Yao also have great footworks as well, remember those moves he pulls off during his rookie year? JVG has made those completely disappear.
If anyone has those Yao videos that were posted a while back...you can see what Yao used to do before JVG made him into the player he is right now.
Who cares? We have "system", a system that brought the knicks to the finals once. Then it must be greatest of all time. So Yao has to mold his game to ewing/cambry. Howard, T-mac and JJ have to mold their games to Thomas, Spree and houston. Luckily we locked ward for 3 more years, otherwise we wont find that irreplaceable heart and soul of the team.
The best teacher for yao is himself. The key is the desire. He can do what he wants to do.His rebounds have been improved a lot in recent games.
in regard to yao current playing style...bill worrell said it best when yao shot an air ball from 20ft last game...."yao use to make that shot..." i blame gundy for not maximizing yao strengths...shooting and passing
Yao's greatest strength right now is his size. His mere presence alters defenses. His outside shooting has seemingly left him. His passing isn't being used much. Is this JVG's fault? I think you can say so. But then the thought of a 7'6" 300 lbs monster shooting 18 foot jumpshots seems like a waste as well.
If Yao Ming has any greatest strength, it will lie in his ultimate realization that in the third year, nobody will defend him any more if he still plays mediocrity while being hailed, hyped, and paid as a superstar, and that he has to show the real thing, or else. The first two seasons, everybody--fans, media, and his own entourage--were so ready to defend him and so ready to cite that he was in the period of adjusting that it made Yao Ming very comfortable to hang there without seriously evaluating himself. On the other hand, I believe anything, including human being, is made of opposing forces. In terms of Yao Ming, there might two opposing forces struggling inside of him: one is driving force to push him ahead(which isn't very strong evidently), and the other is holding him to stay put and comfortable (which is stronger because of his easier past experiences, comparing with other tough NBA players). For the first two seasons, the outside factors made him comfortable to stay put, so the driving force is defeated. Right now, the situation has changed. The media, the fans, and the management are not satisfied with his performances, the force holding him to stay put may be, I do hope, defeated. Therefore, I hope real soon, we will see Yao Ming's improvement. Still I believe, the one helps Yao Ming is Yao Ming himself.
Yao's strengths: 1) Quickness 2) Speed 3) High flyer 4) great ball handling abilities 5) low turnovers
Yao's weaknesses: 1) being short 2) bad passer 3) shoot like Shaq 4) ego bigger than Kobe, and 5) slept with more women than Chamberlain.
This might sound hokey but I'm starting to think that JVG and the trade has really crushed Yao's spirit. While he was uneasy and uncertain in the last few years there were also many times that you could tell that he was really enjoying himself. I just don't see that right now. I think we're finding out now how much of Francis' fire helped also fueled Yao.
'roun these parts Francis is the anti-Christ. Clutch.fans checked personally and have the sixes to prove this deviltry. resist the temptation to say good things about Francis.
Yao does not play smart this year as his last two years. He misbelieves he has more strength this year which he receices more offence calls and he shoots when he is not in his better position. Maybe Ewuing misleads yao into wrong direction.
I do think Yao needs a strong on court presence to keep him locked in and to pump him up. Steve provided this for him. We need a Darrell Armstrong type to do that for him now.
Yao's strengths WERE outside shooting court vision and passing variety of post moves ability to clog the lane with enormous size, esp. assisted by quick weakside shotblocking defender. All taken away by JVG.
