Jeff Van Gundy: I Have Not Changed Yao Ming

suns head euro scout liked him. he thought rockets made the mistake of having him on the bench instead of having him develop his game in europe.

 

quite possible. very believable. like i said, our handling of european talent has been deplorable - at best.

as an aside, wasn't rudy a former scout????? where the hell did he fall off? seriously, it was like all of a sudden his coaching skills deteriorated and so did his drafting skills. oh yea, that's right. it started when hakeem's game started to decline. what a coincidence.....

 

Now Yao is playing at a higher level primarily with his low post game, every smart ass jumps out claiming "I told you so!"?

How did anyone know Yao won't be as successful, or even more successful IF he was told/allowed to use other part of his game more, and develop the low post game at the same time? It might take less than THREE plus years for Yao to reach where he is now, we just never know. This is the first time in Yao's career that both Yao and the players know that the ball will go to him, regardless him missing 10 shots in a row. That was not the case before. NBA is all about opportunity, now Yao has it handed to him, and he is taking advantage of it.

To say Yao would have ended up as an "average center otherwise" is completely baseless. Kareen was not a inside force, but he is one of the all-time greats, and I'd be more than happy if Yao end up like him.

 

Like most of the rest of the NBA, we were behind in scouting overseas. Only a handful of teams were considered on the cutting edge of finding and evaluating talent in Europe and elsewhere - Dallas and San Antonio were tops among them along with Sacramento, Phoenix and a couple others.

We were in the boat with the vast majority of teams that just got to scouting outside of the US late. It was a mistake lots of teams made.

 

I remember Rudy said how impressed he was when he himself scouted Boki in Europe. What impressed him about Boki was not his shooting but his dunking, believe it or not. He thought Boki has the quickness and athleticism to play above the rim.

The mystery (which has yet been solved up to now) is why Rudy didn't play him. Doc Rocket hinted about some particular reason back then.

 

1) I love JVG, and more so every time Ihear him speak.

2) Why is anybody discussing Yao's three point shooting? I mean that seriously, Why?

 

Hey pryuen. Thanks for the article. Your English is great, but I'd like to give you one tip... In the US, we never use the word "match" for basketball, football or baseball. We always say "game".

 

Boy, you never miss an opportunity to take a shot at RudyT do you? Do you remember humiliating yourself in this thread: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=51648&page=1&pp=20

I've been to hell and back since then ...

 

Man, it brings back the memory of Rudy's last year. If you think JVG bashing now is bad, go back and read the Rudy bashing. And see who defended Rudy then and who are JVG's bashers and defenders now.

 

Nobody wanted Yao to just be a jump shooting center. Was Duncan just a jump shooting pf/c when he won rings? No. Was Duncan just a low post threat when he won rings? No. He mixed it up and delivered. That's what we want, the full Yao who can average 30+ points and 4 assists and carry the Rockets night after night, through the involvement in high post as well as low post game, which is the way to maximize his involvement in offense, with the low post game being his main game and high post game as supplement. The possessions of the high post game don't need to cut into the low post game's. The high/low post games are parallel and complimentary, not conflicting. It's in this regard that Yao doesn't have to just camp under the basket like Shaq, because Yao is more versatile.

 

EXACTLY! Yao has cut from the high post to the basket, gotten a pass while moving in and scored, I remember seeing it twice in recent weeks. It is a great move, mixes it up, especially when a team is doubling Yao down low or fronting him, gets him the ball and uses his skills in a different way.

Plus the Yao and Tracy and Hayes passing underneath the basket. Great stuff - teamwork, catch the other team asleep. Do something they don;t expect.

Having Yao jump out and shoot a few jumpers esp. when he is being pressured and slammed hard underneath and not getting calls every foul er I mean play, is just another play to use on occasion to catch the other team offguard.

 

You think that's good, check out some of his Spurs takes from a few years ago.

 

hey Pipe,

people can be wrong. i had an opinion. i stated it.

cool?

damn, what a memory. i'll take it as a compliment overall that you can remember things that i may have said in the past. i guess i can make a pretty indelible impression.

btw, i don't hate rudy. i did have disagreements on his coaching philosophies, though. it's in the past, though, so i won't get into it.

 

long time, no see, TheFreak. i will readily admit that my dislike for the Spurts clouded my judgement of them. i will also say that i have a much greater respect for their team now. don't like them still, but i do have a greater respect and appreciation for what they do.