scola is a not very athletic, but he's main advantage is that he has a great sense of where the ball is going to land after it hits the rim. he's mr johnny on the spot with rebounds. yao on the other hand has less instincts but tall (which isn't a knock on him cuz it's part of his package and a rebound is a rebound). if yao wasn't there, scola would have more rebounds and vice versa. with both on the court, we have more total rebounds as oppose to just one of them playing. in the end, we have a good thing going.
which explains why we've been so without this quality of PF play post-Charles Barkley and throughout Yao's career until now.. talk about fans taking what they currently have for granted....
I would say most likely that if Scola was the only offensive optiuon he would average more of both as it was seen in the PO. Why people say things without thinking? IT IS PLAIN OBVIOS that if scola was the focus of our post offense he would get more posessions and more points because the guy is not easy to take out of games.
But it makes since, because Yao isn't really a stat player. I don't think he is type that cares about having the most points or the most rebounds. He does what he has, too, like Scola.
In the interest of fairness, Duncan has been dealing with some knee problems lately and hasn't been himself -- 43% shooting is NOT the norm for TD. That said, for someone who is basically the 3rd or 4th scoring option, Scola has really been putting up some impressive production lately.
If Yao "lets" Scola steal rebounds from him then Yao needs to be benched. When a post player has that type of attitude you can be certain he doesn't have the mentality he needs to have as an NBA post player. It's nearly as bad as McGrady's "I was looking to pass to someone" comment when he was on the famous missed dunk fastbreak when no defender was within 25 feet of him. A Center should be ripping rebounds down like a mad man. If Yao has time to stop and think "oh, that's Scola. I'll let him have that one" then he isn't really that focused now is he?
Scolar would get the same amount of rebounds if he does not play with Yao, but of course, by playing with Yao, he gets easy rebound. If he plays with an ordinary center, he might spend more efforts on getting those rebounds, but he will still get them.
I don't think he thinks 'I'll let him have that one'. It's more of "it's my teammate, he's going after it hard, and fighting for the ball between the same team can only result in a turnover...or the same result (getting teh ball) as me letting him have it" Basically, prevents 2 dudes from the same team fighting over a ball. Yao is more conscious of that than some others..and I'm fine with that. Also fine with a dude going hardcore after everything, regardless of who the other guy is
I don't buy it. Scola's rebounding numbers were similar when Yao was out last year. Scola would score more if Yao wasn't hogging space on the block.
How do you explain Yao outrebounding the opposing center on a per-minute basis every season? How do you explain Yao's rebound % being the highest on this team, over the guy who's being praised for it in this thread? How do you explain the Rockets having a rebounding edge year after year? Yao isn't a monster rebounder, but he's always been an above-average one. Stop spreading myths.
This is a little overboard. Yao at least can distinguish who's fighting the board with him. You don't want to be seeing teammates fighting for rebounds all over the place. What you need tough is the communication.
I said he is an area rebounder, meaning if the ball falls within his reach, which is pretty big, he gets the board. Well I think I am making a distinction between prolific rebounder and good instinctive rebounder. I don't know if that makes sense.
Are you sure? IIRC when the trade went down, I was hearing that rebounding and defense were his weaknesses. Which is why I'm even more impressed with what he's been able to do this year.
Well, I wouldn't agree with you. He's doing for the Rockets almost exactly what he did in Europe prior to being aquired from the idiotic Spers management. Scoring and rebounding. Scoring around the basket with an amazing variey of moves. Shooting the midrange jumper. Getting a couple assists a game, along with a steal or two. Is it great for Luis to have Yao as a frontcourt companion? Of course, but he'd still be doing his thing, Yao or not. You can read about him, if you like. There's some scouting reports here and a host of stats, if you poke around. http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Luis-Scola-5184/ http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Luis-Scola-5184/stats/
Is that so? basketball-reference shows he gets .1% less rebounds than Scola. Scola and Yao are ranked 26th and 29th, respectively, in terms of rebound rate.
This wasn't directed at me, but I took a look at the links. According to draftexpress, Scola is having his best rebounding season by far. In fact, prior to this season, his best was 7.2 rebounds in 2006/07 in Europe, while in most other season, he averaged fewer than 7. So this year's 8.8 rebounds is a very big leap for him.
i totally agree with this. he's so big that rebounds will fall to him. scola on the other hand goes to the rebound. but it's not about HOW you got them is it? 1 rb = 1 rb in the NBA, no matter how big you are and he's got nearly 10 of them. to say yao is just an average rebounder (in an absolute sense) is non-sense.
Yao helps by boxing out. If Yao went for every rebound we've be less effective as a rebounding team. Does anyone notice we kill teams on the boards? We have one of the best rebounding front courts out there with Yao and Scola. 9.8 and 8.8 is like fantasy league talk. Good stuff.
