Who said he does not have any vertical? It also looks as if he is not at the peak at his jump either.
Du Feng had a few 30+ point games in these warm-up matches. Here is an article about his future in NBA. Maybe Rockets should think about it. From asia-basket.com Feng Du Du Feng (203-C/F-81), whom we suggested in June be drafted by the NBA ahead of Xue Yuyang, has now shown why we think so highly of his potential. With the National Team, Du is playing his NBA position of small forward. With his Guangdong club team, Du played power forward and center, which is one reason NBA scouts may have ignored him. Du is too thin to play a power position in the NBA. But Du made Eurobasket's second-team all-CBA and both outscored and outrebounded Fangyu Zhu (200-F-83), his younger teammate who plays small forward for Guangdong. The main reason Zhu has attracted the attention of NBA draftniks is that he scored 14 points against the Americans in the World Championships, while Du did not. Since Du was not drafted, he is now a free agent. This means that any NBA team can sign him. So here we have a very athletic 6-8 small forward who, while playing with Guangdong, showed an excellent outside shot. This combination of shooting ability and athleticism might intrigue teams in the NBA, once they start looking at Du as a small forward. He is a player who should be carefully scouted at the Asian Championships next month in Harbin, China. It would serve China's interests to have Du play in the NBA next season, even if he spends the year at the end of the bench learning. China's chances to do well in the Athens Olympics, if they win the Asian Championship, would be enhanced by having a player at a third position who has NBA experience.
Just like to add, he is only 22 with less than a year of weigh training under his belt. Imagine what he will be like in 3 years! Muscle Ming! -G'day-
Ya know, there was a time when Bateer looked stronger than Yao but in this photo Yao looks bigger. His arms are definitely getting stronger over the summer. Good to see the weight program the Rockets put in place for Yao is paying off! Now, lets hope Eddie Griffin is on the same program! One more thing...it is one thing to get "bigger" but it is an entirely different thing to USE that power to your advantage. This year I hope Yao uses his new strength and gets more aggressive on the court with rebounds and more aggressive with his post moves.
I just don't understand anyone's concern with his weight and putting on muscle. Unlike my beer-gut, this is not flab he is adding. Muscle memory can be re-trained. Added strength and stamina is a bonus. At this rate, Yao is going to be one heck of a load to handle as he continues to get stronger and bigger. Yao, now, wow.
It would be cool if Yao was wearing a Rockets practice shirt like Menk is wearing a Raptors shirt. side note: do Chinese people think all the new apparel, people's tattoos, etc. with Chinese lettering is hip and trendy like in the US or is it just words to them?
That's a great question... I've always wondered why there's such a fascination among a lot of players to tattoo Chinese words on themselves. Don't get me wrong, it does look cool and most of the words probably have a meaning that's pertinent and personal (although I'm just waiting for the day when someone spots something on an NBA player which means 'butt picker' or something like that when he thought it meant 'badass'). Hmm... this one deserves a thread of it's own!
No, we don't have tattoos with word. We have dragons and stuff as tattoos. Anyway, all the Chinese characters I saw on NBA players are out of propertion. Plain ugly in the sense of aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy. But it is an American thing, so Chinese calligraphy do not really matter.
