Just wondering thinking back on draft when we drafted Yao, how he has done according to your expectations to now? Note that this is not intended to be a shot at Yao or confidence boost.
After his second season, I thought he might be a slightly better version of Big Z or Rik Smits. So, he's definitely exceeded.
at first, i thought he would never be dominant, more like a rik smits impact type of player. but he has surpassed my expectations. he's the best center right now EASILY, a top 3-4 big man in the game. i only rate him behind duncan, kg, and maybe dirk. but hopefully he'll reach the dominance that other great all-time centers show. i don't think he has done that yet. the last 1.5 yrs, he's been a reg. season superstar. playoffs last yr -> a good all-star. hopefully he'll bring his superstar self to the playoffs and the team will go to another level
In Yao's second season Bill Walton sang Yao's praises during a Rockets game broadcast on ESPN. He complemented him in his own hyperbolic way, and, when asked how he felt Yao's numbers would look like at his peak, Bill Walton said he felt Yao would be a solid 18-19 ppg and 8 rpg center. Truth to tell, that's where I felt he would be, too. And though he's only a marginally better rebounder than that, his scoring ability is above and beyond anything I felt he could sustain.
I had pretty absurd expectations of him on draft night. He's almost met them. We'll see if he gets there this season.
His achievement is from hard working. His work ethics is the best! Also I'd like to give credit to JVG and assistant coach Tom Thibodeau.
Considering all the criticism he got and predictions that he would be a bust, he's exceeded expectations. If he's kept in the low post, he's one of the hardest to stop in the game right now and the best traditional post scoring center right now.
JVG knew yao's strengths and weaknesses and really tried to put him in positions where his height and skill would shine and minimize his weaknesses (which was still hard - turnovers galore). but yes, i give a lot of credit to JVG and thibodeau. jvg has worked w/ patrick ewing so he knew how to use big men. but too bad, jvg does not know how to use superstar perimeter players
Come on! JVG gave your boy the biggest freedom on court, even TMAC agreed that himself! You can't deny that, can you ?
He seems to make incremental improvement every year and he seems to add something new to his game after every summer.....so after it's all added up, the improvement is actually quite huge. It's just that it was gradual rather than all at once. Withh his work ethic and willingness to be a student of the game, I'm pretty sure that we'll see him continue to be a better evolved players as the next upcoming years to come.
that does not mean jack. give him freedom to control the plays and take the shots that the OFFENSE creates? that didn't mean there were EASY shots for him. that didn't mean there were GOOD shots for him. freedom meant tmac could take bad shots and wouldn't get criticized for it. that doesn't mean the offense made it easier for tmac. so no, i don't mean freedom in that sense. u see the spurs games highlights in the preseason, the sonics games and tmac got like 5 EASY buckets in those 2 games alone. how many easy buckets does tmac get under JVG? maybe 0.5 or one every 2 games. don't mistaken freedom as A GOOD THING.
Yao Ming, who works hard to develop year after year will continue to develop till he is the best player in the NBA I still expect to see a 30pt/gm season from him!
u must be crazy. shaq/hakeem couldn't even do that. but w/ the standards of big men nowadays, it's not impossible.
Yao not meeting my expectations until he dunk more and knock out one of those midget guards that sneak behind him to block his shot.
