NBA Shootaround Crew comments on Rocks/Mavs series today

Greg Anthony said something like-- "Yao's legacy in the game will be defined how he does in this series..."

Really this is Yao's legacy ? His 2nd time in the playoffs, his 3rd year in the league will decide his whole legacy ?

Geesh, what does that say for poor Lebron who's never made it to the playoffs....

G.A. needs a major chill pill

 

If one complains Yao not being agressive, I don't know what to say. 20 pts 5 blocks in 25 minutes. How more agressive you want him? It doesn't really matter how he plays, passive or aggressive. Refs have targeted him and decided to take him out of the game. We should thank god that they allow him to play one game so far, but my feeling is refs are thinking that they ought to compensate Mavs after they allowed Yao to play game 2.

Yao does have butter fingers, but that doesn't give one exuses to diss his whole game.

 

The crew:

Legler: The fair-weather man.

Anthony: "Guess who..."

Steven Smith: Steven A.... Smith.

 

I disagree completely. He was very underwhelming all year, but when he's been on the court in this series, he has brought it. And this time, the fouls have not been his fault. Dude is getting screwed out there.

 

Stats are always very misleading, but, given when Yao actually did get time on the floor, he played better than his 48 minute stats would have led you to believe, it is interesting to note:

TMAC per 48 minutes
Pts = 33.4
Reb. = 7.42
Assist = 7.21

Yao per 48 minutes
Pts = 33.0
Reb. = 13.0
Block = 3.75


Um...they're both playing great...unfortunately, one gets called for a foul on every play, whereas the other, isn't.

 

He's averaged 18 and 9. If he averaged a normal # of minutes, he'd average better than 20 and 10.

How can any player be underwhelming while averaging those kind of #'s?

 

This from someone that was dissapointed in Mcgrady after he puts up 36/6/5.

 

I wasn't disappointed in McGrady's overall level of play, merely his play at the end of the game.

Alas, there is a distinction.

I've been disappointed in Yao in many games in which he put up good #'s. Just not with his season output.

 

ESPN's coverage is pathetic. These guys love to create the sense of drama with almost no legitimate analysis at all.

McGrady didn't show up in the 4th quarter of game 4. He let the D get to him for whatever reason. And McGrady (not Yao) was the guy who failed to adequately protect the ball on the critical 4th quarter rebound. I seriously don't think T-Mac is as satisfied with his own performance as these bozos let on. This was the most critical juncture yet of his young career and he failed himself and us. T-Mac is great but he has to take that a step further to be an immortal.

Yao - How could these paid analysts not mention the foul calls? How in the world would being MORE aggressive help him? What Jeff said about Yao's "niceness" is really telling. I think these analysts have a problem with Yao because he doesn't get pissed off and act like a jerk. Aggressiveness is not a problem for him at all. His fitness and strength would be the two main areas of concern IMO. The Mavs are obviously aware of this and have been taking advantage of it.

For some reason, when discussing our role players, nobody has mentioned the fact that the Rox are built off a model of having 2 superstars (for cap purposes) surronded by good veteran players (Lakers model to win their recent championships). Meanwhile, Dallas has aquired a host of top talent support guys to go with their 1 superstar. I don't know if I agree with the Rox model, but if superstars are not given leeway when it comes to foul calls, then the Rox are probably built around the wrong model. Teams like Dallas, Detroit and San Antonio are always going to have a larger number of high quality role players. It's that simple.

 

That extrapolation argument is one of my biggest pet peeves. You actually have to be able to play the large number of minutes in the first place. Yao was supposed to take the next step this year, but too often he was left looking like the smallest player on the court.

This is a moot point anyways. I personally think he's been great in this series.

 

But if you're one of these fans or even team officials (JVG) who think Yao is getting screwed on a regular and constant basis (count me in...), then you can't complain about Yao, just about the officiating.