Some worried about Rafer's 3pt shooting pct, some worred about TMac. Guess what worries our head coach most? Link
Where does it say that foul trouble worries the coach "most"? And it's not just Yao's foul trouble... early foul trouble to Battier in Utah also sapped Rockets of their defensive aggressiveness. With the way the game is called now, they really have to be more careful about balancing aggressive play with the need to avoid foul trouble.
Bonzi's comments somewhat concerns me I hope he is not pissed that he is not getting enough court time
Good to hear JVG is addressing this problem. I too am baffled why Yao hasn't learned to manage his fouls judiciously. One thing I want to see is every once in a while, JVG experiments by keeping Yao in the game even if he is in foul trouble. The big man is a little bit too accustomed to having his coach baby-"sit" him when he does something wrong.
Yao figured out the fouling problem late last year so I'm not worried about it. He'll be just fine. The traveling calls and turnovers in general are a bigger problem for him. Chuck Hayes is another issue. He seems like an intelligent guy and I wonder why he can't work out the fouling problem. Some of his fouls just make me want to scream. Chuck is a rotation player now, not a scrub, and he's gotta start using his head more.
What's up with Bonzi? first game he played he was gone before the reporters were in the locker room, second game he played he answer with nah? Still private troubles?
He looks like a fat pig out there. Obviously the extra weight is slowing him down a lot PLUS he looks rusty. It's his own fault because he shouldn't have eaten like a horse all summer. Bonzi's gonna have to play his way into shape and it may take a while. His Wes Unseld impression isn't working out so well.
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On the contrary, I think as Yao gets into better shape his travelling calls and turnovers will decrease significantly. I am still more worried about his foul troubles. He needs to know that he can't go after every ball and play to just alter shots, not necessarily block shots. Although, there are a couple of calls in the past 3 games that are pretty suspect.
Being at the games now and being able to focus on players away from the ball it is amazing what the refs let Dampier, etc get away with. And the Dirks of the world still seem to get away with putting their shoulder down and driving into a stationary Yao or Chuck Hayes and getting the call. And Chuck does seem to be reaching in less. But I think the refs do have this "tendency" presumption built into their psyches and so Yao and Chuck are not getting the benefit of the doubt. Yao because of whatever effect - the Van Gundy prejudice? (Tmac gets no star treatment like Dirk and Kobe). And Chuck cause he is an aggressive rookie. If Dampier was Yao then he would foul out by halftime every game.
I wouldn't worry about Bonzi. He has that carrot of a big offseason paycheck dangled in front of him- I'm sure his (new) agent constantly reminds him not to be a dumb@ss. He's obviously frustrated, but if he sucks it up, he will get his PT.
Bingo. He needs to show game. He needs to show maturity. He needs to be a man. He'll be fine(, by December?).
May help if Yao is not setting picks above the free throw line. This to me is ridiculous for a big man to be doing this because once a guard bumps into him and flops Yao will get the foul call every time. The plays should run through Yao down in the Post.
Nothing is going to get Yao officiated any differently at this point. It's his 5th year in the league--the refs know him. It's time to simply accept that this is the way they will officiate him and adjust accordingly.
Interesting, I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking about starting a thread on this, but I'll just put my comments here. Yao commits one kind of foul: The stupid one. And that goes both ways. Most of his legit fouls are stupid on his part. And the other half that are not legit are stupid on the officials part. I say half because if you analyze Yao's fouls, close to half them over the course of a month or season are not legit. Yao makes some very dumb plays, but we've all seen it, a lot of times the officials totally take him out of the game on bad calls. I really wished JVG would take the approach of keeping Yao in the game until he has committed 3 legit fouls in the 1st half and even then consider keeping him in the game. Only take him out for blows. JVG needs to do this to get Yao the respect that he deserves out there. It is pretty obvious to everyone when Yao has actually committed a foul and when he hasn't. I just don't understand why the officials have such a difficult time getting it right. In this era of zero tolerance officiating, there is not a whole lot JVG can do about bad officiating against Yao but to just leave him out there. Yes, he should continue working on Yao about his foul mistakes, but honestly, even with those mistakes, most of the time, Yao is going to wind up with 3 or 4 legit fouls in a game. He is too smart and too good to foul out. He knows how to play when he is in foul trouble. What Jeff needs to do is make a statement to the league, without saying a word to any of them, on how Yao should be officiated. If Yao gets blown for a couple bogus fouls to start the game, if they are not legit, then JVG should just leave him out there. Then if he actually commits a legit foul, JVG should keep track of that one. If the officials hit him with another couple of fouls in the first half, so he has got 5 going into halftime, so be it. Leave him out there and force the officials to whistle him out. If it takes Yao fouling out of 7 or 8 ballgames early, it doesn't matter in the longer scope of things. Just a silent protest if you will. But it wouldn't be silent for very long. Say Yao fouls out of a string of games in the first half or early in the 3rd. Before long, it is news around the league, and in the media. Everybody knows David Stern makes decisions for this league based on what appeals to the public the most. That's the motive behind all the rule changes, etc. It's all about profits and keeping everybody competitive until the end of the season so that attendance stays high and kids are buying jerseys of their favorite player on some mediocre team. It's all about the money. Stern does not want an unhappy fan base especially 1 billion Chinese fans who are pumping up revenues for his baby. Yao starts fouling out and the league starts dissecting the foul calls, because eventually the media will get in on it and ESPN will be dissecting the foul calls against Yao on Sportscenter. My point is, JVG should force the issue with the officials without saying anything to anybody so nobody knows what he is doing. If he says something then it gets back to the league offices that he is waging a war with them and they will not relent. But if he shuts up, never says anything to the officials or to the media and just lets the media dissect what is happening on the floor, then it just creates that much more controversy and eventually Stu or Stern will want to know what he is doing. Or if they don't, they just continue to get criticized for 2 to 3 bad calls a game and it is all dissected in the media. So, he forces the adjustment. I know it may sound radical, but what else can be done about all the bogus calls on Yao? The way they are officiating, Yao basically cannot even breath on anybody in the 1st quarter. The officials are mandating that Yao only play defense for 3 quarters max. The only way he avoids the foul is to stay away from all contact in the 1st quarter. Because he can be planted stationary a foot away from the inner circle and go straight up and he is going to be called for any contact that the penetrators make with him. And he is going to be whistled for that bogus moving screen foul that everybody in the league gets away with just because they are trying to take away his height skill advantage. And he gets whistled for the most ludicrous offensive fouls when Shaq creates 10 times as much contact as Yao does down there and has never been whistled for all the contact he creates. Even without Yao's stupidity out there, he is still constantly hampered by bogus foul calling by the officials against him. All this business of splicing video and sending it to the league is a waste of time. It just don't work. Let him foul out over and over and let the media dissect the foul calls. I don't think the officials really want that. They will make the adjustments.
I neglected to point out, but stamina and game shape also has a lot to do with those stupid fouls, because you're usually just a step to slow at something you are something accustomed to do. An example would be, your timing is completely off at when you step in to alter shots, or when you stick your hand in to steal the ball. Often times, unfit players think faster than they act and end up fouling. Hopefully, Yao regaining his form will decrease both.
That's exactly what he's been doing. He's kept Yao in the game after he's gotten two fouls in the first quarter in two games this season. Last game, recall Yao received 3 fouls in the first quarter.
