Has anyone else noticed this? It seems like lately, Yao Ming is turning the ball over at a Jason Kidd-like rate. I always used to notice that he gets the ball stripped from him occasionally, but this year it's becoming more and mroe evident that he's loosing the ball in many situations. For example when he holds it too low (guards swipe at him) or sometimes when he just can't grab the ball. His passing seems to have taken a hit too this season. I looked at some stats, and here's what I came up with: 1) Has only had more assists than turnovers 8 times this season. Is this normal for C's? I don't think so, 8 is too few considering we've played around half our games (around 40?). C's aren't supposed to be passing too much, but hell, they don't really dribble, so why does he lose it so much? He still hasn't learned how to protect the ball, and that's killing him. 2) Fourth worst in asst/to ratio among C's. Shaq, Duncan and Nene are above/below him in this category. Only difference is, Nene SHOULDN'T be in Yao's class. It's not OK for Yao to average Nene numbers. As for Shaq and Duncan, they average 3 TO's each, but dish it out 3.1 times. Yao turns it over 2.4 times, while dishing it out a crummy 1.6 times a game. For all the talk about how he's a good passer and everything, that's a pretty sad number - good for 11th best among C's in the league. A few of the other people in this category: Divac 5.3asst 2.4TO Magloire 1.2asst 2.2TO Kurt Thomas 2asst 2.2TO Brad Miller 4.8asst 2.1TO Antonio Davis 1.5asst 1.7TO It's also important to note that Yao doesn't take the most shots in this offense. The offense, however, runs through him, and we have solid shooters (Mobley, JJ) as well as solid jumpshooters (MoT, Cat). We all now Yao has passing ability, so why isn't he able to do better than this? Is this even a problem? I definitely expect him to be as good as Shaq/Duncan in the PASSING department, and those guys don't play on a run n gun team either. Thoughts on this?
Plain and Simple, Yao needs to hold on to the ball better. In the Minny game KG almost knocked it out his hands and recovered it. But i can gaurantee we get half a page of posters saying its the gaurds fault he turns it over.
The questions is, does it take a season and a half to teach someone to hold the ball a little higher? He's loosing it all the time. When he holds it low, when he's makign his move, when he's getting it, when he's getting pushed around. Even that flop he does when he gets pushed, throws it away and he doesn't get the call. I don't think yao is actually THICK in the head, so why hasn't he fixed this? Regardless of that, why the hell isn't he dishing it out more?
Even when he does dish it, it goes back to one of our perimiter players, and we usually dont have spot up shooters. When he hits the players back with the ball it usually means that they try to set up their own shot ISO style. I dont blame him for low assists, his assits are low for the same reasone Francis's are.
Sane, Averaging 2.4 TO per game, Yao is hardley "loosing it all the time". That is a bit of an exaggeration, but he still needs work. Since he is only half way through his second season it is no time to press the panic button. Rome was not built in a day. I think the passing is partially due to the system, and part due to the players. Players have to make cuts to the basket. If they make the cuts, Yao will find them. Brick by brick......
I really thought Yao had a chronic problem with holding the ball, but watch some Spurs with TD or Lakes with Shaq. They get the ball stripped from them very often. Guys who play close to the hoop (and, as a consequence, close to their defender) get stripped a lot. People keep saying he needs to have his elbows out, but it's frankly impossible to do that while going up for the shot, because you have to exten your arms, and therefore turn in your elbows, to shoot it or dunk it.
Vis, That is just plain wrong dude...you hold the ball with both hands and use your elbows to HOOK the defender..and go up strong. Yao needs to learn the old Hakeem/Barkley/Shaq move...it would help him a lot. DD
I hope this becomes a story one of these days in the Chronicle. I don't even think that Yao knows that he's holding the ball too low. He keep doing it over and over...
i think he's getting the ball more, thus more turnovers but it does need to stop, he's not being consistent enough. the question should be though, is why does steve have more turnovers when the ball is not in his hands as much.
Yao had four turnovers today. One was a bad pass. Another was an offensive foul. The third was him getting stripped while he was dribbling the ball and backing his man in on offense. I'm not sure how he got the fourth one. If you had paid attention to Yao's turnovers in the past 5-10 games, you'd notice that very few were caused by holding the ball low. As a matter of fact, he's been keeping the ball high after a rebound and after receiving the ball in the post in past 5-10 games.
