
He is just getting back his health and improving his basketball skills. Did you expect him to play 32+ minutes a night and average 20 and 10 in his first few games? Yao will be 100% by mid-season and he will have increased minutes by then. Plus he will be in basketball shape by then too. (reacting to rebounds, timing his passes right, and adapting to the overall flow of the game) It is not fair for you to judge Yao so harshly when he has only played 4 games after coming off of major foot surgery. Give the dude a season and then evaluate him.
See, that is assuming that he will fully recover. We have so much hope in the guy, and for good reasons; He's a hard-working guy and a likeable person. But at a certain point, everybody needs to realize that he's only going to last at max 3 more years.
So what, we just give up our chances at a title and start rebuilding now? Let's just waste his three years then.
Do we really have a LEGIT chance a title this year? I think the 2nd round of the playoffs is maybe the farthest we will get..
