Yao Ming has told Rudy T. that the new NT coach is very strict. He is going to be trained 8 hours a day without proper weight training. As a result, his knee will not hold, his leg might break! Seriously, I expect Yao's production to decline next season. He will not improve that much from this season due to lack of proper training and rest during the summer. So the statement that Yao has peaked is not necessarily a wrong one. In his 3rd season, fans here will call to trade Yao.
Training camp will likely begin September 30 or October 1. Best case scenatio, that means three weeks of rest and recovery time after the end of the Asian tourney. Unfortunately, if there is training over July/August, YM will have little time to work on other aspects of his game this summer.
<QUoTE>sun, you need some oxygen...</quote> I want to be optimistic, but Yao is already 22. If he does not get proper training from the off-season training for the next 2 or 3 years, I am afraid his upside will be very limited. This season, what Yao has done is just to be familiar with the NBA. He really has not improved his hook shot or add one or two post moves. Right now, Yao has a jump shot, his post moves need to be pollished, he needs to take better care of the ball. Once a NBA season starts, everybody knows that you are not going to learn new things. Everything new has to be learned during the off-season. Jordan and Malone are famous for their off-season work-load which makes them great players. If you look at Yao's summer obligations, this year, he will be in China from May to September. Next year, it is the Olympics. How can you expect Yao to improve upon this year's numbers (16 points, 9 rebounds excluding Rookie Wall)? Basically if you are rational, you do not. So suppose the current Yao is the best he can be given all the constraints, as a GM or a fan, what will you do? I will try to trade Yao for Curry and Crawford plus the number 1 pick.
These kinds of things are horrible and a big part of the reason I didn't want to get Ming. Yao is already f***ing tired and needs a rest badly. He's been playing ball for like 3 years straight without much of a break. Now he has a break in sight at the end of this season and he is forced to travel back around the globe and play in another tournament? This is bull. Yao will not improve under these conditions. He has learned all ANY NT coach can teach and he needs to be HERE working with OUR players if HE wants to get better. This situation is asking for an injury to Yao. It is similar to LeBron who risked injury several times playing inferior talent who just got in the way.
Ok, we got some great info out here, thanks windandsea. Negative outlook: Yao is rushed back to China. He trains for 5 hours a day (I think this is exaggerated) and then plays all the games for China. He then comes back to Houston with no time to work on his game, in horrible physcal condition because of China NT's training methods, and rest a while before advancing to the best thing for him all summer: Training camp. Positive outlook: Yao comes off a nice performance in the playoffs and goes to China. There, he works with the NT mostly on cardio-stuff like running, swimming, stretching, and all that stuff. This improves his stamina and mobility hopefully. China breeze through the Asian Championships without requiring much help from Yao, so it's basically 8 games but not playing 100%. He then comes back to Houston and does nothing but REST for 3 weeks. After almost a month's rest, he also takes it easy in training camp trying to grasp all the plays. Also, the Rockets slap a trainer on his ass and put him on a slightly more advanced strength training program from training camp up until Game 1 of the REGULAR season. Look at it however you want, but the worst case scenario is, he gets 3 weeks rest before training camp. We might not see the well-trained Yao we saw before, but we have a non-rookie Yao who has been rested, gets slightly less media attention, and can concntrate on improving everythign that gave him trouble in the previous season. Here's my suggestion: Send a trainer with Yao a week after he's been on his own in China along with Colin Pine to be with them and tell Yao what to do and what not to do. To keep him in decent condition and maybe work with him a little bit. Then we can be a little less concerned about what he might face over there in terms of less developed training methods (no disrespect to Chinese NT, but NBA is obviously superior in this area). Thoughts?
The NT will not do cardio-stuff. This has already been proved by Yao's lack of stamina and mobility. Your suggestion about sending a trainer with Yao is excellent. I actually said the same thing long time ago. The optimal strategy is to pursuade the Chinese NT team to hire an European or American coach who is good at training players. But it can not be done as The NT team has already hired one of its OLD coaches who believes in work work work. Many Chinese basketball players have short careers due to the unscientific training. The 2nd best strategy is to send somebody to the NT team to help them train their players. I am not sure the NT team will agree on this though. Lastly, to send a trainer with Yao to China. This has to be done no matter what!
