Yao needs to concentrate on Defense and Rebounding

Yao played terrible last night. That's a fact.
Yao is not a good leaper. He is not athletic. His timing in rebounding and shot blocking is not always right. Those are facts.

That's just Yao. The only disturbing thing about last night's game was that he probably got rattled earlier on and never got back in sync. A superstar player shouldn't be like that. But he will bounce back. He always does. That's just Yao.

Now, tinman, if you are going to start a thread "discussing" Yao's "disturbing" performance after one game, why aren't you starting a thread talking about your boy Artest jacking up shots after shots? Start a thread talking about the disturbing trend how he shoots more than everybody else, yet has a fg% lower than .35. Start a thread about how Artest the Tru Warier goes to the line much less than the softass McGrady.

 

I agree with tinman this time. The big man needs to control the middle, especially considering Houston lacks of 7-footers to patrol the paint. Granted Yao would never be as good a rebounder and shot blocker as Hakeem or even Marcus Camby, but he needs to keep the INTENSITY of getting rebounds and playing defense. Yao needs to BOX OUT more agressively and FIGHT for rebounds to compensate his lack of athleticism and speed. He will probably never be a great rebounder and defender but I am sure he can do better.

 

Come on now. As much as I love Yao, he played FAR WORSE than Ron in this game. Ron did throw bricks but he also muscled his way to the hoop to draw fouls and played solid defense. On the other hand, Yao could not score at one end and got abused by Perkins and Glen Davis on the other. He could not get any rebound and play defense either. Granted it's just one game but it's a BIG game for the Rockets to set the tone in the early season. Yao had no excuse for not stepping up. He deserved all the criticism by Clutchfans.

Hopefully Yao learns the lesson and strives to improve his mental toughness.

 

i second that! common give the guy a break, when he is doing well yall can't stop talking about him but as soon as something is bad yall want to crusify him!

 

Yao is the smallest 7' 6" guy I have ever seen, he plays small.

Don't reach....stand straight up, Mark Eaton style and clog the lane...how hard is that?

He got 2 fouls in the first half last night reaching across the other players body.

Sometimes Yao plays stupid for a guy with a high Bball IQ, and then he loses his confidence.

Yao can work on D and rebounding and his O will follow.

DD

 

that's just yao. that's just who he is. how long will it have to take for people to realize he'll always miss that dunk from time to time and miss those rebounds from time to time. if he could fix these, he will and he'll be on the same level as dream or shaq. but he can't. get over it. and that's why we got artest. a third scorer to step up when yao or tmac has a bad night like this. it just didn't work out well tonight.

 

but he can not do it consistently! that's the point! he'll pull this kind of performance from time to time and it may be game 7 of a playoff series, which's exactly what happened.

 

i believe Yao still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of defense and rebounding. he sometimes plays weak on defense. come on, he's a pro, he can take this kinda comments. im sure the coaching staff tells him that too. it could also be a mental thing. besides that, if he wants to foul, pls foul hard, no soft fouls that creates 3-point plays. look at the video how Harpring fouled Yao hard. he should do the same thing, thats how it is on the court, you cant be Mr. Nice Guy. come on Yao, we have faith in you. "Now be a man and do the right thing"!!

 

come on, man, u cant say that, if thats the case then no one will ever improve. Yao just needs to bring defense on a more consistent basis. i bet u even he knows it. and the rockets coaching staff is probably going through all his mistakes in this game. anyway, i know its only their 4th game but as a true rockets fan, i wanna see them win every game!!

 

He is soft, not only just for yesterday but ever since he came to this league. There is no way to change that character. So we have to bear that bad performance from time to time or we trade him away and find a tough muscle with less capabilities.

 

Tinman- U know ur arguing with guys who thinks he walks on water, but its what I've been saying for yrs. Too many times his "fingerprints" on the game is tied to what he does on offense. For the "best center in basketball" that's unacceptable. Confidence has nothing to do with contesting shots. Confidence has nothing to do with rebounding the ball. People want to know how the rox played well against the jazz in the playoffs without yao. Deke rebounds and contest shots. If u rewind the tape, he disrupted boozer big time. He gave hime enough space and used his length to contest the shot. He also doesn't give up open jumpers, nor does he let smaller guys get under him and take the ball away.

I've been consistent and people have called me a yao hater, but I refuse to call him great because he does nothing great and too many times he doesn't fingerprint the game. That's not saying I want him traded or anything, I just think people need to understand what he is. He's Brad Daughtery. He's a good player who can be dominate for about 30 games a year. There are games when you don't even notice he's on the court. You can win games and a ring with yao/daugtery, but the componets have to be around him to really make it work. I like scola and landry, but I think they're not the kind of guy at the 4 spot that really benefits yao. That guy needs to be a better version of Cato. A tall atheletic rebounder/goal protector. Scola and landry are neither, but maybe when tracy gets healthy and artest keeps playing, it will get better. In the end, its one game.

 

Is there anyone out there you have in mind?

 

Anybody can have a bad game but what bothers me about Yao is his lack of fire particularly in big games. He looked like a high school kid playing with men yesterday, getting out jumped and out hustled. Hate to say it but I'm not sure Yao can take this team to the finals, we don't have a big 3 more like a big 2.5. The playoffs are where you need guys to put 200% out on the floor, playing at breakneck speed and jumping out of the building from adrenaline, I just don't think Yao has that stuff.

 

I can't blame all the bad defense on Yao. Ray went bananas on Tracy and no one expected Perkins to hit all those mid range J's. For all Mcgrady did to keep us in the game he didn't do enough to stop Ray Allen. Rick should of switched Artest on him earlier, i think Tracy's long arms were bothering Pierce more anyway.

Yao's not a great rebounder so i'm not shocked by him only grabbing 7. We were getting killed on the boards because no one was boxing out their man.

I am however concerned with Yao not even contesting layups right in front of his face. Its okay to have a bad game but you can't just give up on plays all game long.

 

Daugherty isn't the physical presence around the basket that Yao can be, but I think our offense would actually be better off with him. He was a splendid passing big man.