Tmac got the green light because he was able and mobile enough to get his OWN SHOT. Yao is a different type of player. He can't bring the ball up and setup other player. He's a center. He's slow. And once he gets the ball it's not like he's going to go ISO-and drive on a pick and roll (set by Spoon). You can't do that with him. So, green light for TMac is something different when you talk about Yao. Yao shooting more 15 foot jumpers is all I see he could do more of. But Yao still has to play defense. And Yao still has to set picks. And Yao still has to help us rebound. Those tasks will never change. At this point, we're in the play-offs. Lets see how he does in the next game. And if he fouls out or sits on the bench. Please don't come tell me that he's frustrated because of his role. That's what players all do. He would be frustrated becaue he fouled out. If he doesn't have fouls problems in the next few games, all will be fine. Yao with 18-20/10 would be great. That's 2-3 fouls, and hitting shots, and getting rebounds. And that would be after playing the exact same role that he's been doing for the year. I have no problem with him shooting more 15ft shots either. BUT!!!!! If he has NO fouls and is missing shots, misssing rebounds and fumbling passes. That's Yao fault! And there's not much we can do about it. And of course he'll be frustrated....just for a different reason. Those things would happen even if we expanded his role. Except he'd be missing 15ft shots instead of 5ft jumphooks.
Largly agreed, I also hope his passing will have more effect than it is now, other than his jump shooting. Yao should still be mainly a post up threat, but mix things up a little won't hurt, and when the guards aren't shooting well, make him available as an outside option (since post play under cold guards shooting is less effective).
Though by no means I am trying to say Yao did well in game 1, it is true that Yao is probably one of the most closely watched and criticized NBA players. I don't know if this is due to such a large expectation of him or if like Van Gundy said before, many people built him up to tear him down. Amare today produced 9 points, 10 rebounds, 5 fouls in 30 minutes vs Memphis, but I don't see as much bashing and people saying to trade him. Same goes to Dirk. People got mad at him for his performance in game 1, but nobody suggested a trade.
Exactly. You can't judge a player by just 1 game. Tim Duncan has a subpar performance by missing all the shots in 4th quarter and lost the game. Should he be traded?
well at least DavidS isnt a YOH. Then agin, i havent seen a good YOF v YOH flamefest in a while. please unban lancet, him and patlabor1 could go at it for hours
The difference is that all Amare's fouls are smart fouls but all Yao's fouls are dumb fouls. During the game chat, everytime when Yao fouled, you would see everyone yell 'dumb foul!', including some people who admittedly were not watching the game. Between the foul and people doing that, I don't know which is more dumb.
What the hell? People do know that Yao had (count them) 3 BS loose ball fouls called against him right? Yeah I know the whole over the back argument. Well guess what, I didn't see it (or more precisely, I didn't see him do it more than anybody else) last game.
Compare the loose ball fouls he got with the plays that weren't being called in the Denver game. That game was a physical war. Kmart and Camby were literally grabbing Duncan's jersey while he was shooting. That is how the playoffs are supposed to be. I am confident that we would dominate the series if the refs let the players play out there. Of course, any time it's Dallas or Sac, then we gotta deal with ticky tack calls that protect Dirk, and formerly Nash.
Ok, let's see. Shaq played 37 minutes with 17pts & 11rb, only one of that is on the offensive glass, and everyone is talking about Shaq dominating the Nets, even though Wade had 32/5/8, a better line than TMac? Yao was doing very well on the board and on defense, getting 8 board in 20 minutes, changed many shots. On offense, he scored enough points when he had the ball. He could do more on offense, both by his teamates passing him the ball more when he was open, and by reducing his own foul. But, overall, Yao played a decent game with the limited minutes he played. During the first game, we went to TMac >90% of the time except when James was on the court, then he took the matter into his own hand. Yao had many good opportunities in the post, but his teamates weren't able to get the ball to him in time. Initially, I thought that's the game plan by JVG, to use Yao as a decoy. But in the post game comments, JVG stressed that we need to "seek" Yao more, which tells me that he wasn't happy with the way our guards distributing the ball. Since we won the game, the Mavs didn't have an answer to the curl play, where we ran TMac across multiple screens, and use Yao/Deke to PnR with him, we ran that play over and over again. There is no reason to complain about not getting the ball to Yao more. Now, the Mavs will make an adjustment, try to take the ball away from TMac, it's time to explore the other options, that be Yao get more opportunities down low, and make the most out of it. If Yao can get going early, then it will open up everything for our primeter players, the Mvs will be in for a long night.
You know, Will, I had a really strong feeling that this could become a Clutch Classic Moment as soon as you posted this. I would have said so at the time, but honestly, I wasn't 100% sure that Yao would respond like he did. Glad that he proved us both wrong.
