Ahh, of course, I see the pattern. His second year under a new coach, a struggling PG and more double and triple teams than his first year, he gains 4 more ppg, and 1 rpbg. So his third year under the same coach and T-mac, and more scorers to draw off the double triple teams, he'll gain just .5 ppg, .5rpb and just shoot 3 points better in FG.. Perfect sense. My reasonable prediction for Yao's stats in his third year, as follows. 20-22 ppg 10 rpg 2.0 bpg 55 FG% 5 apg
I think it's kind of ridiculous to think that Yao will start to average 5+ assists a year after averaging just 1.5... The offense will remain the same. He won't be asked to hit the cutter from the high post like in Sacramento, JVG will want him to pound the ball inside and look to score. My predictions: Yao 20.3ppg, 11.6rpg, 2.2bpg (Yao's averages last season when he played 35+ minutes.) T-Mac 22.1ppg, 6.9rpg, 5.9apg, 1.6spg, 1.4bpg (Shouldn't be a problem, especially if Tracy's our main disributor/playmaker) Juwan Howard 14.6ppg, 7.6rpg, 2.8apg (Juwan's averages as the fourth offensive option in Dallas)
LOL. Yao saying rude things. I can just imagine it now: "Oh yeah, well your shoelaces are untied, and your mother likes doing my laundry."
The difference will be that you do not have Steve and Cat who thought they should be taking the most shots and dominating the ball, thereby forcing a 3-way split for touches. I do not think this will be an issue any longer. Howard, and everyone left on the Rockets should now clearly understand that if you do not play JVG's way, you will be gone. Regardless of whether you are a star (Francis) or think you are a star (Mobley). A clear case of addition by subtraction for Yao.
Couldn't agree more. Now Yao is clearly the 1B option. Last year Steve and Cat still thought they should take the shot before Yao.
I know what you're asking, but IMO, the third option is whomever is open when McGrady or Yao are double teamed. Otherwise, everyone else's points should come off of putbacks from the offensive boards, steals, breakaways, and whoever gets hot that is not named McGrady or Yao.
The one trait of the offenses that Van Gundy has run throughout his coaching career is that the scoring on his teams is balanced. There has never been a 25 ppg scorer or two 20 ppg players. His teams usually consists of an 18 point scorer, two 16 point scorers, a 12 point scorer, 10 point scorer, 9 point scorer, etc. Something like that. A lot of his past teams have 5 players in double digits, some almost have 6. I think many of you are setting yourselves up for dissapointment if you think Yao and Mcgrady are going to put the monster numbers that Shaq and Kobe have.
Well, JVG does encourage Yao to shoot more and Yao's already a 17.5 pt 9 rb guy. As to TMac, he's too good to average <22 pts. The fact with JVG's old teams is none of Spreewell, Houston and Francis is dominant scorers like TMac. And Ewing was a shell of his former self while Yao is a rising dominant center.
I really hate this argument. Number one, Cat didn't dominate the ball last year. For the most part, all he did was spot up for open shots off of double teams. I thought he was doing that too much; he should have been driving to the basket more often. Similarely, Steve didn't have bad shot selection, neither did he take too many shots. He took the right number of shots and, for the most part, pretty good shots. He just wasn't able to hit them. The only thing that kept Yao from scoring 20+ ppg last year was himself. His stamina was not good and he got into early foul trouble too often. There were times when Cat and Steve missed it when he has a mismatch on the block, but you're crazy if you don't think this doesn't happen to Duncan, Shaq, and JO'Neal on a regular basis. Similarely, Yao didn't score against these mismatches as well as he should have. He should have been abusing Malone in the paint in the playoffs last year. But I'm not sure he even scored once when Karla was guarding him. Maybe next season you guys will realize that Yao's only obstacle is Yao. Or maybe you'll just blame everything on Howard or T-Mac. We'll see.
I agree with most of your post but this is a stretch. Malone is a good and dirty defender. None of Yao, Duncan and Garnett played good against him. He was far from the weaked link to be abused. In fact, he pulled the chair a few times for each of them.
I see the point you're trying to make, but with a 9 inch height advantage, a fifty pound weight advantage, and an arsenal of post moves, Yao should have been more effective. TD and KG were still able to score against Malone. My point is that Yao has all the size, strength, and skills to be every bit as dominant as Duncan. He needs to get more aggressive and take it in stronger, especially now that we've traded three quality players because one of them didn't complement him well.
Yao did score a couple of times against Malone in the playoffs. Yao was playing against Shaq too, keep that in mind.
Yao: 20/10/2apg/2bpg McGrady: 25/7apg/7rpg And it would be great if McGrady get his FG% back up to his customary: 45% or better.
Thank you g1184 sup123 Your original post on this thread (quoted at the top) was not funny. You do not have what it takes to make us laugh
Why can't he be though? He has the size and the skills. We've seen him dominate. Why can't he do it on a consistent basis? Was it Steve's fault? Because that's what a good number of posters here seem to think. I, personally, disagree.
I agreed with you Yao could be potentially better than Duncan. Most of it was not Francis' fault. Remember people, Yao is only in his second year, you guys expect way too much too early. Yao has shown tremendous upside and he's making steady progress each season. However, having less touch and not getting the ball pass back to him after pick and roll, that's the fault of ball handler, there's no argument there.
