I felt the same way. Yao gotta make a statement. You can let whimps like Bradley push you around. A sharp elbow to Bradley's chin will send a message. Someone please toughen that kid up.
These predictions always change. When someone struggles you think he'll never be more than a 15 and 8 guy. When someone plays well, you bump it to a 18/11. If he starts playing even better they'll say he'll peak at 22/12. These are all rolling predictions. People predict based on what they see now. They imagine a learning curve and a ceiling. Remember when Shawn Kemp first came into the league or Glenn Robinson. People thought these guys would just dominate for years. Who cares about predictions because they have no cause and effect relationships with what will happen.
I think he can be a 24 and 10 guy. Actually he can be a 24 and 12 guy. The only thing he is missing is the explosion to the basket that Hakeem had ad Shaq has. They just easily outjumped or outmuscled their opponents a lot of the time. Yao doesn't do that as much. But he still has too much talent for me to think he will peak at 18 ppg.
Genius.. Look at his games post All Star break. Its true he scored only 12 in Phoenix but dont you remember the prior game against the Lakers where he scored 24?? And he just scored 18. 24, 14 Lakers 12, 12 Suns 18, 12 Mavs AVERAGE POST ALL STAR- 18 points, 13.3 rebounds
What about the month of January, when Yao scored under 10 points? That wasn't that long ago. You can't look at a few games after the all-star break. You have to look at season averages.
Those of you thinking Yao lacks aggression are completely wrong, imo. Sure, he still needs more of it, but from what I've seen the last few games he is a true competitor. He started the season a little timid because, well, he's a rookie and just getting settled in. As for last nights game, you've got to give Shawn Bradley his props. He did a great job defensively and surprisingly on offense too.
Sean Elliot is a punk ass with no credibility to say anything. He never won crap. He delighted last night at bashing Yao and everyone I watched the game with here in NY, who were not Rocket's fans by the way, were extremely annoyed by him. He was probably still bothered by that 27 and 18 Yao dropped on his boy Robinson. Further, his general game comments were completely ridiculous. ESPN has third tier "talent" calling games. Even their play by play guy completely sucked.
Why didn't Yao Ming go out? He didn't ever try to contest his shot. He let Shawn Bradley make 5 shots from the same exact place. That is terrible. But anyway, Yao Ming won't have many blocks in the future. Everyone will be too afraid to go inside...they won't challege Yao. Many teams will focus on stopping Yao. That's why the rest of our team has to help. And hopefully Yao can adjust and find ways to score.
Try 21ppg, 15rpg, 3.5apg, and 3bpg. We already know that Yao will get stronger (on offense). But, with that strength, comes better rebounding! It's a guarantee.
Check you facts my fren. Sean was an important part of the Spurs 1999 championship season. He hit big shots after big shots especially in the Portland series (I believe) and in the Championship series. All this with a defected kidney. Visagial, it obvious to me that you not been following Sean enough this season. Sean "shrines" Yao but he was trying very hard not to be a "Walton" last Friday. All what he said was geared towards making Yao unstopable. For those who think Yao is not aggressive please watch a few games before coming back to post. Like someone else mentioned, his progress has been steady and getting better. My favorite play this week was after Kobe posterized Yao, Yao came back at the other end and show us something special - he made Madson pay (unfortunately ESPN did not show this in the highlights). Post ASG Yao has showed a a great amount of aggressive and you can take it to the bank that yao WILL DEFINITELY GET EVEN MORE NASTLY down low. I believe Greg Anthony is a good analyst and he wasn't spot on in his prediction. IMO, Yao will be a DOMINANT player not necessarily in numbers but in his effect on his team in general. Next year Yao will average at least; 20ppg, 10rpg, 3apg, 2.5bpg. I cannot complain about that.
Geez you guys are asses when anyone says anything that is not a rave review about Yao. Yao played bad last night in my opinion. I don't know how he scored 18 and got 11 boards. He was constantly taken advantage of in the post and he made Bradley look like Hakeem playing defense on him. Yao played like a wimp last night and he deserved the criticism. I was getting mad at Yao last night. He could have backed down Bradley all night, but he didn't. It's like he was afraid to initiate the contact and it was really bothering me last night. Anyhow, if you asses didn't notice Greg Anthony also said Yao will be a big force and an all-star for years to come. It's not like the guy said Yao was going to be a bust or something. He has no reason after watching Yao last night to think he will be a dominating force in the league. Analysts and people on this BBS tend to have their opinions influenced after one game so calm the hell down. One more thing, I think Sean Elliot is pretty good announcer.
Oh please. Compared to whom? He's another typical go with the flow announcer who has no insight other than saying the obvious. It's not a coincedence that ex-coaches generally make the best commentators.
Give Bradley and the Mavs credit. They played very good, physical defense on Yao. Bradley managed to hold Duncan to 10 points the previous night. Considering that, I don't think Yao played that poorly. And in the second half, Yao was definitely not afraid of taking it inside. Pretty much every shot he took was inside where there were usually 3 Mavs trying to stop him.
Also it's not like Bradley pulled a number on just Yao, he played well against the whole Rocket team. Not only stuffing Yao, but Francis and Posey as well. I didn't see many other Rocket players attack the basket after that.
Thanks for bring this up. Even an ESPN analyst said something like playing Yao bring out the best in Shawny. Apparently it is not only Yao that does it for Shawny - shutting the best player in the NBA, Tim Duncan, was simply illegal (though Duncan left early due to injury). Anyway though Yao will basically get a free ride this year like any other Rookie. Next year he should make sure he puts Shawny in his place.
Yao right now is a 16-9 player. If you look his http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?playerId=1722 game log and throw away his January numbers when he hit the rookie wall, he is playing like 16-9. How do you project from 16-9? If Yao can improve his lateral movement, his rebounds can be up to 11 or more which is what Greg Anthony predicted. His points number is more tricky to predict, but it should depend on the number of shots he takes. Throwing away his numbers before December and the January number, He is averaging around 10-11 shots per game, 5 out of 6 FTs while averaging 16 points. If Yao can average 15-16 shots per game while maintaining the .500 FGA, he should average around 24 points with 8 from FTs. But can he get 15-16 shots/game??? Look, when he is playing well in December and February, he only averages 35 min/game, that's because his conditioning is not good. Realistically speaking, he can average 37 min/game or more when he is 100%. So 15-16 shots/game is not really out of reach. Even If he gets 14 shots/game, his scoring average should be around 20-21 points/game. So I would say definitely Yao will average more than 20 poins/game when he hits his prime. In comparison, Shaq is averaging 17.5 shots per game with a 25.8 points average. Duncan takes 18 shots/game with 23.4 points average. Garnett takes 17.8 shots with 22.9 points average. J. O'neal takes 16 shots with 20 points average. P. Gasol takes 12.7 shots with 18.4 points average.
