i don't know how to look this up but it seems like yao has always done well in back-to-back situations dating well past this year. i'd like to know his numbers i bet this season isn't abnormal at all as far as that situation is concerned.
Could be that Yao steps it up when he knows his teammates are tired? It's just like him to do that, taking on a bigger role only when he thinks his teammates need him to. In fact, I've always thought he was far too selfless and that the Rockets will be a championship-level team as soon as Yao decides it's his responsibility to get us there.
Just what I thinks. I have found some weird phenomena that is always ignored, so I'm here to help those who are married remind how they looked like before they got married. Marriage is a gift for the females while it's an evil for the men. The men always feel exhausted after they get married, especially right after they *** their wives. While the females feel excited and energetic right after the same activity. It's a well accepted idea that the married females generally look younger than the unmarried ones, but it's just opposite to men. For instance of the X-movies, Hugh Jackman looks older than his partener Halle Berry who was born in 1966, but Hugh was born in 1968. Say Hugh is two years younger than Halle yet looks older than her.(both of them were married when they were making the movies.) What if no one get married (I mean the actual marriage)? Will the men rosters get aging a little bit slower? I suppose it'll be positive. So I suggest all the professional sporters say no to marriages and females, just for their own goods.
I think it's way too small of a sample size to draw that conclusion. If this was true over the course of his entire career, or even just one season, then that would be a different story. I think the biggest factor is the quality of the opponent, the type of center he was matched up with, and how the other team defended him. His worst game of the season, which happened to be one of the 2 games he played on 2 or more days of rest, was against the Celtics, the best defensive team in the league. I imagine that it's very likely Yao would have struggled at least as much if we happened to play the Celtics on the tail end of a back-to-back. His best game of the season, which happened to be the second game of a back-to-back, was against Dallas, a team Yao has routinely owned throughout his career, regardless of how many days of rest he had before playing them. Yao simply owns Dampier most of the time, regardless of most other factors. Furthermore, his 30 points (11-15 FG, 8-8 FT) and 13 rebounds heavily skew the data for back-to-backs since there has only been a few. If we had played Boston in a back-to-back and Dallas after multiple days of rest, your data would tell a whole different story. If you can pull this data for a season, or for his career, we might learn something significant, which includes the possibility that there isn't much significance in the number of days between games and Yao's performance.
So we're saved in playoffs by that stats. I don't pay attention to that, it's sorta like if McGrady gets enough sleep than he would play better. True is that Yao can't be beaten up so much because of injuries and must be saved for playoffs because when it comes to playoff time he will be the most important player on this team and key to success.
Here are Yao's updated stats (and opponents) after 13 games played: 0 days rest (dal, lac, noh, orl): 22.25 ppg 10.25 rpg 2 bpg 33-54 = 61.1 fg% 23-24 = 95.8 ft% 1 day rest (okc, por, lal, sas, okc): 14.6 ppg 9 rpg 1.4 bpg 28-56 = 50% 17-23 = 73.9% 2 days rest or more (mem, bos, phx, was): 16 ppg 9.25 rpg 1.5 bpg 23-51 = 45.1% 18-22 = 81.8% According to these numbers, ignoring opponents, you would conclude that Yao plays from best to worst with: 1. No rest 2. 2 or more days of rest 3. 1 day of rest The 45.1 FG% is heavily skewed by his worst game of the season against Boston, the best defensive team in the league. Take away that game and he's shooting 51.4% on 2 or more days rest. So, my conclusion is this sample size is too small to draw any conclusions about the impact of numbers of days of rest. The biggest factors I see are the quality of opponent (matchup, how they defended Yao) and pure randomness. To find any possible significance in the relationship between days of rest and Yao's performance, you should really look at his entire career or at least a season or two. Note: I didn't take the time to double-check the math.
Morey being reputed as a stat guy would probably notice and will work on it. its all about giving the big guy the right balance.
What did jvg say, i was watching worrell. Yao still has stamina issues, no respectable NBA player should be tugging at his shorts 5 minutes into the game. If anybody knows, does Falcone still work with him and is Sikma or CD still do individual workouts with him.
That's why I feel simply cutting his practice time and ask him to play long minutes in game may not work very well. People needs sufficient time to refine their skills (like practice shooting, practice some movement etc). You can't just rely on games themselves to refine your skills (of course, you can't only rely on practice to refine your skills, you have to apply what you practiced in games and figure out how it works in real situations, and how you can improve it further under real situations).
