Man, The first thing that struck me was the speed. I remain amazed. Stoudamire is 5-9 or 5-10. He looks like a midget from courtside. Yallmean, forget about it. It's basketball all the way. Soccer players run and run, have great footwork - - for midgets. We're talking seriously tall dudes that move with grace, power and explosion. Maybe football players are better athletes, but I'm sticking with hoopers for now.
Thank you for sharing, Rileydog. Very, very interesting and insightful. So true. Excellent observation and evaluation.
Pro basketball players probably don't have the endurance of soccer players. What I'm saying is that, all things considered, pro basketball players are the best overall athletes. D R
It seems that many have thought that Yao has reached his peak (both in this thread and from some analyst). Is it true?
Ooliverb1 - No. No way. It is somewhat insane for people to think that Yao has topped out. Those people may think in terms of raw numbers, but you have to look at efficiency. Yao's numbers may be very similar to his humbers last year, but he is improving on efficiency. Ultimately, I believe Yao will be a 20ppg scorer, but am not sure how high. I don't think he will be a 10 rpg player though -- the lateral quickness is a big problem for rebounding. He has already shown tremendous progress in defense. His body position and read on pick and roll (the play of death for the slow of foot) has improved drastically. You see effort and understanding. He'll never be a world class shot blocker b/c of the lack of lateral quickness. As Rockets fans, we were absolutely spoiled by Hakeem coming from weak side to obliterate shots. Yao won't provide that. He'll become more of a Mark Eaton defender. Clog the lane, contest shots. Draw fewer fouls (this is getting better too. With 2 mins to go last night, Yao stopped a drive that was probably a foul, but no whistle on Yao). On offense, consider his PPG and overall efficiency. I predict that he will score in the 18-19ppg for a while, but the efficiency for getting those numbers will improve. Fewer turnovers, quicker decisions. When he gets that down -- say by the end of next year -- he will get more touches. JGV will direct the offense toward Yao more. I think he can become a low turnover, high percentage 20+ppg scorer, which is a very nice force. I'd say that is just below the super elite, but still superstar level. More than enough to team with TMAC to win titles.
Rileydog, Odd you should post this today. I was sitting first row behind the Portland bench and shared several of your observations, particularly regarding Yao. The guy is working his butt of out there. I can't but help believe it has more to do with footspeed than anything else. He looked anything but soft last night. A couple more observations from up close Ñ ¥ For those who think Sura is dissing Yao ÑÊPLEASE get over it. I noticed a lot of communication between the two when Yao was posting up and Bobby had the ball, including some little hand signal that looked like a quacking duck. Sura may not be a pure point guard, but the offense runs far better with him in than out. Anyone thinking "Sura must go" should either have their head examined, or try really watching a game closely and tracking our success with and without him. ¥ When Sura is in the game the ball gets down the court FAST. He always seems to be looking to get numbers on the other team and open up a break. This was something that drove me nuts with Francis. The shot clock always seemd to work against us. We always seemed to wait for the defense to set before bginning our half court offense. Getting the ball down so quickly now seems to give us time for the extra pass to find the open man. ¥ The Rox defense in the first half was solid. Portland got almost no open looks at all. I thought Portland made some good adjustments during the third quarter. If you look at their roster, Pryzbilla, Randolph, Patterson, Ratliff, Miles Ñ they have some tough inside presence. I thought they used it well on both ends of the court later in the game. Our interior game also weakened considerably in the third. We did have some lapses during the Blazers' run, but I would give them some credit in playing to their strength. ¥ Stoudemire seemd to get some open looks only after their interior game picked up and after Wesley picked up his 3rd foul. ¥ T-Mac seems off somewhat, we all see that Ñ but he seems to move too well for a guy with a nagging injury (back). Then again, look at Sura. ¥ D. Anderson looked solid late in the game. I know he's not the key to the Finals, but he could spell T-Mac and give us a heck of a lot more than Bowen. ¥ One more note Ñ Some guy right behind me was harassing Z Randolph whenever he got the chance, telling him to enjoy it while it lasts because come the 24th "you're gone." Not sure what he meant, ZR paid no attention. ¥ The Blazers' Korean center was not suited up, but I noticed him listed at 7'3" / 305. Maybe I'm wrong, but wearing a suit he looked fairly thin Ñ nowhere near 305.
Sorry, one more observation. The lack of calls Yao gets sometimes is absolutely absurd. These guys were climbing all over him.
Riley and zaam... great reads, thanks for posting them. I hope one day to get seats that close....closest I have been is 10 rows up in the lower bowl behind the ROckets bench... hopefully, someone I know will scam those sweet courtside tickets again and make my year..(you know who you are.) question: Any insights into the amount of coachin on the sidelines that VG does during sets? What percentage of the time does he call in the plays on both sides of the ball? Were either of you close enough to see if Ewing actually does anything out there?
Alright then, so send Yao to soccer camp and get him to be coordinated and agile. Come to think of it, Olajuwon was grew up as a soccer player and handball player.
i didn't focus on gundy much. our pg's and tmac did look over to run offensive plays. besides from calling plays, he would "urge" - rotate, switch, push the ball, stuff like that. I think most of his work is during time outs and i was on the opposite side from the bench. I can't bother to look at PEw.
Yao can be a significant presence on the boards by boxing out his opponents. It is one of the benefits of having a veteran team that they seem to be getting these things right and exploiting this kind of possibility methodically.
a more stupid question has not ever been asked of me in the 7+ years I have been here.. but see...thing is...I know about the RPD's booblies....Ive seen them up close several times(clothed of course) since I go to several games a year.... but I am not normally close enough to the Rockets bench to actually see what the coaches do...
Rockets in a nutshell, as long as Tmac and Yao are teammates.... Best two-sentence post I've seen in a ages!
