Hey, if I remember correctly, that worked just fine once before If Yao can become Dream, then we will have nothing to worry about.
Yao's recent play got me curious. Here's a graph of Yao's game-by-game rebounding stats from 2004/2005 thru the current 2005/2006 season. NOTES: a) blue markers are actual stats per game, b) green is a 5th order polynomial trend line, c) yellow is a 4 game moving average. There's a definite shift from his 04/05 performance in the 05/06 season. I put a thicker line at 10 rpg to help draw out the visibility a bit. First off you'll notice starting in 05/06 (81 games on) he's been steadily increasing his rebounds per game. The moving avg trends show this as you can see Yao edging and crossing into the 10 rpg. 2ndly the swings in the moving average for the 05/06 season are not near as dramatic as they were in the 04/05 season. I'm guessing this means he's also getting much more consistent in his rebounding. 3rdly Yao has established this increased rebounding trend over a 34 game stretch over the course of the 05/06 season which is by far longer than any stretch of games he's had any upswing in rebounding in 04/05. All in all very encouraging to see .
Wow great analysis Tango. I don't know what it all means, but if the bottom line is: Yao=Good Then that's great.
People need to refrain from comparing yao to the past greats. there only putting unwarranted and unrealistic on yao. he is a 20-10 center. he in my opinion has surpassed shaq as the most consistant center in the league.
I do not agree YAO will be more than a 20/10 center Yao will be more like a 26/14 guy he just needs to take more shots and stop deferring Rocket River
Wow 26/14? Hakeem's best rebounding year was 14 with 24 points. You think Yao will put up better numbers than Dream with today's defenses? Yao has definitely improved, if he continues his improvement like he has shown in every year of his professional basketball career, he MIGHT get there. That's what is so great about Yao, his upside is so damn high b/c of his height and touch with the ball.
26/14 is a major reach. The best rebounder in the league hardly boards over 13 rpg these days, let alone Yao who's far from the top rebounder in the league. But he is on the best rebounding streak of his career, averaging 10.6 rpg since he's come back from surgery, so it's not too much to hope that he can sustain that kind of production. And if he keeps up shooting the ball as much as he's had lately, and gets his FG% back into the 55%+ area, then he can definitely score better. I'd say 23-24 ppg and 10-11 rpg would be an optimistic, yet attainable goal for Yao.
I like your enthusiam ... but 26/14... ... I hope you are right though ... a few seasons with those number plus a healthy Tmac will bring multiple championships to Houston.
DEFENSE and REBOUNDING are about WILL Yao's will needs to be even stronger and I am getting that from him I think he is looking to improve more 14 maybe much but i won't go for less than 12 Rocket River
I wouldn't want more than a 2 point gap between Yao's ppg and T-Mac's. I would want T-Mac handling the ball in the clutch and I would want T-Mac taking over in the 4th. T-Mac can not only make amazing things happen for himself, he can do it for his team mates, too.
Kaman is better than Dampier the 2nd best center in the league. So that makes him the #1 center. Seriously though, he has been a good center. He has 21 double doubles for the season. I never expected him to have 20 double doubles for a whole season, but he has it by February. Definitely, better than the other centers drafted in recent years, Darko, Curry, and Chandler. He had his own 22 pt 22 rebound game against the Bobcats. Never mind Bobcats, don't count.