Has anyone considered that the Chinese NT (and all relevant parties) may view the NBA season to be an excellent training camp for Yao and that there would be no need for them to put him through 5 hour a day practices immediately once he gets home? I am pretty sure he will get a nice rest once he gets back to Shanghai. In all seriousness, I would be more worried about him catching the nasty virus that is spreading over there than the prospect of over-training.
He is probably going to return home! I would think he wants to too! Homesick! Yes. I think MadMonk made a good point. Hopefully Yao will come back a few weeks before training camps starts...and will have more time to acquaint with Jeff McInnis, Derek Anderson, Toni Kukoc, and Elton Brand.
China NT has hired NBA asistant coach/scot as teams' asistant for last several years. As matter of fact, In last 2 year Nuggets assistant coach Jarrin Akana had servea as an asistant for NT. Nuggets strength and conditioning coach has stayed with NT for 2 weeks, to set NT's part of training plan for World Champship Game. It is highly likely NT will take someon from Rox!
You have no clue what you're talking about do you? If they're gonna train him in anything in China it's cardio. They train him 5 hrs a day, sprinting and jumps. The reason Yao has low stamina is because when he was playing in Shanghai he only plays about 20 minutes per game. Get your facts straight before you're gonna troll.
My understanding has been that even when in Shanghai, Yao didn't play as long as he has been doing for the Rockets. I think one thing that we're forgetting is that Yao has already begun his weight training regimen and his program to add strength... it's not as if he's going to simply forget how to lift weights when he returns home to China. He already knows what lifts to do and what diet to maintain to simply continue what he has already begun. As far as the rigorous training to be done for his national team, I have a question to be speculated upon by the Chinese members of the board. Yao's going to be returning to China not simply as the biggest and best player in Chinese history, but as the biggest international celebrity that China has ever produced. I'm guessing that if he wants to, Yao is going to be able to get his way. If he doesn't feel as if his training is going to be beneficial to him, my guess is that the national team would more or less have to defer to him and allow him to train however he wants in return for the amazing play and star power that Yao is sure to add in whatever game he plays in. Then again, that would give the Chinese press an excuse to claim that Yao has essentially "gone Hollywood," that his success has made him arrogant and that he feels he knows better than the coaching staff (who's to say he doesn't?) In any case, I'd say that the Rockets sending along some sort of training representative would be a great idea for everyone. The Chinese National Team wouldn't have to hire him, he would be a Rockets employee. Just having someone around to make sure that Yao is doing anything damaging to himself would be worth it... the Rockets have a lot invested in Yao and I'm sure no one, Chinese or American, wants anything but the best for him. It shouldn't be difficult to devise ways for Yao to use his time training in China to prepare for the NBA as well as the Asian tournament.
good idea, I think team Yao are not idiots. Probably they have an agreement with China NT and rockets, send 1 or 2 assistant coaches to China NT. The best senarios is china NT dont need yao's help to quailfy for Olympics.
u r so negative. everybody wants to learn new things to improve themselves, even the NT. so, ur opinion based on past experience isnt true.
As many of the posts noted, the game itself is really nothing, the tough part is training. There will be about 10 games, Yao will play about 20min a game, just like he did with the NT before. The incoming head coach, Jiang Xing-Quan, was from old schools. Foundmental & long/hard training hours are what he's been known for. He just took a terrible CBA team to the playoff with his coaching method. Former NT coach, Wang Fei, was let go because of his "lack of control", "loosy training" over the previous NT. Jiang was chosen mainly because of his hard nose style and discipline. If anyone expect Yao to get any special treatment, you are dreaming. Yao will be treated just like everyone else with the NT. When last NT was formed, some of the old players wasn't selected because they "cannot sustain the long hour & high intensity training", everyone can guess what kind of training Yao will be facing. One thing everyone here needs to keep in mind is that playing for Chinese NT is more important than playing for the Rockets to most of Chinese.
