Yes, there are just about a thousand posts about how weak Yao was. And he deserved it! But less we forget, the man was a monster before he broken his leg. He trained all summer, got the stamia, touch and strenght and came to play. He had multiple moves, not this fade-way crap that was so predictible that it was blocked many times. Yao also didn't jump most of the series. Most evident in the last seconds of game 7 were a rebound of 2 by Yao would have made the outcome so much different. Yao built up the stamia, the strength the reps and all that was tossed by a broken leg. It's a credit to Yao that he came back and played hard but he was not the man from the 1st part of the season. If that Yao was playing, I think Okur would have fouled out and Booser would have had just a little more trouble getting off his shot. A low stamia, no jumping Yao is what we got for the playoff. Not saying it's a great excuse but it's a major reason Yao just didn't have it. You think Yao didn't give it his all? I am sure he did. He just didn't have more to give. He needs a lucky cat or you know, just lucky and get his mojoe back. He will heal up and lets hope a 100% Yao comes back hungry and ready to got next season.
I just hope the team won't suffer from any injury next season. It does hurt. Yao lost speed and stamina after the injury.
Yao clearly was not the same player after the injury. But frankly, Yao biggest fault in this series was turnovers, IMO. It's hard to blame that on the leg. Maybe you can partly blame JVG for that, however.
Plus, now that we know his toes is hurt too! Remember early last season, yao were slow and ineffective, everyone were blasting him only to find out he was having in grown nail or whatever in his toes. After the surgery, yao came back to play the best basketball of his life in the second half of that season! Now yao is injured again and became slow again and caused the rockets' season!
Yao was not a monster before that injury. Yao's two >30 shots games are good incications of how weak is he going to be. A jump shooting center sucks no matter how many points he gets, espcially when Yao missed most jumpers in the 4th. Remember why Rockets had so many 4th quarter breakdown? It is Yao could not hold his own in the 4th and being addicted to his crap jump shooting. Yao has been pathetic and nothing is dominant all season. I hate his lazy jumpers as much as I hate his ass kissers. The 1st round out might not be a wake up call either. He will continue his jump shooting and he still got his numbers and failures.
Absolutely. Yao was slower after coming back from the injury. Then the toe starting hurting because someone took a step on him. And don't forget about the dislocated finger. Maybe that's why he didn't dunk more often. But there were more important things that cost us the 1st round... namely, the fact that Chuck Hayes was our starting PF. We need to address that position before we address anything else.
i don't think yao could've done anything to save the sinking ship. the whole team just did too poorly for one man to save it.
I think he should consider surgically cutting off the tips of his big toes. They keep wounded because his big toes are longer than his other toes and get stumped on a lot. Apparently Reebok can't make shoes good enough to protect them.
Dude, stop hating. He did play well at the beginning of the season. Big men can't finish the fourth quarter... they are not the closers, that's a fact. Its usuallly the wings that take control of that. I attribute his shot attempts to the fact that his teammates are basically useless and the other teams would double and triple Yao on a nightly basis. Not even Shaq could put up numbers if you had 2-3 guys hanging on you every night.
Yao will be a MONSTER next season. And if he's not that monster in a Rocket uniform I would be most put out.
ive said it before and i'll say it again. i dont like when yao shoots jumpers even when they go in. thats not what a great center does. a great center works down low and commands triple teams yet still dunks all over their faces.
So the excuse comes out when the Rockets lose? i didn't know the Jazz had a 2-0 series lead instead of the Rockets.
There is only one big man who don't play with much jumpers in the league, in the recent 20 years: Shaq O'neil. So perhaps this WNBA pal is thinking in the way of WNBA.
lets be logical, was before the injury was dominant, he mixed it up constantly, but thats because he had the quickness to do it, once his injury hit he lost his speed, some of his touch and confidence, which didnt help during the first round.
the same could be said to TMac's back. If we had Orlando TMac or even TMac of 2 years ago, this series would even be close.
