One thing I noticed about Yao is his ability to improve every year. Hopefully, this series will benefit him in the longer run as Yao knows what his weaknesses are going into the playoffs and what he needs to work on: 1) Limiting his TOs. I'm sure he'll look back at the tapes and figure out ways to minimize his TOs so he doesn't have that "butter fingers" syndrome anymore. 2) The physical aspect of playoffs that isn't as prevalent during the regular season. Yao now knows that he will have to play that much more physical and he will probably look at ways to maintain his offensive efficiency when the game becomes much more physical. 3) Passing out of double teams before he is swamped with defenders. I noticed that in game 7, he was more likely to pass out before he was swamped. 4) Reduce getting the ball stripped when he brings the ball towards the basket. 5) Adding more fake and deceptive moves so he is not as predictable and doesn't get blocked on his shot. Somehow, I get a feeling that he will take the loss in this series to heart and concentrated on improving for next season. IMO, it would be a mistake to trade him without giving him the chance to see if he is able to remedy these problems by next season. He played a very good 2nd half (with 0 turnovers in the 2nd half) and one wonders if he started to finally figure some of his deficiencies by this game. Unfortunately, it was a little too late. Rocket Zoom
Hakeem learned something new every year when finally at the age of 32 won it all. I think Yao has time, and he will be only 27 in September I believe...... Yao has time.... DD
he needs to learn how to throw some bows. no way in hell boozer would have gone at shaq the way he went at yao without having his ass sent to the wood. yao's biggets problem isn't his turnovers or his rebounding; its that NOBODY is scared of him. sure they respect him, but its obvious nobody is afraid of him. and at this level, the game is all mental. and i blame that on jvg. he may be a great Xs and Os coach but its obvious that in his 4 seasons here he has been a TERRIBLE motivator. i understand that tmac loves him, but im pretty sure alot of that just has to do with the fact that jvg lets tmac do whatever he wants. any good coach would work with yao and let him know the way he's getting abused is turning him into a laughing stock in the nba. an ongoing flashback to the clown he was in his first games as a rookie. and a good coach would tell him he needs to put a stop to the clowning by making anyone that comes at him eat wood. make them eat it hard. who cares if he gets ejected or suspended. i'll sacrifice yao missing 30 games if it means he's finally growing some balls and intimidating people. regular season means jack anyways.
Yao needs to play the game lowering his center of gravity 5 inches...in an athletic stance. If anyone has tried, you get tired of playing like this, but over time you get used to it. It will help him defensively as well as move laterally on offense. Rafer needs to learn how to finish. He also needs to practice off-the-dribble jumpers...look at film of Sam Cassell... Chuck needs to chuck his shooting form. Here is his opportunity.
Yao can definitely improve but he really does have a lower ceiling than other players like Hakeem. He is just soooo slow and has a very small vertical, that he's never going to be a good rebounder, and is always going to have problems finishing aggressively in the paint. Turnovers will probably always be an issue because the fact is he is tall and slow. Anytime he catches the ball outside his comfort zone and has to dribble, he is at a disadvantage. The only real remedy to this is for him to pass it back out and then repost once he gets closer. In order to repost closer to the basket, he needs more strength, but honestly Yao is pretty damn strong right now. The problem is that he's so tall, his center of gravity is too high. I really don't think getting any stronger will solve any of his problems. I think Yao's main improvement (if any) will come from the mental side of the game. He really does need to get mean. I would love to see him get pissed and just throw an "inadvertent" bow into Okur's Turkey Neck. Or after he gets pushed down or fouled hard, I want him to get up and get in the guy's face like Okur did to Juwon that time in Utah. The other side of Yao's improvement will come from a different offensive gameplan. Honestly, Yao's full potential as a passer and SHOOTER is not being utilized. Bill Walton became a hall of famer just by playing the high post and using his shooting and passing to pick apart defenses. I hope that the new coach for the Rockets (whoever he is) utilizes this aspect of Yao. For somebody who can shoot as well as he can, he rarely takes face up jumpers. For somebody with his height, he rarely does any passing to cutters. Playing Yao in the high post will also give him some freakin rest instead of having to always pound it down low. It's obvious that Yao is physically disadvantaged in some areas and we need to find better ways to compensate and shine his strengths.
He gave NO weak side help at all this series. NONE! Come to think about it... he gave no weak side help this whole god damn season. Come on Yao! The reason we lost is because Utah realized this and stopped being scared of him when they were shooting in the paint.
I have three assignments for Yao: 1) play basketball with instinct and play it for fun. 2) hire a coach to teach you rebounding. 3) Add some tricks: boxing out, flopping, illegal defense...
The 1st is most important now. Yao has been totally robotlized these years. He also needs to learn Malone elbow skills to deter the opponents.
What Yao needs to do is to hang out with Stephen Jackson and Pacman Jones during the summer. Once these two toughen him up and Pacman shows him how to "make it rain", he will need training on his hand skills. He looses too many balls, so we need to get him to work out with Frank Dux from Bloodsport. Maybe tie a blindfold on Yao and make him catch fishes inside a water tank...
That's right. I hate when Yao gets the ball. Two steps and a fade away jumper...He's soing that every time and I HATE THAT. He should make his moves better He HAS TO cut his TOs
Enough joking...here are the things Yao needs to really work on this off-season: 1) The health of his knee. He came back from the injury but was never really 100%...which is natural and expected. Though he tried and played hard, he never really reached that pre-injury level and when the better teams in the league (playoff caliber) teams pushed him, you could tell he still had healing to do. There is something about knee injuries that takes time. They don't heal quickly and even if they appear to be healed, there is that little extra that is missing for awhile. In the Utah case, Yao seemed to be unable to get any leverage off of that leg. This resulted in an inability to hold position and when they threw multiple bodies at him he tired and reverted to fadeaways. He has never been a great rebounder but that suffered as well. All related to the injury. 2) The Rockets need to get a point grd early in the summer and have Yao and whoever it is work on plays together and develop a rythm. 3) Continue with his physical development...strengt/stamina, exspecially stamina. Again, the injury affected this more than anything. Early in the season Yao seemed to have the stamina issue licked but after 10 weeks off due to injury he struggled when he returned.
good post. we didnt realize our season ended when Yao was injured and/or no real trade was made to help the roster (PG or PF)
He just needs some tutoring from Akeem and Moses, period...Stop going to f'n China and stay here and work...Become the dominant player you should be...
