yea...he does seem to be in better shape...some of the times that he is spotted with his hands on his knees are over-exaggerated. If you pay attention to alot of nba players that are waiting on FTs, that is a common stance. if the team can run more and feed him while he is first flashing into the paint like they did last night...I think we see a more effective Yao in the future.
It seems the extra conditioning work in the off season helped alot and shooting more FT's definately helps. The rest he gets while shooting FT's provides a nice break in the game and allows him to catch his breath. Lets not kid ourselves if Yao is constantly running up and down he wont make it through the season even with his increased stamina. J
Not sure, but he seemed to have shut it down late in the season last year. Of course his stamina has improved a lot this year.
he did have a good game against dallas, but didn't dominate. he couldn't pin anyone and when he did (and got the ball) his shot was off. 13 points isn't great. what i love about yao is that he knows when he isn't having a scoring game he better rebound. anytime he is low on points he will pull out a double double. i forgot about the SA game. so i'll give you a point for that one. my overall point in my origional reply to this thread was that we all know yao can put up 20 and 10 against anyone, anynight. the problem is in november we played mostly teams with winning records and he ageraged 17-7. now we play mostly losing teams and he averages 20-10. i will not get be convinced that he has turned the corner untill i see him average 20-10 during a month like january. mostly tough games some easy ones.
I've been pretty pleased with the play of our big two lately.. Yao would have better stats if JVG didnt bench Yao early against GSW or Dallas but I would rather have him sit then risk injury anyways. Right now Yao is averaging.. Yao - 19pts/8.7rebs/1.6blks/52.5% FG but what stands out is his 7FTA per game. TMac - 23pts/6rebs/5.4assists/1blk/41.5% (picking up his FG%) he still doesnt get to the line nearly enough and his 3pt FG% needs work but definate improvement. so overall im please with their progress especially over the last 5 games. Hope we can continue and carry over some momentun into Jan. J
Enjoy it while you can. The fire everyone, trade everything, Yao is soft, Tmac takes too many shots threads will be bumped up after the next loss. For this reason alone, I hope we don't lose another game until ..uh.. ever.
Well, all things considered; We have had a lot of home games, played a lot of bad teams, and the people we have to feed him the ball, I think he has done a great job this month. Hopefully, he can sustain it.
The last two seasons Yao seems to have hit a wall about late March after seeming to get on a roll Dec to mid March.
The semi-uptempo game could actually help Yao and his conditioning. When they run, they aren't expecting Yao to be on a full sprint to the offensive end. If we score quickly off a break then that's a plus for yao as he won't have to bang down low with those defenders. He usually trails on the play and if the break is unsuccessful then just pull it out and set up the half court offense. Either way you want to push the ball to see if the early opportunity is there and if not at least you're up the court quickly to set up the play. Then again, I always feel tired playing up-tempo but then again I'm forced to play guard on the court and not center.
I see, and maybe we'll see the Eddie "perfect fit" Griffin, Cat "return to Houston" Mobley, or Stevie "shouldn't be traded" Francis threads too btw, I'd gladly expect for a "trade for a PF rumor" thread though
Another stat that's telling is he's only averaging 32 minutes a game for the month. What other supposed superstar is playing less time than that. You can blame some of it on his foul problems but even in last nights game he only played 33 minutes. The Rox are not going to take off with 1 superstar not playing 1/3 of the game every night. He's got to start giving the team 40 minutes a game especially with him being at such a young age. Not as an attack on him but he's the only guy I've ever heard of that they say he has stamina problems and the way to help that out is to not play him more. Everyone else ups their minutes until they're in game shape. He's in his 3rd year in the league and he can't give them 36-40 minutes a game yet???
and he's the only 7'6" superstar we've ever seem, and he's the only NBA player who has to play for his contry EVERY offseason. give the giant a break!
Lets see Duncan played for his country, Nowitzki played for his country, Stojakovich played for his country, Iverson played for his country, are they only playing 30 minutes a game because they're too tired?? Everybody plays in the offseason. Do you really think they all just sit and rest??
I think Yao is different though. Grant some of those other guys are 7 ft tall but something about 7'6 just screams freak. No one his size I think has ever been able to sustain their energy that long. It's just unatural to be that tall. It seems to be getting better though so I'd say let's give it some time. NO need to rush the guy into an injury or retirement. He's only 23 right?
