Has Yao been reduced to role player?

The person you just described sounds like Allan Houston, Mike Dunleavy, Grant Hill and a number of other talented, pampered basketball stars who've been raised in a loving and caring family environment since they were little so they lacked the hunger that come with having a poor childhood.

 

for yao to be more than a role player, he need to keep his ass on the floor.

a) when your clearly f'n beat, then don't f'n still try to block the shot. and if you do, throw your body into it, knock the guy's ass to the floor and let him think about it next time.

b) let him play through. if he's only going to play 20 minutes then it doesn't matter what twenty minutes he plays. deke does a good enough job so there's no situational need to save yao's fouls.

c) refs--if you don't want yao ming to play basketball, then f'n come out and say it, don't do none of that anytime yao touches someone it's a foul bull****.

 

Great players can be a little thuggish. Hakeem had it, Sampson didn't. As humble and nice as he was, Hakeem got into his fair share of fights. Shaq and Barkley aren't considered thugs, but they fought each other. And...you always hear Shaq say things like "he better not come down the lane, or I'll be putting the hurtin" or whatever. There's a certain pride those guys take....a certain level of ego where there's something more then field goal percentage and playing correctly.

I don't know if a soft life makes a player soft. Webber certainly appears to have that softness as well...but then again, Webber was nearly an MVP for a year or two.

 

Let me ask you this. You think that Yao should shoot more outside shots, right? That's what you are saying, right? That he should be more like Tmac. More guard-like, right?

Yao's use on offense is to be a center in the post mainly. His shots in the post are very effective (55%+). It's not like he's missing many of those inside shots. His offense has been good lately. So, do you think that having Yao shoot more 15-18ft shots, would make his FG% go up, or down? Hmmm?????

I'd guess he'd have company with the guards if they were having a cool shooting night. How do you think that would effect our inside-out balance?

So, let say that we did what you ask....and have Yao facing up and taking more outside shots. How would this prevent Deke replacing Yao when he's picked up fouls on defense? How?

I think what is happening, is that you are trying to ignore that fouls is *more* a frustraion to Yao (not being on the court) than it is on this perception that Yao is being held back by not shooting more outside outs. Not shooting more outside shots is NOT what's making him frustated. Fouls and not being on the court is what's making Yao frustrated.

Do you think that merely saying the words *limiting Yao's role to the post* that those words jump out and attack Yao into being frustrated?

You are trying to make us *think* that's what Yao is frustrated at. You are trying to put some sort of relationship on this. I just don't see it. Yao is happy when he's on the floor and hiting his jumphooks, dunks, rebounds, blockshots, passing and FT. All those things contribute to the team! We need those things, in the post! We need those things from Yao a heck a lot more than we need Yao shooting jumpers and NOT getting rebounds. And we need those things a lot more than Yao fouling on defense and sitting on the bench. Do you understand?

I think this is more about Panda's frustration/belief that Yao should be the leader, not Tmac.

And even if we did make a *minor* change to Yao's offense, he'd still have to STAY ON THE FLOOR to DO THOSE THINGS. And Deke would still replace him if he got in foul trouble. And Yao would be just as frustrated.

So, not much would change. Your suggestions don't really address the root cause of the problem. You are just treating the symptoms. And a *major* change to Yao's offense would case more problems than it would solve.

 

Dude......its the refs that cause Yao to have bad games on many nights (not all but many)...
In the Dallas game he realistically should have only had 3-4 fouls, half the ones that were called were crap fouls where the offensive player drew contact. So when the refs take Yao out of his game I wouldn't blame or accuse Yao of anything..

 

Oh please, let's not blame the ref's for Yao's underacheiving.

If Yao played with more fire and dominance, the ref's would let him get away with a lot more anyway.

 

Yao has been playing with more fire and dominance lately. What did that accomplish? A whistle on the very first play of the game. Then Yao takes 3 shots soon thereafter, which was good. He was into the game at that point, even though he only made 1 of the 3. I was happy with that. About 3 minutes later, he's hit with another very weak foul. Let's face it: taking Yao out of the game is the great equalizer. We are rolling, we take a big lead on the road, and boom, suddenly they start calling weak crap on Yao.

