He's a young guy trying to do too much. He can go to the rim but has to take that hop step and pull off an acrobatic finish... which makes him unreliable. He needs to take a page out of Corey Maggette's book and learn how to absorb + finish after body contact. I don't think he'll amount to anything if his game consists of running to an open spot, jumping as high as he can, and throwing up jump shots. Right now it's kind of like a lottery when he goes to the basket, you never know what's going to happen.
I wasn't talking about since yesterday. They were 5th for a few hours after the Hornets lost. If the Hornets had won, the Jazz would have stayed in 6th no matter what they did tonight. They had a chance to stay in 5th with a win.
I am happy to see the Suns win. Shaq still has more bounce than Yao. Geeze.... Bad play by D-Will to pass the ball to Okur in perimeter and left him in isolation so far away from basket in their 2nd last possession. But the Suns is out of playoffs anyway.
They ain't out yet. It's a longshot and they'll have to win in Portland and Utah, but it can happen. Honestly I'm not sure who I root for tommorow in the Suns Portland game. Do I root for the Suns to hurt the Blazers and creep up a little closer increasing the possibility, however slight, that the Jazz miss the playoffs? Or do I root for the Blazers to put the Jazz in the 7 seed so they have to face the Spurs (most likely)? I know it doens't matter either way since I can't control it, but you know
Phoenix plays in Dallas in about 10 days. That could be a HUGE game for those two teams depending on how things go over the next week or so. It's also a Sunday afternoon game that will likely be on ABC or something.
Its crazy in the west. The suns are 3 games behind dallas which makes them 6 games behind the rockets. The suns are peaking, but I don't think thayre going to make it. I tune in to watch Shaq most times. That guy really amazes me with his ablity. I remember people saying once his explosion goes down, he's not going to be as good. Well, 17 yrs later, he still getting it done. That admonson kid can get off the floor.
I wish Yao had similar composure in the post. Adelman touched on this issue. My concern is that we're 7 years in and Yao still looks like a rookie at times in terms of getting nervous and coughing up the ball. Yao has some great attributes but poise, timing, deception and decision-making, in general, aren't any of them.
If his strength was better, he would be a lot better. Shaq is so strong across his core that people pull and poke and do the same thing s they do to yao, but he just plays through it. Then he plays low also. Its like he wants the double to come and he will hold the doule guy off with his off arm and make a crisp pass. He's alaways in balance seemes like
That's also true. Yao lacks some core and upper body strength. I think it goes beyond that, too, and I think you'll agree. It also has to do with the brand of basketball Yao played during his developmental years. He was never wired to bang like he's had to in the NBA. A lot of overseas players exhibit the same weakness, regardless of position. Some of those foreign players have done better at learning how to adapt to it. Some just flop. I'm only partially joking. It obviously works for a lot of them (Ginobili, Kirilenko, etc...). Despite the lack of core strength, Yao could improve the balance issue by doing what you have mentioned in many posts which is lowering his center of gravity and using all parts of his body to fend off opposing players. The problem is Yao is a finesse player to the core. It's ingrained in his psyche and though he has shown marginal improvement over the years, he has never learned to bang with other bigs effectively. Sometimes, just the presence of a much smaller guard who is help defending will cause Yao to lose his balance. That is partially because he looks to avoid contact and partially because of being too upright like you suggested. In those cases, it has nothing to do with physical strength. It's also a mental issue when a 6' guard is throwing you off balance. He needs to stay composed, like Adelman said, and realize he has time. He needs to protect the ball and read the game instead of panicking and backing down which he does all too often.
