It's good to see this kind of sentiment in this thread. I thought I'd read things like "everyone shoots so poorly" and "When Yao passes to someone, they pass to someone else, so he doesn't get credit for an assist" or "the shooters take too much time dribbling after they receive the pass so Yao doesn't get credit for the assist." Our offensive system just doesn't produce a whole heck of a lot of assists. Hey, as long as it produces open looks, though, I'm happy. Although it'd be nice if EVERYONE on the team could try to limit the turnovers. I think the high turnovers are more of a problem than the low assists.
i'm not so worried about his assist turnover ratio. it seems he's passing criply, but I mean people have to finish to him to get credit for the assist. the turnovers aren't really that huge either, i mean he's never going to be like Shaq, who's a black hole in a good sense, once the ball goes it, there's no way you can poke it loose, yao's hands aren't that big and he's not as strong. i think we're gonna have to live with him getting it stripped once or twice a game. how Yao costs us valuable possessions is those rebounds he doesn't hold on to. it happens way too damn much, he grabs a board and someone pokes it loose from behind. either that or he could get the rebound but he gets pushed out of the way, resulting in offensive boards for the other team. that really sucks, and this is what he needs to work on first and foremost.
Sane Possible he feels discouraged by passing to others who hardly ever pass it back to him when he repositions. Also Yao Ming needs constant reminders while he learns the NBA Game. I dont think that Coach Ewing is realy taking Yao Ming under his wing. Sane your observations are correct of course and need to be addressed.
Hakeem Olajuwon: 3058 career assists 3667 career turnovers Shaquille O'Neal: 2196 career assists 2219 career turnovers Tim Duncan 1568 career assists 1534 career turnovers Next...
Nice and dandy, but are Shaq and Hakeem's passing skills on par with Yao's? Didn't we win 2 championships BECAUSE Hakeem learned how to pass out to the open man? Isn't Yao Ming supposed to be as good a passer as Sabonis? Plus, Hakeem had the ball way more than Yao does (more TO's) and has a less talented team (less assists). As for Shaq, he hasn't averaged less assists than turnovers since Phil Jackson took over and since they won the first of their 3 recent championships.
Between Shaq Hakeem and turnover machine, isn't that a giant leap? Hakeem has a less talented team? in turns of getting assists? You need to back up your bold statements. So? How many years has Shaq been in the League when Phil took over? And this is year number ? for Yao? And what's your point again? Sometime I really wonder if you think before you type.
The point I was trying to make is.... WHO THE FARKING SCHNIRT CARES ABOUT ASSIST TO TURNOVER RATIO FOR A FRIGGIN' CENTER!!!!!!!!! It's quite possibly the most useless stat for a center ...and for the record, Hakeem had a whopping 73 more assists than turnovers over a four year span from 92-96, and only had one other season with more turnovers than assists....and, Shaq's assists have increased from 2.5 to 3.3 since Phil arrived, a whopping .8 per game playing with Kobe, while his turnovers are almost identical. Yao's turnovers have no correlation with his passing skills, since most of his turnovers are from getting the ball stripped or travelling violations...as long as he's not turning it over in crunch time, I have no problem with Yao's turnovers...
