I was just wondering if I am seeing things or not.. Lately, after almost every time down the court, whenever Yao does someting with the ball that ends a play - bucket, foul, get fouled, turnover, lost rebound, etc etc.. anything stops the current play, either good or bad for the Rockets, I am seeing Yao always looking at the bench with a dismayed expression on his face. You can never tell who he's looking at, but I would have to assume, barring any other info on this, that he is looking at JVG when he does this.. the looks seem to say 'Oh crap! I screwed that up again! I made another mistake!' I know I am probably over-generalizing, and most likely making more of this than there really is.. but from reading other sources, it just looks like JVG is really really hard on Yao. Yao seems lost, and it just doesn't seem like he is getting any LESS lost - it looks like it is getting worse all the time. Granted, Yao still makes a lot of foolish mistakes, like getting into foul trouble too often, and frankly not hustling after rebounds the way I would like. But I have seen performance like that before, and it always seems to happen when a player has just completely lost self-confidence. There's no fire, there's no pride; even when Yao does something really good, the look on his face says 'Yeah, I snared the rebound, slammed it home, got fouled and made the free throw, but I know JVG is still going to be mad at me for something I did wrong there anyway.' I know some coaches are like this - Bobby Knight, guys like that - coaches who believe that the only way to make a player better is to completely tear the player down and 'rebuild' him in the image the coach wants. I am just not so sure that this is the best way to get the most out of Yao's career. I think JVG wants another Patrick Ewing, and that is not what the fans want, it's not what Yao wants (seems to me anyway), and I am pretty sure that that is something Yao is simply never going to be. Yao could be so much more. We never really get to see his alleged superior passing skills. We never really get to see his supposed sweet jumper range (and now when we DO see him take a jumper, it almost never goes - another reflection, IMO, of his blown confidence). We never get to see him dominate a game like he truly should. No, JVG is stubbornly trying to turn Yao in a Patrick clone: back in, 5 feet from the bucket, get the ball, fight through a double team, and get off a little off-balance baby hook. I think it's a tribute to Yao that he has managed to do as well as he has, under the circumstances. JVG is ignoring what should be Yao's strengths, and trying to base his entire game on his weakest areas. So Yao is never going to be Dennis Rodman. Ok. We still need a Danny Fortson-type beefball 4 to do the lion's share of the rebounding. OK. So Yao has not yet learned to grip the ball in his hands in an iron deathgrip whenever he has he ball under the basket, in order to keep from getting stripped every time. Ok. So Yao has a hard time establishing position a lot when he is being fronted down low and being mugged and pounded every time he tries to establish himself. Ok. So he still has a tendency to play helping defense when one of his teammates allows a perimeter player to run right by him to the hoop, leaving Yao as the only thing in the way - causing a lot of his foul trouble. Ok. (Yao *ALMOST got made at one of his teammates last night - when Boki let anderson just rnu right by him, and Yao jumped up and fouled his body.. after the play, Yao was giving Boki a pretty disgusted and discouraged look. To me, that foul was not on Yao, it was on Nachbar. [Boki is another guy who is playing in a beat-down kind of manner, but that's a whole other issue]) Well why keep smashing your head against a wall? Yao HAS improved in those areas over the years, but those things he had as strengths has been almost completely trivialized. Is it just that JVG is just not that good of a coach to be able to adapt his coaching to the strengths of his players? Seems to me to be the case. Yao should be at the top of the key, where it is easy to get him the ball, and where he can either pass, shoot, run a PnR, or dump it off and slash to the hoop without the ball, and get a quick return pass for an easy bucket (contrary to many opinions, Yao DOES have very good hands for catching quick passes; it's more the fact that he lacks the arm/hand strength to withstand the vicious hacking that always comes whenever he has the ball). And sure, if a team has to start single-covering him, then fine, let him post up. Yao has a lot more versatility than what JVG has been insisting on. I just don't get it. And as it stands right now, it would be really hard to imagine Yao wanting to stay here after his contract is up, under these conditions. I hope he will, but this season's start has me worried. Maybe Yao will snap out of it, but I am not seeing any positive signs at all yet, which I had hoped we would by now. No question, JVG is a hell of a defensive coach. But he does not seem to be able to coach an offense at all, or at the very least, his offensive mindset is so limited, he feels the need to mold the players to fit his 'system', rather than recognizing the strengths they have and devise a plan around them. That was one thing Rudy did have - that ability to play to the strengths of his players. Ah well, I need a hug now. It sucks to feel so down after a big road win, close, against a pretty good team.
