Yao was billed as a Temendous passer, What happened?

We need to recapture Yao's rookie form, in which he averaged 2.3 assists/40 min.

We can't afford a dropoff like this past season, when his numbers dropped off to 2.3 assists/40 min.

 

Yao was impressive his rookie season because he made nice passes off the face up and terrific outlet passes.

The past few seasons his primary position has been in the low block posting up, which severely restricts his vision. Simply put, from that spot Yao isn't a good passer; even passing out of double teams to wide open shooters at the three often results in fumbles.

However, it's a game of give and take. The low block is still going to be Yao's best spot to operate from because even with the turnovers and poor passing he's wildly efficient shooting the ball from there. He just needs to work on making that pass out. Hopefully under Adelman we'll look to run more as well, and can see if Yao still has that outlet ability.

 

That's pretty funny

Damn JVG! Its all his fault...

 

Classic. Good point.

And by the way Zacatecas, I hope you were never billed as a "temendous" speller.

Personally I think if our guards could hit more of their wide open shots, Yao's assist numbers would at least double.

 

err...Yao is totally overrated.

 

what in the world have you guys been watching??

yao became DOMINANT!!! he became the player we hoped he could be last season before the injury!!!

i'm amazed that so many of you want to see him change his game now...or are suggesting that JVG limited him. that's just baffling to me. put shooters around the guy...guys who can actually make the wide open shots he was helping to create by his mere presence. that would work wonders.

 

F*ck dominance. It's all about the no-look pass to Moochie. Haven't you heard? That's the new wave of conventional wisdom here at the beacon of brilliance known as the Clutchfans GARM.

 

I remember that play, vs. the hornets, hell I was even at that game. Ironically enough, we won that game because Robert "Tractor" Traylor couldn't handle Maurice Taylor off the dribble.

Anyway, the Rockets have run that same play a whole bunch since, (the "entry pass to Yao and have the guard run behnd him down the baseline") 99 times out of 100, the defender is too close to the guard for Yao to drop the ball off behind him, look or no look.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold your horses everyone.

We don't want to take away from Yao's low post game. JVG helped with that a lot.

But Yao was a much better passer when he came to the Rockets, and if he put that dimension back in his game, 't'would be awesome.

Think Duncan and B. Miller with their 4-5 assists a game. That's not bad to have.

 

sure he was...

 

i don't want yao modeling brad miller. i don't want yao modeling rookie yao.

again...baffled.

 

I agree with you. What if JVG was coaching Dream and Dream wasn't allowed to shoot his face up 10 to 15 foot jumper? Let's face it Yao is more a finesse player than he is a power player. He will never be Shaq and he's more inclined to play like Dream than Shaq.

Yao has multiple abilites and so far he's been asked to only bang in the low block. It's a waste of his other talents and a crying shame because if he had a more egotistical personality he would have never let his game become so one demensional.

Lets see what else he can do to help the team win. Like Adelman said if the man can shoot free throws at such a good clip he can make an outside jumper.

 

why do u think yao got all these skills? if u gonna put more responsibilities on yao, he's gonna be less effective in the post?

like JVG said => yao is basically as avg as any NBA outside of 10 ft. so if u want him to face up and pass and do all those things, ur gonna get an avg NBA center.

what i want yao to do is be more aggressive in establishing his position. that's all. when he gets it down to 8 ft, he's unstoppable. b/c he's so tall, he just takes one dribble and its a wrap. outside of that, he's horrible.

so no. i hope adelman can experiment al lhe wants in pre-season and see how ineffective yao is outside of 10 ft. then he learns how to find yao to be in better position.

 

when you make playoff history with only 4 players scoring in a game...

you basically have no assists....

 

Some of you guys pay attention only to fantasy stats and not the game.


Just because Yao did not have high assists doesn't mean he wasn't a good passer.


His passes are mostly kickouts to shooters due to his role, most of these end up being passed around in search of a more open shooter spotted up. Those were not assists but they are good passes.


Also Yao's high TO mostly results not from passing, but from stolen dribbles, 3 second calls and Offensive fouls.

Look below the surface stats and you might actually understand the game more.

 

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No doubt

Rocket River

 

You guys are really taking for granted on how Yao's dominance came about.... as of 2 years ago, people were still wondering if Yao would ever come close to averaging 20 and 10 for a season.

Now, if he doesn't do it (or doesn't compensate his lack of rebounding with 25+ppg), its considered a dissapointment.

 

His passing ability is overrated. He can't pass well out of double team and he is a bit slow in releasing the ball.

 

And we know that Yao had tons of NBA experience in his rookie season..

What this shows is that Yao came in with a certain amount of passing skills but hasn't improved on them.