Yao scouting report(?)

Found this on espn board. Pretty interesting.

http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/thread?forumID=736&threadID=2164507&lastPostID=12521736

Some Rocket scouts were checking out Derek Anderson at the local BBall hot spot and one of them left one of the folders on the rafter...........

being the good citizen that I am I picked it up and quickly exited the building.

Here is what it said, please note this came from a Rocket scout.......

Yao Ming League Scouting Report From Our Competition

Yao Ming C
Houston Rockets
Height 7'6 1/2"
Weight 315
Age 24
Body Fat 6-7 percent
Max Bench 315+
Vertical 26 inches

Scouting Report:

The most versatile center in the NBA by far. Clearly the second best true center in the world behind Shaq, but should pass him this coming year, or the next. Yao is not at all athletic by NBA standards even for big men (although he is surprisingly quick), but is able to use his height to easily shoot over defenders. His shot is highly accurate from 18 to 20 feet, and he has a true range of about 22 feet on his jumper. He can knock down NBA range 3s with surprisingly good accuracy, but will not shoot them. He is possibly the most unstoppable player in the league once he gets position under the basket, even ahead of Shaq and Amare, but he does not get into that attack position nearly enough to establish the inside dominance that he should. Instead he scores mainly from 6-12 feet away from the bucket through an assortment of hook shots, turn arounds, fadeaways, up and unders, and other various finesse moves.

Yao is an excellent foul shooter for a center and should not be sent to the line regularly as he will beat you from there. There won't ever be a "Foul a Yao" like there is a "Hack a Shaq". He has often won games in the clutch from the line, but choked in the playoffs there in the clutch against Dallas, although he came back later in the series and was again clutch from there down the stretch in the next game. Yao is mobile and runs the floor well for a true big man, but Houston plays in a grind it out style which negates this aspect of Yao's game. Yao does suffer from stamina problems when the game gets too quick running up and down the court, and has slow lateral movement, although for his size his movement is quite good. The offense that Houston runs eliminates most of Yao's offensive abilities as well as his tremendous passing ability. At times Yao is simply used in pick and rolls with T-Mac, and at other times is 20 feet away from the basket. Because of this he is not a true number 1 option. He does however without question have the talent to be a number 1 option on any team, regardless of who is on the roster. There is some question as to whether he has the mentality and confidence for this, despite having the tools.

He has the best footwork of any big man since Hakeem, as well as excellent court vision, and absolutely outstanding passing ability. However most of these skills are negated by Jeff Van Gundy's offensive sets and schemes, which primarily use Yao as a finisher rather than an initiator. Yao possesses great fundamentals and court instincts, but the Houston offense rarely allows him to use those skills. He has soft hands, but often fumbles away rebounds, passes, and open shots/dunks. The reason for this is not because he has bad hands, because quite the contrary he has exceptionally soft hands, but because he has a constant concentration problem on the court due to his fatigue and stamina problems. This causes Yao to struggle more with this at crucial points at the end of games, when he is generally more worn-down.

Yao has limited stamina, which greatly affects his play, and also is timid on the court at times. He does not play near the aggression level that he needs to if he wants to be a dominant player. There is a real question around the league about his desire to be the truly unstoppable and dominant force that he should be. The primary causes of his fatigue and stamina problems are the Houston offense and defense strategies, the team's lack of perimeter defenders, the team's lack of a decent help PF, and Yao's poor conditioning. With the Stromile Swift signing, Yao should not have to use as much energy next year.

He is the consummate team player, often giving up shot opportunities to pass to teammates. He is too unselfish, even to a fault of himself and his team. He is probably even more of the team player than Tim Duncan, yet he needs to assert his own dominance on games much more, rather than always differing to T-Mac. Yao's FGAs are very low compared to other elite players. The Houston offense is very limited and predictable, making it easy for teams to keep the ball from Yao. The Houston guards are basically incapable of properly reading a defense or making a properly executed and well timed/well placed post feed.

He gets no respect at all from the officials (Yao may be the worst officiated player in the league), and does not respond well to fronting defenses and/or physical inside play. He does not have the mentality to demand the ball from his teammates, nor to takeover games at will. Because of all of this, despite being the most efficient offensive one on one player in the league, he often struggles mightily to get shot attempts. Still if he played 35 minutes a game he would easily be a 20 plus scorer because he can score so easily once he has the ball in a proper offensive position, either down low or from the perimeter.

He struggles with double and triple teams because the officials allow him to be fouled and won't blow the whistle. He has greatly improved in his ability to read double and triple teams, and in his ability to hit the open man out of them with the pass. The key to his success against help defenses is the Houston guards and 4s being able to knock down open 3's and mid-range shots. If his teammates do that he is literally unstoppable and a true nightmare for the competition, but if his teammates can't hit those shots he can be negated with help D, fronting, and zones. Like Shaq, if you play him straight up he will drop 40 plus on you with limited shot attempts. He is not used properly by Jeff Van Gundy on offense.

