I agreed that because of Yao's lack of stamina, he looks soft at occassions on the court. I absolutely do not think he shys away from physical contact. He has shown he can hold his own guarding Shaq one on one, even though he's being totally outmatched by Shaq, he does not back away. We all know he rejects tons of shot by Physical player that try to full force dunk on Yao. (The one rejection to Antonio Davis and make him sit on his ass in shock come to mind) (That done over Ben Wallace by bang bang, boom is all about physical power) Yao is not soft by my standard, he took a lot of cheap shots and elbows in the paint this season, if he's soft and shys away from physical contact you will notice him shy away from getting post position. Sometimes he does not get good post position not because he's soft, because he does not have the strength yet to move aside his defender like Shaq does with his big butt. Personally, I would like to see Yao mix his dunks with layup or finger roll, the game is more fun to watch that way.
You raise an interesting point here. It appeared to me that as the season passed, Yao did not show much improvement while playing under Rudy T's "system". In fact, it could be argued that the level of his play actually declined. Now this can be attributed to a variety of factors: fatigue, playing with NBA "invalids" to quote someone on this BBS, facing defenses designed specifically to stop him and, of course, poor coaching. Whatever the reason, his play did tail off at the end of the season. I place the lion's share of the blame on Rudy T's system. For example, when teams began to "bracket" Yao to force him to give up the ball, Rudy appeared to have no answer - he simply kept forcing the ball into the low post ala Hakeem. In fact, to me, his plays for Yao looked almost identical to the ones designed for Hakeem. The problem is that Yao is not Hakeem - he doen't have the same footwork. Nor does he have the strength (yet) to power through the double teams. Finally, he's playing against zone defenses that were illegal in Hakeem's day. The solution to this defense was to have Yao turn and face the basket and shoot medium range jump shots which he's capable of doing - which is how he plays on the Chinese National team. You'd then have a 7' 6" center who can play inside on the low post and hit from the outside. That's a killer! Yet, under Rudy T, all we got was Yao getting pummeled while playing one dimensional ball on the low post. No wonder he was worn down by season's end. Yao soft? Not in my book!
Hillboy, I don't think it's Rudy's fault, although I agree that Rudy has not adjusted to the new defensive rule very well ("still in denial" to quote Will's statement in another time). It's the whole mentality of American basketball. If you are big, you stay down low and never ever come out. If a big guy comes outside, he's wasting his size and who is going to get the offensive rebounds? Well, we happen to have a little rebounder called Francis who is pretty good at 6'3". Why can't their roles be reversed from time to time. Instead of Steve jacking up shots and Yao going for the rebound, how about Yao jacking up some outside shot and let Steve go for the rebound? It seems like, whenever a tall player likes to shoot from the outside, he is immediately labelled "soft" (e.g. Nowitzki, Garnett). If a big player is a good outside shooter, why can't he be used as such? If staying outside is wasting his size, isn't staying inside wasting his shot too?
Not all finesse players are considered soft. Dream had the most finesse of any post player in the history of basketball but no one would consider him soft. Soft players are player that would rather settle for a jump even when going strong to the hoop would produce better dividends. DRob is described soft because when the insensity heats up, he settles for jumpshot even when he has a good post game. He plays like he is afraid of the contact. That is the same criticism of Webber. Webber has a good post game but when the game is on the line he jacks up fadeaways. example of hard post players (guys that are willing to mix it up: Dream Moses McHale Parish Lambier Shaq Ewing Example of soft post players Drob Webber When describing guards, it is when a guard would rather take a jumpshot even when he has a clear lane to the basket. Ray Allen is like this sometimes. He has a great jumpshot, but sometimes he passes up a high percentage shot to avoid contact. Even though Reggie Miller is a jumpshooter, he isn't afraid to take it the hole and put his body on the line. examples of hard guards Iverson Jordan Marbury Francis Drexler Kobe Payton examples of soft guards Ray Allen Vince after the injury
That's because Rudy idea of coaching is, go one-on-one. "Who needs plays!? Just run around like a chicken with your head cut off!" That's why when Yao would get the ball in the post, no players would cut. They'd just stand around the 3-point line.
I think if you are a good shooter, it may be better to take a wide open jumper than driving the lane because the lane in an NBA game is rarely wide open. Going to the hoop does not necessarily mean a higher percentage shot (think Francis with all those boneheaded mad drive to the hoop). It takes a quick first step plus enough athletic ability and speed to be able to have successful drives. Some players simply don't have that kind of physical ability. Preferring to shoot an open shot rather than driving the lane does not always mean "soft." It could just mean the player is a better shooter than a penetrator (e.g. Allen, Peja). For inside players, of course dunking is a higher percentage shot than a fadeaway. But it assumes that the player is able to get into dunking position. Sometimes getting into dunking position maybe less successful than hitting a fadeaway, depending on the strength and footwork of the player.
Dragon, Easy summed it up better than I in a previous post. But I did want to make one comment regarding Yao's jump-balls. I've noticed a lot of play-by-play announcers or commentators say they were puzzled why Yao wasn't not starting at center court (for the jump-ball) and instead Rudy used Eddie Griffin. They also noticed that Yao looses a lot of jump-balls, to shorter players. The reason for this is three-fold... What make a good jumpballer/rebounder!? 1) Jumping quickness (explosiveness), not necessarily jumping height. 2) Body Height (head to toe) 3) Arm length (shoulder to finger tip) Yao is tall. But, Yao is a slow jumper and has short arms. 2 out of 3 are not good for Yao. And that's why he's NOT a good jump balls (and rebounds for his height).
Did you guys ever see YaoMing's a totally different player after being abused by someone? The Ratliff dunk, Big Ben block, Kobe facial.... in the next 60-90 seconds Yao was burned, boosted, energized and evilized! That's the TRUE YaoMing inside him. That's the damn tough 7'5" center who will bring you couple of trouphies. Yes, those were just flashes. Most of the time, Yao is a good boy. But you know what, he isn't. This season I think he actually tried to be a rookie, a soft guy. That's just what asian people do. When they don't know you well, they try to be nice. They don't have that much streest character at the beginning. BUT.... look out, when Yao gets totally comfortable with the NBA, he will become a cocky, tough and proud fighter. I said it because I know what he was like in his CBA season and the way he talked to Chinese media. In next 2-3 years, he will be comfortable here. Next time, don't be surprised when EPSN reports Yao called himself OSK- the Only Shaq Killer.
I think you might be right. From the Chinese interviews he can be downright sarcastic. He can't be that way here in the USA because he's new and he's a guest. By the way, I've seen Yao come right back on someone after getting dunked on many times this year (like you said). The last game with Memphis, they tried to get the ball to him after being dunked-on, but we ran out of time. No matter. We won the game.
