hey now, watch yourself - you can give it up for the Doc and all, but there is a silent MAJORITY of people on this board who are watching games and seeing how the season unfolds. Many of us do not even bother posting comments in the TRADE_____ ! or FIRE ______ ! threads because we would rather let the YOFs and the Haters go after one another - while the rest of us (like myslf) just post comments or the occasional joke (or picture) speaking of which... I peronnally think that the Yao/Tmac combo is DA BOMB now, lets get some younger role players around them and see where it takes us !
Yao needs more help on the rebounding and defensive side. Yao needs help on the boards. Juwan/Mo/Weatherspoon/Padgent are not: Ralph Sampson, Otis thorpe, Charles Barkley. Yao gets dunked on cause whoever is guarding the other team's PF is slow on D. Yao didn't get dunked on this bad when he had his buddy Cato.
Yao is a good center has his limitations: not quick, clumsey, doesn't hold on to the ball but he is better than most the other centers and we are set for a while at center if we can resign him. Expectations are too high, forget where he was drafted that's history.
AMEN ! I think our PF 'o the Day, "Mowan Padgespoon" gets caught up on D watching his own man that he forgets he is out there to support Yao and Tmac on the front line...
Doc. What concerns me the most about Yao is his hands. I have been the biggest supporter of Yao over the past few years but . . . (1) he isn't very able at catching passes; (2) he doesn't pull down rebounds well; (3) he gets the ball taken out of his hands all of the time; and (4) he doesn't finish well. I'm not sure that these are things that you can learn.
the only problem with this is that Rockets management is trying to build the team around Yao and T-Mac. we need Yao to develop into a better and more consistent player or we wont be going to far into the playoffs (atleast as long as Yao is a max player).
JVG needs to implement some diversity to Yao's offensive game. For Yao, it is either iso in the post or bust. If Yao isn't in the post, he doesn't get the ball. The Indiana game was good example of the things Yao can do. He STILL can hit that mid-range jumper with consistency, he does a good job of cutting when we penetrate (for an easy dunk). I don't know why JVG doesn't allow Yao to take that mid-range jumper on a consistent basis. Gusy like JO, Garnett, Duncan all hit jumpers off the picks they set, and to tell you the honest truth, I would pick Yao to be the best shooter out of all of them. Yao isn't like Shaq where any shot beyond 3-ft is impossible. Yao has a sweet touch to his jumper and has great passing skills, the problem is that we aren't using any of his upsides excpet his size, which has gotten him in more trouble than ever.
Yao said to the Chinese media after last night's loss to Indy that "It's all my bad, all my bad". Man. dude needs to relax a little, he is so afraid of screwing up and end up screwing up more down the stretch.
I guess that has more or less to do with our PFs not able to get offensive rebounds. Last year we had Cato , who could grab offensive rebounds off Yao's mid range miss, this year, Yao is the only consistent offensive rebounder, he'll have to stay close to thr rim for Rockets to have 2nd chances.
My problem with JVG is that I can clearly see Yao becoming a much better player by mixing his high post game to the low post game. It makes the opponents more difficult to guard him and it creates some room for TMac to penetrate the lane and draw fouls. Yao's biggest strength his first 1 1/2 years in the league was his outside shooting touch. He was nailing down about 45% of his outside jumpers, not bad for a guy at 7'6". Give him freedom in using more than one way to score will only improve his confidence as he grows as a player and makes him a better player down the road. Now WTF of trying relentlessly to mold him into a Shaq when basically everyone else knows that he is not a Shaq?!
Seems Yao is the polar opposite of his fans. He's too rough on himself. They're too easy on him. I do like that he is taking responsibility for failing to lead his team to victory. That's a good sign of a leader. Just as long as he comes back strong and aggressive next game, rather than playing passive because he's scared of losing the game.
It was a great post. Note he has been registered since August 2003. Also, he might have been reading for even longer than that.
He should take some responsibility for the loss. We were cruising the 1st few minutes, then his TOs and missed shots allowed Indiana to sprint out in front. He really looked bad that 1st quarter. At times, he did not even look for the ball and let his teammates whiz the ball past his ear. To his credit, Yao did come back strong later. I do agree he needs to relax and just play. Damm the mistakes, you just have to fight thru them.
That's one of the myth on this board in thinking that Yao can make up for the pf's rebounding deficiency by playing like Kelvin Cato. Yao plays more minutes and spends more time under the basket this season than his rookie year, but he's grabbing exactly 0.2 more offensive rebound. Except for getting some easy points off teammate's pass under the basket, which I'm not objective to, hoping Yao to make up for the pf rebounding woe by downplaying his game doesn't hold any water.
