There is little doubt that Yao is a smart man... the way he has handled the media with trademark quips and a general thoughtfulness makes that much clear. However, regular smarts does not always translate into basketball smarts, and vice versa. Jason Kidd could not pass a basic GE test in high school (it took some trickery to get him into Cal)...but he's clearly a brilliant basketball player, always thinking ahead of the game and making the right passes. Yao, on the other hand, continues to make some of the most boneheaded plays one can imagine, from fouling when there is no need, to passing when he has great position, to bringing the ball down where he can get stripped...and he continues to do this even though he knows better by now. I don't mean to be harsh, but I've played ball rather competitively myself, and have always found that making adjustments is just a normal, rather easy part of the game. You learn techniques, assemble an arsenal of moves or tricks and apply them according to the situation at hand...that's just the game, and frankly, I would think any fairly intelligent person could do it...so is Yao just a dense basketball player??
Jason Kidd has also played basketball his entire life, and still couldnt make a jump shot at a decent clip. alot of guys who couldnt shoot early in their careers developed shots Jkidd he must be a dumb basketball player because he cant learn how to shoot. Jkidds uses the transition offense to hide his and his teams inability to make open shots and play in the halfcourt offense. playing to your strengths hides your weaknesses. Having Yao(who has stamina issues) run all over the court gaining position and not getting the ball, or running halfway across the court to set a pick is not playing to the mans strengths. having him gaurd quicker players on the perimeter after a switch is not playing to his strengths. pick and roll defense is a killer way to get at shaq's teams....because shaq rarely ever comes out on that play, it would be great help defense if he did, but it would also put in a position to draw silly fouls.
Even jordan admitted that the key to his success was too hide his weakness. Ironically never revealing it when asked. Everybody has one. But you pretend like you don't.
JVG is dumb to expose all his players weakness: ball-distribution for Francis, grinding-it-out for Tmac, plus Shaqization and perimeter defense for Yao. What makes it even worse is to limit their respective strength.
As far as im concerned Yao has a low basketball IQ until he stops passing the ball out to Lue when he is near the basket. Until he stops bringing the ball down low to get it stripped. Until he stops turning the ball over in crucial parts of the game. Until he stops jumping in front of little guys with his hands up and picking up pointless fouls. Until he stops letting his defender pull the chair out from under him so he'll fall on his ass. Until he stops passing up open shots on the perimeter. Until he stops doing this basic dumb crap, which he just won't stop doing, its hard not to question his smarts on the court.
I agree, but I don't think we can lay all this on VG because we have seen enough of Yao to know that he can indeed dominate the way VG wants him to. It's up to Yao to do it on a consistent basis, and to this point, he has failed.
To me, if a player always has trouble adjusting himself quickly to different situations on the court OR makes same mistakes over and over again (like jumping for pump fake), at least he is not smart.
That has more to do with good instinct and reflexes, rather than smarts. I wouldn't call Dike a smart player in that sense. If lack of smartness is one of the problem in this team, the fault lies more on the coach than the players, unless the game is run by a floor general like Magic, Kidd, and alike.
He needs to learn how to block shots and alter shots with out always jumping up. He gets into foul trouble too often by jumping up into a driving player in mid air. He needs to keep himself on the ground and only jump when needed. This will give him better balance and a better reaction to block some shots. There is so much potential, that just needs to be gathered. We have seen the brilliant game he possess. But far too often we are disapointed. It's his third year.....Come on Yao. Prove us all wrong, and carry this team.
kind of, if he doesn't change his rebound habit in the next 15 games. He should realize that his boxing out strategy only fits for old Rockets and current team needs he to grab the rebounds instead of boxing out the opponent center. However, if JVG keeps requiring Yao to guard quicker players in PnR. It's hard to see Yao's rebounds increase.
One problem.......he fails to box out quite often. He gets burned a lot by guys getting offensive rebounds because they are much faster than him, due to his size, and when he doesn't box out it makes it that much worse.
Why is it I keep remembering some great passing in Yao's first year? Or such promising court vision from the high post? Did I imagine that? It seems Yao does have a good BBall IQ...but I don't know what happened to it. Ever since he's been pushed into the back to the basket only/wrestle with the defender in the low post mode, it seems that everything he once was has started to fade...
Boxing out works only if your teammates take the same strategy. Yao does too much help-D especially for 4. He is slow and cannot come back in time to the rebound. That's why his defensive rebound regressed over 1 per game comparing to last season.
You didn't imagine it, but we are only a small few who witnessed such and still recall, and still demand for it as the true identity of Yao and where his true greatness lies untapped. Most around here, wish to pretend it never existed and do as JVG and completely ignore it. The majority has spoken, "bring it down big man!", and to hell with possibly modeling his game like one of his favorite basketball players, "Sabonis".