Yao is a tremendous intimidator defensively in the middle. Houston is by far the toughest team in the league to score on inside with Yao and Mutombo patrolling the lane. Although Yao doesn't block that many shots he alters more shots than anyone in the league, and most teams don't even try to challenge him, which is mainly why he doesn't block that many shots. If you challenge him he will reject you. Yao may be shown being posterized on ESPN all the time, but in actuality very rarely does anyone try to stuff it on him when he is set in defensive position down low and not get rejected back. He is however often out of position on D because the Houston defensive scheme calls for him to help guard away from the basket. Yao is not nearly quick enough to get back to the rim in these instances. He also tries too many times to draw charges rather than reject the shot once he is in foul trouble. Almost always he properly draws the charge, and whether he is in the foul circle or not he has position and/or established area on the court and does the draw the charge. But the officials will never ever give him the call, instead they call him for the block.

The total lack of respect that he has from the refs on defense may largely be due to the fact that he has a rep among officials as being very timid/non-aggressive and soft as a player, which does not bode well for a player of his size and status. If Yao does get physical on offense, usually he is immediately called for the charge, and if he gets aggressive on defense he often picks up 2 or 3 fouls in bunches in a matter of minutes. There is a strong feeling around the league that Yao needs to become much more assertive with smaller players and much more demanding with the refs if he is to reach his potential. Many league insiders doubt that he has the psychological makeup necessary to do so.

There is a perception that Yao can't be a good shot blocker and rebounder because he has "short arms". In reality he has what is most recently measured as a 7-5 or 7-6 wingspan depending on which report you look at, which means only a very handful of players have a wingspan as big as his. The term "short arms" for him refers simply to Yao being taller than his wingspan. His wingspan is actually quite massive and his in truth, exceptionally long arms allow him to cover the entire basket area. His teammate McGrady for instance is said to have a fantastic wingspan and his is only about 7'2" or 7'3". The main reason why Yao actually picks up fouls when going for the block is that the Houston defensive sets call for him to guard players on the perimeter, then go back to stop the penetration. No big man in the league can do this, and one the size of Yao attempting this will greatly suffer stamina issues because of it, as Yao does. In general on defense, if Yao is allowed to play the opposing center straight up, and not asked to help on D, he can shut down any center in the league except for Shaq.

Yao is the only player in the league that can truly guard all the following players of Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O'Neal, Shaq, and Amare one on one and be effective. He is the only player in the league that KG and Amare often struggle to score against. He almost always outscores the opposing center, and almost always holds the opposing center well below their points average and FG percentage. He is not used properly by Jeff Van Gundy in defense. He will struggle against bigs that can step out and score on the perimeter, but not because he can't defend out there like most other bigs. Yao actually is quite a good defender outside, the problem is the Houston defensive sets call for him to leave his man when he steps outside, and then recover to the bucket to stop guard penetration.

He is not nearly as good a rebounder as he should be, largely due to the fact that he is an area rebounder, and that he often fumbles rebounds away, or improperly times when to go after them. His positioning is solid, but he is easy for the opponent to box out. He is very capable of going over the top of any player in the league for the board, especially on offense, and not fouling nor even making contact because of his size and skill, but the refs improperly call him for the foul, not accounting for his unique size and talent. If he was properly reffed on the boards he might average 20 a night. He has a very good plus/minus for rebound differential, as he usually out rebounds his opponent. He also has a very good team ratio percent of rebounds. His rebound numbers per minute are quite solid. If he played a solid 35-36 minutes like he should, then he would be a 10 board player. However he needs a big, strong, physical, and athletic 4 playing next to him. This is because he is always fending off 2 or 3 opposing players for the rebound, and because he is often out of boarding position on both offense and defense due to Houston's rather strange sets and schemes, which makes it very difficult for the center to get boards.

Because Yao is easily pushed around and soft as a big man he needs to have an enforcer type 4 next to him to help on the boards. With the right PF by his side, and right team sets, he should average 12 boards a night without any improvement to his technique. Most likely with the addition of Stromile Swift and Juwan Howard backing him up, he will become much harder to handle on the glass for the opposition this year.

2005-2006 Comments:

Look for Yao to have a breakout year in 2005-2006 with the addition of Stromile Swift next to him at power forward. Yao should be able to stay in the lane area much more on both offense and defense, and also should be able to use much less energy chasing players around, and should pick up a lot less ticky-tack fouls because of this.

The addition of Swift alone should lead to more energy, less fatigue, less foul trouble, and more natural positioning sets for Yao this upcoming year. This should be the year Yao gets about 20 points, 10 boards, and 3 blocks a game, simply with the addition of Swift.

Long Term Scouting Outlook:

Although he clearly has the talent to be one of the top 5 or 6 centers that ever played the game, there is a great deal of doubt now as to whether he has the mental fortitude to be able to match his physical tools and skills. Despite this, the feeling by many that he has peaked is nonsense.

He may never have the mental attitude to reach the truly dominating status he is capable of, but even if that is the case he will surely still peak at about a 60 FG percent, 23 point, 11 rebound, 3 blocks per game type of player for about a 3 year stretch or so. Numbers like 70-72 FG percent and 25-29/12/4 are possible, but highly doubtful at this point based on his personality, and pairing with McGrady.