Clearly the majority of the blame should be directed towards that b*stard Karl Malone with his rough play and flopping...
That's the elephant in the room. But moomoo's undoubtedly right. Yao sat out the bulk of the 2nd qtr. and other than the fact that JVG does get stubborn in a heartbeat the fact remains that he's trying to coach a 7'6 guy to stop penetration in the lane (if it doesn't get too far) and then rush out to the 3 pt. line. A 7-footer hitting 3's is hard to stop for any team, but you can't ask Shaq or Yao to do it. JVG's enough of a pro to look like he knows what he's doing on the sideline when his team is getting murdered, but he always seems pissed off enough that he can blame who he wishes to. Does anyone have a quote from JVG about him actually changing anything offensively or defensively since he's been here? This time around it just might be that several players aren't really buying into his philosophies. I'm beginning to think Yao might be on the verge of becoming one of them.
I agree that Yao is asked to do a lot for someone of his size. Guarding the 3, trapping pick and rolls, and patrolling the paint while our guards lack of defense somtimes leave him vulnerable. I am just wondering if we are seeing some growing pains with our new players because if it is the responsibility of the SG or PG to rotate over to Raef then I can understand what the problem might be. I think sometimes that JVG's defensive schemes are so complex that it takes a while for new additions to completely understand them which is why I think we have these slow starts at the beginning of the season. If it was the responsibility of TMac I wonder why it happened as he has been here for a while and should know his role in the defense.