JVG screwed SF3. JVG is screwing both Yao and TMac. JVG will ruin Yao by the end of the season. JVG will ruin TMac by the end of the season. Yao will leave. TMac will ask for a trade. The Rockets will be left with JVG + his hard core Knicks buddy (Ward + Spoon). And the Rockets will be lottery bound for the next decade.
and Yao was pampered in China since he was a little kid. He is not taking it well. Remember the guy is the only kid in the family and a star basketball player in China.
And the Toyota Cener will CONTINUE to become a ghost town and lose money!! This is EXACTLY what will happen IF Van Grumpy sticks around. I doubt he will!!! Do we really need Van Grumpy to take this team to 6-6?!?!?!? A thousand coaches out there can take this team to 6-6 or better, and do it in a more fun and laid back way!!! Why do the Rox have to do it the hard way with Van Grump's player-destroying life sucking system?!?!? I wouldn't blame Yao if he right now got up and left on a plane to Shanghai or to join Ron Artest on his rap tour!!! F*** YOU VAN GRUMPY!!! FIRE HIM NOW!!!!!!!!
I don't see it at all. I see Yao's frustration after getting called for silly fouls, but I really don't think it's as dramatic as you're saying. When Yao gets the ball anywhere near the basket, he's almost impossible to stop. The only thing I'd change to JVG's use of Yao is to get him the ball earlier in the possesion rather than have him post on one side, fake the feed, and then have him fight for position on the other side again.
We're 6-6 but we were in just about every game we lost. We could easily be 8-4 (definitely had those games vs. ATL and NY) if not better. We've shown we can beat anybody but we've also shown we can lose to anybody. While 6-6 is average, given some more time to gel i think we'll be a good team this year.
This really needed a new thread? Maybe it's just me, a guy who's watched all the games and my fav. player Yao in particular, but Yao seems frustrated over the fact that he's getting beaten to a pulp in the lane without getting fouls called, but racks up the defensive fouls on the other end like it's nothing. Why would he be happy about the way he played yesterday? He didn't break 20 points and spent nearly half the game on the bench in foul trouble. Should he have been grinning from ear to ear? Yeah, he's frustrated. Who wouldn't be? It's a bumpy road to superstardom, and opposing teams aren't taking Yao lightly anymore. They know what he can do. It's going to be tough for him, because it's obvious he's never going to get the calls. Yao knows what he can do, too. That's why this next step is up to him. He can decide not to let anything stop him, to grit his teeth and fight his way through to the next level, to the level of a true superstar, much the same way Kevin Garnett did a little over a year ago. Or he can be happy with his current level of play. That part of his game is up to Yao alone. Sure, the hype has hurt Yao a bit, but here's the bottom line: He and TMac are EXPECTED to be the next Shaq and Kobe. That's the expectation that the organization, fans and TMac himself had when the trade went down. If Jeff Van Gundy does not get TMac and Yao to play at that superior level, to become the next Shaq/Kobe, he's going to be fired. That's the bottom line, and he knows it. It doesn't matter if it's fair to him, doesn't matter if it's fair to Yao and TMac, that's the way it is. He HAS to meet expectations with those two. Right now, Van Gundy is trying every coaching trick in the book to achieve that. He doesn't want to lose his job. One of those tricks is yelling. One of those tricks is having Yao and Mutombo scrimmage before the game. One of those tricks is keeping TMac out for a game even when he was recuperated and wanted to play. Yao is playing like an all-star. Van Gundy is expected to get him to play like a SUPER star. By any means necessary, he has to accomplish that to keep his job. Is it going to be fun for Yao? Not yet. Not until he reaches the next level and realizes that all his hard work and suffering paid off big time. When he knows deep inside he can fight through anything the other team throws at him, he'll know it was all worth it. Until then, it's going to suck. It's going to be hard. Every game is going to be like a war for him. That's the NBA. Anywhere Yao goes in the NBA, any team he plays for, isn't going to expect ANY LESS for their max contract.
