How can you say crap like this? Remember Yao is only in his second year and all winners don't beat the best at their peak. Example: Michael Jordan didn't start dominating until the 90's, 6 years from his debut in the NBA. YOU GUYS HAVE TO BE PATIENT! STOP THE YAO BASHING!!!
That is the part of Yao's game that I find most offensive. His rebounding technique is some of the worst I have ever seen from a center. He tries to use his reach (which isn't that great) instead of his body to get boards. Does he not realize that he will NEVER get substantial rebounds with that strategy.
Stop making excuses for Yao. He was sorry almost this entire series. Not one time did he step up and play like the Franchise player so many people on this site seems to think he is. Not one time did he try to seize the moment and carry us to a win. And I dont want hear about what Yao is going to learn, he has been playing bball his entire life. Tonight was Yao's turn to step up and he didn't. That can not go unnoticed.
the guy has absolutely no jump and is the slowest to react to rebounds. His reaching to tip the ball is his desperate attempt at even touching the rebound.
A) China. What a waste of energy. B) 4 top 50 players spreading the floor to the highest extent C) Laker magic from the refs and maximum asskissing from every analyst north side of An-frickin-arctica.
I really think Yao being lost out there on the court really hurt the rest of the team. We were on a mini-roll and Yao made some careless plays early on and it just depleted the wind in our sails. The obstacle became too great and all our players played horribly tonight. Here's to a good off-season and a better year next year. We tried but failed but we can learn from our mistakes. Thank you rockets. It's definitely been a rough ride but alas..I can stop losing hair for the season
right now there are some decisions to be made: trade francis and yao, as both of them are not that good, especially francis the ball hog
I won't call Yao Rik Smits or compare him. I will say that was one of the sorriest performances by him in the second half that I have ever seen. Make all the excuses you want, but falling clumsily on the floor 3 times in a row is embarrassing, and you could see it's effect on the team.
The great ones NEVER lose their confidence. And isn't that what we're hoping Yao is? A great one? Can you imagine Hakeem losing his confidence? MJ? Isiah? Kobe? Tim Duncan? The great ones never have to get their confidence back .. they never lose it. Now maybe it's different for Yao because he's kind of an outsider and it might take him longer to have that confidence. As a Rocket fan, I choose to remain optimistic. but he has really disappointed me this entire series. (not pinning the whole debacle on him, though)
trade yao... get rid of him before he has absolutely no value. he has no heart. is not aggressive. soft jump shooter. terrible rebounder. he is a poor ... poor... poor man's dirk nowitzki. or rik smits. can we please get an asian who can show some heart and aggressiveness make it to the NBA?
Definitely, yao will improve and he's done good job on defending shaq,but it's teamplay and who can stop Kobe although Cat has done excellent defence against him?what about Karl M?
I don't think he need excuses. Everyone on the team needs improvement, and this series is very good to serve as their lessons. Like it was said many many times, his presense is not limited to the stats, and he's not going to pat his stats either. Did you see the incident, when he let the ball bounce out, and the commentator made the joke "here is a rebound to take, if you want to pat stats." Before we all talk about his so-so stats in first playoff series, let's look at his opponent, his matchup, Shaq has never been kept so low in stats during playoffs. If you keep saying that isn't Yao's credit to take, it's because of help defense. Well, let me tell you one thing, teams are guarding Shaq with help defense every single game, since day one. No one, not even Dream kept him so low in stats. You can argue again that Shaq is not the old Shaq again, you know what, he might passed his prime, but he's still the most dominant center in the league, you only need to look at his number he dropped on others. Some of you guys, said that Lakers stopped Shaq by not giving him the ball. You know what, Shaq is no Yao, he would have actually shouted "Gimme the damn ball" if he sees a clear mismatch, if his teammate sees a clear mismatch. Facing yao, Shaq simply can not take advantage. Watching the games, comparing the stats, you can tell that Shaq and Yao cancelled each other out pretty much. Lakers is deep, they can have enough other weapons to beat Rockets, and Rockets does not have that luxury, they can not afford to have Yao even out Shaq, they have to have him beat Shaq. Yao didn't beat Shaq in the series, and we lost. Sure, yao has tons of things to learn and improve. But claiming that he doesn't care or didn't try is just irresponsible and unreasonable. I was so worried in first half, because we were shooting the balls extremely well, but we only led by 1, and the players didn't see the necessity to involve yao more. The shooting percentage will drop for sure, but if you try to force to invlove your big man then, it's normaly already too late, which was the case tonight. you have to stick with your game plan from the first minute, of course the turnovers are killing us once again. Everyone on the team had their bad plays, no one succeeded to raise to another level to deserve a win. But singling yao out, is just plain wrong.
