Fell free to merge this thread but I think its important to point out a couple of things about Yao's foot injury. 1. When was this season really lost? Probably right after Mcgrady had gone down. The chances of making the playoffs then were slim at best and the reality was even if we made it as an 8 seed we had no hope of winning even one series. 2. What defines this season: Sure, it can be missing the playoffs... I'll buy that. But just as much, it will be the development of Yao. Most of that took place when the season was to me (and many others) completely lost. People were lauding the progress Yao made this season. We were tracking his run to 20+ and 10+. We watched Yao become a man this season. What if we cut his minutes back to "save him for next season?" 3. Why in the HELL would you take a guy who's biggest knock has been that he is soft, and doesn't show up for games against lesser centers. Hmm.. reinforce to him that he has to play all the time by not playing him? Great theory. 4. If we have finally gotten the real Yao out of his shell... in 5 years nobody will look back and say oh man they shouldn't have played him down the stretch. He learned to be a man this year. Mostly in a season that was lost. Letting him dominate the opposition day in and day out... even with no shot at the playoffs wasn't a bad idea. It was a coming of age. Don't complain he was playing... be glad he was dominating. There's nothing else to say. Its unfortuante he got hurt but that's the way it works. Don't coddle him. He doesn't need that. He has learned a valuable lesson, and become effective when he was the man now. Now if we surround Yao with good talent we've got a shot to win any game... you couldn't say that a year ago. A year ago he was an excellent #2 option. Now he's a legit #1. That all happened in a meaningless season which turned out to be not so meaningless. As a YOF, don't be so myopic as to say that Yao was a legit #1 scorer.. nor if you are a JVG hater should you be screaming what an idiot he was. For all we have b1tched and moaned about how JVG didn't develop talent... he developed Yao pretty damn well. He's not my favorite coach, but if he leaves at the end of the year.. he has to at be given at least partial credit for Yao's coming of age. Mike Mike.
while no one likes the result I beleive you run out the strand I don't beleive in the last leg of the race. . . you know u lost that you just walk off the track and never finish finish Rocket River
the development of Yao in this season peaked two to three weeks ago. He did NOT develop any better after that. He REGRESSED. And he GOT INJURED. So please save your cheap talk.
not really...his shooting percentage was still good, outside of one game. it's just that defenses focused more on him...something he should see as much as possible so that when T-Mac returns next year, he will have it easier.
I think you are incorrect! The only thing that changed is that Yao Ming became more concerned abouit his team rather than his own development as a dominator. He didn't peak and fall, he just focused differently.
Yao became LESS AGGRESSIVE on the board. He became LESS AGGRESSIVE attacking the DT. He struggled with fronting AGAIN. His defense got WORSE (even JVG pointed it out) and his foul numbers shot UP. Don't you see all of these? Can you honestly say in the past 2-3 weeks Yao has played as well as the 15 games or so after the ASG? Not even close!
Maybe he was tired, or maybe other teams were simply paying a LOT more attention to Yao, and forcing the rest of the team to try to shoot. DD
...And all these things would have improved if he was sitting on the bench, watching in full health, right?
whatever the reason is, he went the direction away from where he was going up to the Mavs game on 3/15. Before that game, he was truely shaq-like, attacking the basket like a monstor and fighting for ever rebounds. After that game, he went back to taking fade aways and he got outrebounded by other C's like Wilcox, etc. He couldn't get good position with Miller fronting him. I called to rest him immediately after the Mavs game. If you check game log, you will see that was the turning point. If you see a situation in which your franchaise player will regress, the best thing to do is not to put him in that situation. Teams have used injured list for that purpose. With our playoff hope gone, we should've done that to Yao .
Yes. He wouldn't regress at least. He sat out 21 games and he understood the game better. Some time, playing doesn't improve you, instead it makes things worse. Successful people do not do things they are likely to fail. Got it?
Cannoner, Ok and how does that change anything? Yao has a broken foot, you called for him to be benched....OK......and life goes on...and oh yeah, Yao has a broken foot. Just hope for the best dude, nothing else we can do at this point. Oh and hate to break your point with meaningless things like stats. The REGRESSING Yao you are talking about after the Mavs game on 3/21(excluding last night injury game) he averaged: 25.88ppg 10.55 rpg Look it up Clearly he needed rest.... DD
Time off was once a commodity for Yao, and everyone wished he had it. Who here would honestly say that resting Yao would be bad form? If JVG had rested Yao the last few games, most of us would agree that Yao could use the time off. It was once the crutch that was propped up as to why Yao was not dominating, developing slowly, and had questionable conditioning. Yao playing year 'round, even though he doesn't play as much as he used to outside of the NBA, should always be in the minds of the Rockets organization. If you want many years of healthy and productive Yao, those extra miles aren't going to help. The guy is a freaking 300+lb, 7'6" GIANT. I think there's ample concern and history with Yao, that if this scenario rolls around again, it would be handled differently. He's had too many issues with the left foot to not be concerned about preserving his longevity.
I just hope people learn a lesson, stop the cheap talk, be practical from now on. I bet they will still bring the "professionalism", "proud", "he will learn this or that" cliche next time a situation like this arises. Is that too much to ask? Aparently yes. Just read recent posts, you'd think they'd do everything exactly the same way if we could go back 2 weeks.
Watch the games, not the stat sheets! You will see my points. Basically he and Z canceled each other. Wilcox totaly outplayed him. He was non-factor in the Blazers game. And then he got outplayed by Miller. That is FOUR bad games in 2 weeks. He was OWNING EVERYONE in that stretch after the ASG. Did he regress or not?
canoner2000 you're doing a great job of reviving the concept of the YOF on this board. enough already.
I'd probably go with Zach_Kang on that count. Canonner's on more of a "JVG is a moron" bent. Damn JVG for making Yao act like a professional, and causing freak accidents to occur.
my feelings exactly. yaos JOB is to play basketball, and i hate to break it, but as a basketball player, youre always learning...so i think the experience helps yao one way or another, you cant say hes figured the game out completely because hes had half a season dominating... i say jvg did the right thing by playing yao, and bad foot be damned...yao couldve had a perfect left foot and his foot still wouldve been broken, that was just out of anyones control...and besides sitting yao for 5 games at the end of the season isnt going to give him all the rest he needs from a year round schedule my $0.02
Quite frankly, I totally agree with you on Yao seemingly has started to regress 2-3 weeks ago. Interestingly, it was right after JVG "complained" of Yao slacking off on defense, even though Yao had like a 30+ monster game. It also appears that some teams have already figured out how to react to our offensive schemes in getting Yao the ball. Just look at both the Portland and Sacramento's games. They were both able to front Yao successfully throughout the whole game. And I don't think Yao's regression has only to do with the other teams' adjustments. He's definitely been looking much more passive, as a matter of fact, looking damn tired past 2 weeks. Even when he was singlely covered, he was less able to back down his defender or his spin moves simpily much slower. It is quite possible that his foot might have already started bothering him. Stress fracture doesn't happen overnight just like that. I am glad to see Yao started dominating after the ASG, but I also want a dominating Yao for years to come, not a short-lived, injury-proned Yao. That's why I'm always for Yao mixing up his low post moves with some, and I repeat "some", not exclusively, plays in the high post. Not only it would make it harder for the other teams to adjust to our offensive schemes, I truely believe it would also prolong our franchise player's longevity. Peace.