We saw it all year long. On the road against a crappy eastern team, Yao got into foul trouble in I'd say 75% of the games. Sometimes it was legit, and a ton of times it's just a bunch of weak crap. He's the easy target, he's big, he's slow, and he doesn't raise a stink or complain. If I'm a ref trying to keep the home team into the game, why wouldn't I call a bunch of BS fouls on Yao? He goes to block Dickau's shot, just blow the whistle, it's too easy.

The 2nd looseball foul was so ridiculous that I don't even know what happened. You tell Yao to dominate, but then they call that crap when he does nothing but seal off his man? This game was like the Olympics all over again. Those refs called Duncan for so many questionable loose-ball fouls just to give the other team a chance. The refs will let Yao play when we get back to Houston, then we will see some domination.

 

Joey Crawford has been in a bad mood against Yao since he refereed a Chinese national team's game in World Basketball Tournament of 2002.

 

Yao is a star. He averages 18 and 9. That puts him solidly into that category between "super star" and "role player."

Funny how that category gets so wildly ignored. People like to create a complete dichotomy between those guys like McGrady and Bob Sura. But there's a class in between, populated by guys like Yao Ming and Manu Ginobli.

 

Eh . . . forgive me, but I'm back to thinking about trading Yao. The playoffs are where you show the world what you're really made of. Your heart, your brains, or lack thereof. I see several guys in red stepping it up, and one guy stepping on his ****.

Let's go as far as we can this year. If Yao raises his game, we can win it all. If he doesn't, maybe McGrady can get us far enough to raise Yao's perceived value to where we can get a frontcourt superstar in exchange. We need somebody who shows up when the money's on the line. If that's you, Mr. Yao, prove it.

 

Top heavy....no balance....and bad hands.

How does he counter this?

Specialized training, IMO for his lower body, not his top. And, as you said, better technique by holding the ball over his head. I've never seen a center bring the ball down as much as Yao. I think he does that because of his bad balance.

 

WOW Will!

I can understand being supremely frustrated with Yao's inconsistency, but trade him?!!

Unless it is KG or Duncan, I wouldn't even contemplate it. In fact, I am not even sure I would do it for KG.

Yao is undeniably the most frustrating player to watch, really because we are all expecting him to be "Great", to live up to the expectations of a future max-contract player, and because we want to win it all one day with him and McGrady. Even as frustrating as SF3 was I still didn't want to trade him, but when it happened and we got T-Mac, I made an exception since we clearly came out on top in that trade.

I am not sure if I would be willing to give up on Yao after only 3 seasons in the league. Talk to me in 2 more seasons and I might have changed my mind by then, but I am confident he will be great by then.

 

Yao is a ROLE player until YAO decides to NOT be a role player.

It is all up to the big fella, when he takes off that dress he has been wearing and decides to play tough, then and only then will he be more than a role player.

Look at 77 year old Mutombo, he brings it...Yao needs to take some lessons, he could be SO much more if he just tried to.

DD

 

Excellent Post!

 

Is it possible for Yao to get quicker while maintaining his current weight? If it is, then he'll definitely be great some day. But if he's going to play at the same speed as he is right now, or needs to lose weight in order to become quicker, then he'll always be in between role player and star player.

 

Even I'll give the guy more then one game...

but I don't think trading Yao is out of the question. Ultimately, if you can get a player that fits in better with this team, and let's face it, right now Yao might not fit into this team that well - then I think you have to consider it.

Right now, though, you want to give the guy a bit more time....and I say a bit more time as in another year.

 

Ok,

Let's not jump the gun here, Yao takes a TON of pressure off of McGrady and the rest of the permeter players, even when he is not scoring he is getting open looks for teamates.

Yao is not as good as he could be, but he DOES fit this team.

DD