Well, if you people visit Chinese web sites, you'll know Big Yao is facing big dilemma:- On offense, he is pitched against some rough and tough plays by the Utah Jazz. He had to play against that physical and tough and at the same time with Oscar-winning potential flopper Mehmet Okur, who got escaped with alot of elbowing, shovelling, pushing, pulling and flopping. Okur also got great help defense by his team mates that caused alot of turnovers or missed shots from Big Yao outside of his comfort zone. On defense, he had one of the toughest assignment against a shorter but undeniably one of the best power forwards in the league, Carlos Boozer. He rebounded (illustrated by a play-off career 12 rpg record), blocked, altered shots, but simply could not handle Boozer all on his own without the other Rockets providing him help defense. And he played with new scratches/bruises on his arms, a bleeding toe, and bruised knee caused by those physical and dirty plays of the Utah Jazz players. Yet, despite his poor shooting %, his poor stamina (particularly tough while playing away in Salt Lake City), the big fella showed guts, heart, passion and determination, and is still the most consistent player on this team, contributing 24/12 day-in day-out in this series so far. We just need to be patient..... the BEST Yao Ming has yet to come !!
Yeah I love Yao but I think he's slower than pre-injury as well.. I loved his baseline SPIN MOVE before when he'd dunk on players with an And-1, but now I rarely see him do that. I don't think he has the quickness he had before. I hope this isnt permanent and he'll recover 100%.. And return to his dominant form after this summer's rest.. Hope so We love you Yao!
yeah he is definitely slower. seems like he'd be recovered by now, but it's probably something that will require a summer of sufficient rest to get him back to 100%. looking at his highlights earlier in the year, he looks like dream compared to the guy out there now. he's putting up numbers and he's still clearly a very good player, but i hope that other yao comes back again.
i wish he was back to 100% but i doubt he will be this year. just too many nagging injuries, but i guess that is seeming like it will always be an issue with yao.
Excuses sound good if you don't look them closely, but a) Yao single covered by Okur. ----> Yao shot badly, Yao loses on offense. b) Boozer single covered by Yao----> Boozer is killing, Yao loses on defense. c) consistant 24/12. on POOR %. <----that's a biggest hole in his game. Any excuses for Yao 's jump shooting maniac for the WHOLE season at 40%?
It's definitely not only the shooting and spin moves. I'd say he's not even 50/100 back. I am a great Yao fan and i know how well he had performed in the start of the season. So, i'd say he's not even close to what he was, but we will get him back, eventually, cuz he's Yao afterall
To me he looks just a step slower particularly on defensive rotations pre-injury. But I think considering how many games he missed, he has gotten remarkably close to his pre-injury self in an impressively short time.
He is not as quick and his cardio is way down. What do you expect comparing months of preparing for the season to a few days of running before he went back on the court.
But they seem to call the offensive ones on Yao. Hopefully we can overcome the officiating again in game 6.
Yao looks slower because he is hesitating, he needs to be more decisive and make his moves right away. It is all in his head....he is healthy, he just needs to believe in himself completely and he will be 100% back. DD
I miss Yao's classic spin move so much, to see Yao is 100% back or not, just see how his spin move works.
1) he is not back to his early year form, and is incapable of achieving it at this point in the season due to the demand being put on his body already... 2a) Utah is in his head a bit... 2b) This is because they are getting away with all the vintage Utah cheap shots in the post. Even Hakeem struggled to dominate against physically overmatched opponents in Utah, because they do all the little dirty things to take you out of your comfort zone. grabbing elbows, uprooting, flopping on contact...page 1 of the Utah defensive playbook. it's nothing new, and nothing to get overly worked up about. you just have to be mentally tough and overcome.
You have got to give a lot of credit to the referees and how they fall for all the flops...I mean they do a marvelous job of calling BS fouls for Jerry Sloan teams since the early 90's. If it weren't for the BS calls they call on Yao, he might be getting more points. I think he is back I just think that it's still not being called fairly and hasn't been called fairly since Jerry Dumbass Sloan started complaining. We should have an all "Whiners" team because Jerry Sloans teams would sweep the awards every year. BTW I was being sarcastic about the refs if nobody got that.
Agreed, I don't think the injury is the problem any more, he's not even wearing the elastic blue and black brace on the knee, hasn't in some time. He'd be wearing it if he/doctors/trainers thought the knee was still even slightly injured and not 100%. The main keys here are 3 things IMO: 1. Cardio is down from the time off, nothing gets you in NBA game shape besides playing more games (per T-Mac) 2. Joint is still "weak, tired, fatigued" from the surgery, offseason of rest and continued rehab should do the trick 3. Jazz are wearing him down, the entire team down, with how physical they play
