Robbie does have a valid point -- you can't expect this guy to walk in and instantly become the Mandarin Monolith we all envisaged on draft night. He has much to learn about the NBA and even as cerebral as he is, his learning curve will be steep and the hike up long and ponderous. Even so, I found myself collecting jaw off the floor about ever other minute or so, just absorbing everything he's already bringing to the team. His presence is changing offenses, already he's showing a nice shooting touch and a few decent moves. Most importantly, he's devouring this experiece, you can tell he's learning something new every trip down the floor. Pretty soon, this dog'll have plenty tricks up his sleave. I can't wait.
Man, all the "weaknesses" or problems Yao has can be taken care of. We have a superb staff for coaching a big man. His rebounding will no doubt improve. Rudy and co. obviously commented on his rebounding, which is why he was focused on getting them, and dissapointed at missing a few. But a few more workouts with Keith Jones about boxing out, jumping, and PULLING it down with TWO hands, and he'll be a 10+ rebound per game player. Once he's been in NBA training for a while and the fatigue goes away, he'll improve physically. If Yao improves on these 3 things, then he would become unstoppable: Lateral Quickness Vertical Stamina If he only slightly improves on all of them, that would go a long way in helping him stay out of foul trouble, block more shots, become more unblockable, and stay effective the whole time he's in the game by not getting tired. Then what? It seems this guy absorbs information VERY well (knock on wood) and if I had to bet on it, I'd say we will see rapid, Gasol-like improvement from him beginning from 15 games into the season. By the All Star break, only fatigue ca hold him down. Next year, MAYBE Shaq? Griffin with another 7 blocks tonight, huh? He needs to get more consistent on offense though. He also has to completely STOP taking 3's for a while and go for more high-percentage shots. Something else i noticed about Griff. It seems his assists are Jamison-like. As in, non-existant sometimes. Anything to be concerned about?
i think thats what excites me most about yao. the fact that the things he needs to improve on are things that can be easily corrected. lateral quickness may be an iffy thing to correct, but that is probably just more coaching about where to be than actual speed. also once he starts getting a hold of the rules then he will really start to become a force. it pretty obvious already that he is a smart player and hopefully he will be able to adopt some of the veteran tricks pretty quickly, like what robinson did to bait him into a foul. also griffin's lack of assists is a symptom of a bigger problem on the rockets...the problem is that the rockets are a very poor assist team. they haven't shown any progress in that area either. hopefully that is something that will come within the next couple of years, because i doubt it will come this year. but hey you can always hope for the best.
Yao doesn't have to lead us anywhwere. Every decent description I've heard of the Rockets describes his play as "icing on the cake" this season. We have the peices we need in place. If he gives us what we'd expect a 7'6" blocking/scoring threat to do, we are in good shape. Anything resembling dominance is just a bonus.
Yao can't jump? Is that why the refs mistakenly called goaltending when he blocked a shot that was 12 feet in the air? Sorry, I've never seen anyone get that high and I guess those refs hadn't either. It was a good block and they missed it.