Oh yea...afterall.....2 turnovers is just WAAAAAAYYY Too many for our starting PG who handles the ball more often than anyone. 6 assists (on a night where half the team couldnt hit the ocean from the beach) and 2 turnovers. of all the nights for you to try to pass this off on Francis....this aint the one. even guys who make a living here slamming SF are admitting how well he played tonight... hear that sound? thats your credibility going down the drain.
Totally agreed. He's just not quick with the ball. All this talk about dont bring the ball down is ludicrous. Unless you just catch and shoot, one needs to bring the ball DOWN to get closer to the basket for a shot or even a DUNK. You just need to do it quick with power and be aware of your surrounding. I doubt Yao will ever improve much in this aspect, but he might get more calls from the refs in the future though.
Also, I want to comment on people's misconception that the ball goes through Yao all/most of the time and he should have higher assist numbers. About half, or even the majority, of times that Yao touched the ball, he was in the high post near the 3-point line. From there, he hands it off to Steve, Cuttino, and Jim, or he was merely used as a receiver of a pass to counteract a trapping defense and then passes it back to the guards for them to set up the offense again. Someone mentioned Divac's and Brad Miller's assist numbers. I think their numbers are a little overrated. The way the Kings offense was designed was to have the big men get the ball in the high post and then have Bibby, Bobby, and Peja run up and around Miller or Divac, who sets a pick in the process, to recieve the ball and shoot. The Kings have lots of catch-and-shoot players. That's why I think their assist numbers are a little bloated. This is not to take anything away from their passing skills. Once in a while they do make some very nifty passes to cutters.
Running high pick n' roll for him to get a couple of perimeter jumpers would help the turnover cases. One it would lessen his chances of an offensive foul atleast for those couple of possessions. Two he wouldn't have to dribble for position as was the case for one of his turnovers. It opens up the paint for our guards, which creates open looks in the longrun for our perimeter players and reduces all the clogging in the paint, which again would result in less double and triple teams and less turnovers because of weakside help. It buys the Rockets time for him develop more strength in his forearms and hands. The risky part about that is it increases the chances of him losing his shooting touch, but that's a gamble I'd rather take if it means less turnovers when it gets crowded in the paint. Eventually when he learns to punish defenders and adds on more muscle with in every offseason, he won't need to settle for those jumpers as much. Not that's he given much of a chance nowadays anyways.
Did u know that yao has 0 turnovers during the minny game?? Why our fans keep bashing our own players, like yao, francis or cat, unnecessary??? Yao shots less than 12 shots per game that is because he seldom get the ball thus it does lead to low assists rate. About his turnovers, almost every game he get called for offensive foul n 3 seconds violations... tha's ewing job to imporve him... as for he get stripped ... that's his bad habits... porbably he needs francis to kick his ass to remind him to hold the ball high...
cmon, R2K, i'll defend francis when he needs it, but this SEASON, his turnovers have gotten worse, even though the ball is less in his hands than last year. and if it helps my credibility any, I was on a plane during the entire memphis game and thinking about his avg 6.5 TOs between the celtics, wizards, celtics and wolves game.
The Rockets are a low assist team overall, so I don't think you can compare Yao assists to Vlade or B. Miller. He does need to hold the ball higher, but I wouldn't call him a turnover machine. When Yao gets the ball in the paint, I want him to look to score, especially against teams without good big men. If Yao was really being used in the high post, I would look for more assists. With him being used in the low block, I don't expect more than 2-3 assists, especially playing with Cato. Kelvins hands have improved, but I still cringe when a pass is coming his way through traffic.
You mean charge into the defender with your elbows then go up and shoot? I see. The problem with that though is that he's often stripped by a blind weak side guy.
So true. Yao is literally getting hacked to death with no calls from the refs. Expect this to continue until Yao himself does something to stop it - like dropping 20+ points per night and slamming a few gorilla dunks down on these guys. Instead he runs up and down the court with a "They don't play like this in China..." look on his face. If memory serves, Tim Duncan experienced the same treatment when he broke into the league. He let his play answer for him. Yao needs to do the same.
