If Ming can't do it, he should not have shown us that he could. I can't get the Dallas game (rookie season) out of my mind. I was blown away, a star is born I thought. All those moves, all those shots, wow, I am so lucky to be watching the birth of a superstar. Well, after innumerable uninspiring performances sprinkled with a few monster performances (the recent Suns game), I remain confused, bewildered, and disappointed. Does Ming really like the game? Does he like going to the bench more than playing? Does he "dumb foul" himself out of games on purpose? Does he care? Right now, he appears to be "gearing himself down" for the playoffs. Last year, he virtually disappeared, came up small. I really get tired of his whole demeanor, his lack of aggressiveness, his passiveness (the same thing, I guess), his apparent disinterest. But then when he puts on a superhuman performance, I am even more confused. I don't know who he is, maybe he doesn't either. Expectations? I frankly don't know what to expect, but if I were his coach, I would be starting to lose patience. His inconsistency is exasperating.
Too bad your numbers can't reveal heart, soul, guts & determination. That would be an interesting graph for certain rockets. What would be DK's score, Yao Ming's? Who can you win with right now? Who has the heart of a champion ? T mac certainly.
Too bad you're irrational . Man I was expecting to deal with the Yao-worshippers, not all the Yao-haters. Take a deep breath and ask yourself - where should Yao be in his development? I did that and decided to try and be objective about it and applied the above analysis. What I found is that if I expected Yao to be more than an 19 ppg player at this point in his career I discovered that certainly doesn't match what performance learning curves tell us. It would be a power curve that's decreasing vs. increasing.
solid: Hopefully a picture is worth a thousand words here. You expect a straight upward inclined line. Experience tells us to expect different. Interestingly enough - here's a quote from the website that pic is from... "In the acquisition of skills, a major issue is the reliability of the performance. Any novice can get it right occasionally (beginner’s luck), but it is consistency which counts, and the progress of learning is often assessed on this basis." All that in perspective - sure sounds like Yao is learning to me.
One has to consider the human body as the biggest factor. A learning curve is mostly a mental progression, whereas wear and tear on the human body is strictly physical. As he gets older it's hard to believe that his stamina's going to improve considerably. I also think that perhaps his contribution to the team each year is a more accurate benchmark. I haven't done this myself, but if someone looks at how much he statistically contributed his rookie year up until now, pre, and post VanGundy, then we may see something more tangible.
I have actually heard that men psychologically perform better when they are yelled at. It motivates them to do something about the situation (strict discipline). Psychologically for women they do the opposite. Do we need a coach to yell at Yao like maybe a pissed off Jabaar or something??? Someone light a match under Yao's as_ !!! Someone needs to tell Yao why they are doing it first and then they need to yell at him every day until he does something about it. Dominate!!! I said dominate you @#%&**^#!!!
Is anyone else getting sick of the "Yao didn't play college basketball arguement?" Maybe he didn't, but he got to play alot more proffesional basketball than the college players. This allowed him alot more practice time and to learn an all around game, which contributes to his great passing and outside shooting touch. There's alot of European players in this league and also the one's that jumped straight from high school that have developed faster. Dirk, Nash, Manu, Parker, Peja, Vlade, etc. Then there's Amare, Garnett, Lebron, Etc. Most all these players developed very fast. You could argue the center is the hardest position to play in the NBA, but then again it has the weakest competition. One of my bigggest fears for the organization is that we give Yao the max and he never develops into a solid and consistant superstar.
Dang, that`s quite impressive. Thanks for the charts etc..., but really... I can`t see Yao being on the level with the Hakeems... I think he will always be a notch below the top tier of Centers of the past. I think if he consistently shoots 15-20 shots a game, he will average 18-25 ppg. At best, he will only average 9-10 boards which is why I believe we need to get an enforcer type PF. Everything else should fall into place and we should see a championship within the next few years. I am so happy to have been raised in H-town. We`ve seen 2 championships. I mean after the Oilers and the Astros and all to their *choke* games, Its refreshing to always have a *competitive* team in the Rockets.
