People are comparing Yao to Olajuwon and Ewing, but I think thats a little bit unfair because they are part of the 50 Greatest Player's List. Already he is much better than Vlade Divac and Rik Smits ever was. He is very intelligent and will continue to develop as time goes by. Some players just develop later than others. Give it time. Steve Francis, on the other hand, has been holding our team back. He is shooting a career low in FG%, 3pt%, and assists. Looking back, was it really a smart idea to fire Rudy? 26 games into the season our record is just as good as it was last year: 15-11. Hopefully Steve comes out of his slump and Yao continue's to improve because we are desparately needing something right now.
Yao is Yao. but what is Yao? Comparing him to other greats is just a way to describe him, not define him.
If I had to describe Yao as an NBA player I would probably use Tim Duncan.. similar playing styles not fancy but very fundamental. Similar body types but Tim Duncan is much more mobile than Yao. I like Tim's demeanor too.. very docile and quiet doesnt demand to be the teams leader I remember reading an article where Duncan didnt want that burden. The best player doesnt always mean being the leader.. I think SF can still be the leader (floor general) while Yao develops into the teams best player. some added thoughts. J
Yao should not be compared to Olajuwon ever. He's not that kind of player. Yao should not be compared to Ewing ever. Ewing was a big, strong, tall center with a mediocre skill set. Yao should be compared to Kareem, a tall, thin, gangly center, with a highly developed skill set. Kareem's body naturally matured. He was never as dominating a rebounder as Wilt or Russell or even Big Red and people complained his whole career about his rebounding. But his body developed and he got his share of boards. And he won 6 rings, with his skill set and his passing out of the double team. Yao is already a far superior passer to Kareem and is almost Kareem's equal in the rebounding department. Yao's offensive game lacks some of the polish of Kareem's game down low but Yao has tremendously more range than Kareem did. Yao's post positioning will improve. Kareem played with the Big O and Magic, two of the greatest ball distributors and smartest team players to ever play the game. Yao is playing with a high octane, offensive talent in Steve Francis. Francis is nowhere near Magic or Oscar in ball distribution and understanding the flow of the game and how to get Yao the rock. Put a rookie Kareem in the game with Steve Francis and he would struggle like Yao is. Put a young Yao in with Oscar Robertson and he would thrive the way that Kareem did with Oscar.
What do you guys think about my comments regarding our new coach? Has he really made that much of a difference?
This coach has brought this team up to speed defensively. This team is a very good defensive team, a drastic improvement over last year's team in that regard. The jury is still out on Van Gundy offensively and will continue to be out until he comes up with a team that can score some points. The Knicks couldn't score and now this team can't score. When Van Gundy was hired, he had made it clear that he wanted to play uptempo basketball. But it hasn't happened yet. Why? I suspect it is because he doesn't want to give up anything defensively. Everybody is packed in on the defensive end, defending the whole court and then working inside to help with the interior defense and rebounding. Nobody on this team has been put in a position to run. Nobody is releasing to the other end. They are all packed in to the bucket. They gotta defend every shot. No open shots. In my opinion, you have to give up something to get something, in this case, offensive and defensive balance. I think Van Gundy is struggling with that. He seems to be so focused on making all the plays defensively that some of our much needed offense is sitting on the bench too many minutes, namely MoT and Pike and dare I say, Boki. And what isn't on the bench is underneath their own goal defending. I think Van Gundy needs to rethink his basketball philosophy and tweak his lineups and defensive assignments. In other words, we need to start MoT and accept his defensive and rebounding weaknesses, work on him to improve them as much as possible, but we need Mo's offensive game working with Yao. We are losing too much on the offensive end and not getting enough push out of the defense to make up for what we lose on offense with Yao and Cato playing together. It's a negative return. Van Gundy has got to experiment a little with MoT in the starting lineup. And then he also needs to experiment at the guard and small forward position as well. JJ is giving us great defensive, once again just like Cato has been doing, but dude is shooting what...30% or so. It's too easy for the defense to leave him open. He ain't canning the shot. So Van Gundy may need to give up some defense initially at the beginning of the game in order for us to get some points and still be in the game later on. He needs to try Boki or Pike, preferrable Boki because of his size, at the 3, and bring JJ off the bench. He could bring in JJ rather quickly if Boki or Pike ain't hitting. Or he could yank JJ rather quickly if JJ ain't hitting. I don't see him making those adjustments. And I feel the primary reason he hasn't made those adjustments is because defense is such a HIGH priority to him. To the point that he has made it too high of a priority. Remember Doug Moe. Those Nugget teams ran the score up night after night after night. Moe's starting lineups were always about scoring points. He had to have T.R. Dunn on his teams to have any semblance of defense. And T.R. Dunn never got minutes unless no other offensive firepower was available. I think Van Gundy is the complete opposite of Doug Moe. He wants all defense stalwarts on the floor dogging the opponent for 94 feet. And he overcompensates his minutes and makes judgments on playing time based too much on defensive play. Consequently Cato and JJ in the lineup, and playing too many minutes and Mo, Pike, and Boki not getting enough minutes, and Cat and Francis in no position to run any kind of break. And consequently our offense absolutely ssssssssssssssucks! Just like the Knicks!