We need an enforcer type power forward but don't have one. Juwan can shoot very well. Maybe call up Barkley or the mail man. They are too old though. That's why I was thinking to throw in Dike for a while with Yao in another thread I started.
What? Are you kidding???!!! Dirk took 4 1/2 years; did you forget Nash's first stint in Phoenix; at this point Manu is a 16/4.5 at best so I don't think you'd want to make that comparison; don't get me started about Parker; Peja's first two year stats were 8.4 and 11.9 PPG on a Kings team tailor made for him; Yao is already a better player than Divac ever was; Garnett's development almost exactly matches Yao's; Amare has the benefit of playing against Nash (it also helps when you don't "waste" any energy on D). Lebron is arguably the only exception, but at this point he's nothing more than a statistical anomoly. The black swan so to speak. Making no assumptions and theories about Yao's development, I hardly think you made a legitimate argument.
Exactly! On top of that, Nash played college ball in the U.S. Look at TMac, Jermaine O'neal, Rashard Lewis, and Kobe's stats. None of them progressed a whole lot faster than Yao currently is.
All this B*tchin wont do anything. Lets just give him the max, cross our fingers and see what happens. Its a gamble which is worth all the risks.
All I have to say to this is that they gave SF, MoTa, and Cato max deals and Yao is a MUCH better all around player then those three clowns with a whole lot more upside.
From your comments, it seems the conclusion have be that Yao is a little above average as an NBA player development, but nowhere close to a superstar. Remember the learning curve is based on average statistically.
In the original post, it was explained the learning curve applied to almost every thing well. I don't understand why you still can't compare between NBA centers and PFs, when people are already comparing aircraft production to Yao's production.
He will be a good player putting up borderline all-star numbers for a long time. But I dont think Yao could ever be a dominant player. He lacks "it". Dominant players won't wince and stop shooting when they are missing a few shots. They have confidence in themselves and are ready to carry their teams. Yao seems mentally weak. Dominate players won't try to be a "team" player at the expense of the team. Yao has a habit to blend in rather than be assertive. He defers to stars as well as scrubs. For god's sake, he has the 3rd highest FG% in the league. Also, he should always prepare to snatch rebounds in his hands. If you are only an average bigman, talking about "team rebounding" shows your lack of confidence and responsibility. Dominant players won't try to do things beyond their ability. They would force their coach and teammates to adjust to them. Yao is happy to do whatever JVG tells him. He's too obedient and making himself a fool. Dominant players always try to demolish and humiliate their opponents. Yao is too much a "nice" (synonym to "weak") guy. He's even afraid to throw an elbow.
Jabaar comes in as assistant and needs to be an as_ho__! Forget about reputation. It's the only thing that is going to get Yao fired up. I think Yao has been babied too much in his life. With his gameboy and Mom's cooking and all this stuff. Yao needs boot camp and an a__ whoopin'.. (not literally).. He just needs someone to ride his as_.. I hope Jabaar would do that. JVG tries to discipline you by taking you out of the game. I am telling you Yao needs to be yelled at and man handled! He will not like it but it would turn him into the warrior we need. He is a spoiled little wimpy brat right now. He needs basketball boot camp!
Now hang on a minute there Snow... It takes an extreme amount of confidence to come from a country like China over to the USA and play at the highest level. So lets not even go there until you have walked in those shoes for a bit. I really don't think its an accurate assessment on your part to convalute Yao's willingness to listen to a coach with him making himself a fool...not to sure how you got to that point. "Nice" is not even close to being a synonym for "weak". Just because Yao chooses to play with honor and dignity rather then being a trash talking thug like a lot of the NBA players doesn't make him weak, but rather makes him strong and above all those who choose a lesser path. Yao currently ranks 22nd in the league in RPG out of 450 players and is a group with the likes of Rasheed Wallace, PJ Brown, etc. Yao currently ranks 30th in the league in PPG and 3rd in FG%. I don't mind when we are dissapointed in Yao's performance when compared to our perceptions as to where he should be in his career and care to vent abotu it, but keep in mind that they are only our perceptions. But I cannot stand by and let people just post these types of ill-advised, assumptive, nonsensical comments without a response.
