Yao's number need be decreased during the regular because Rox has so many good players, his numbers need go up only during the playoff when it is the time that matters most, just follow the Spurs, you know what I am talking about. Just hope that RA does not use 8-man system like JVG, then Rox would not go very far again.
Rick Adelman runs the Princeton to friggin perfection. It'll be great to see Tmac slashing and driving. In Sacto, Adelman never had a finisher as good as Tmac (and even Steve Francis). With a passer like Yao in the high post, Battier on the perimeter, and slashers like McGrady and Francis, it'll be sick to watch.
If he did say so, then that's very unfortunate. Yao is one of the two best low post players in the game today (according to SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, who should know something about low post players), and points inside are always better than points from the perimeter, because we get more FT's that way, and Yao has the best FT% on the team. If Adelman wants him to play like Divac/Miller, then it would be a tremendous waste and Adelman should be fired for underutilizing the talents of his superstar. One of the issues with Yao's stamina during the JVG era was that JVG constantly had Yao setting screens at the top of the key, and then diving into the paint, and on defense JVG had Yao showing on the P&R's or switching onto the guards. If Adelman cuts down on this Yao can handle 35 MPG just fine. The last two years, he's averaged 34.7 and 34.4 MPG, after deleting the where he got injured and played < 10 minutes, and he's been more efficient than he ever has been his whole career, his PER this past year was a career high and was 3rd in the league. Yao should play no less than 35 MPG. He has handled it fine the last two years, and his stamina has only improved over the course of his career. This system can't possibly use McGrady more than the previous one did, where McGrady had carte blanche to do whatever the hell he wanted. We saw how well that worked out, both here and in Orlando. If Adelman can get him to drive more, then that's great, but I can't see him doing much of that any more with his age and his back issues.
Speaking of which if you did not get hurt last season...he could've easily been the MVP...because he pretty much had Dirk beat in every single category. Pre-injury: Yao 26 ppg, 10 rebs, 2.1 blks, End Season: Yao 25 ppg, 9.4, 2.0 blks,
Another thing is....the Rockets are not nearly as talent as Mavs if both were with out each superstar....the Mavs would be the better team w/o each superstar.
trust, tmac's imprint will be all over this team once again whether we like it or not. tmac may not have as high a usage rate, but he'll score a lot more not b/c he's gonna take more shots, but he's gonna be much more efficient. i think w/ the signings such as francis/james/scola, we're gonna go small a lot more since the game is oriented that way. u don't see duncan playing 40 mins. even in the playoffs, duncan avg just 37 mins a game. and 33 during the reg. season. i think yao is gonna play just around 32-33 mins during the reg. season to maintain his energy for the playoffs. his assists could go up to 3.5 b/c adelman seems to use in the high post to pass more ala divac/webber. his pts might stay the same or go down a lil bit.
I personally expect Yao's rebounding numbers to go down, simply because he's not going to bang in the paint every time down the court, which means less offensive rebounds. Defensively, who knows? Yao's not a great rebounder anyway, and with Scola as PF, he's likely more used as a help defender than to clean up the boards. I'm expecting Wells and Francis to actually take rebounds from Yao on the defensive end. Blocks? I don't know. But quicker pacing probably would lead to raw block averages.
i think his rebounds will go up... faster pace game = more shots taken/allowed = more opportunity to rebound.
he'll also be playing out at the high post at times. high post = further away from the basket = fewer off. rebounds as I understand it, the pace will be faster only becasue we'll run more fast breaks but if there's no fast break opportunity we will still run the half court set through Yao. so basically the extra shots taken are mostly likely go to the wing players when they finish on the breaks with Yao. I think Yao's numbers will go down across the board except assist but our offense will definitely improve.
There is absolutely no reason why Yao cannot get 12 rebounds a game. I actually remember Thibodeau saying something in China about the reason why Yao cannot get 14-18 rebounds a game is because JVG forced him to guard the picks and screens out high. He said this and the high post play was always a topic of discussion between him and JVG but that JVG was set in his ways. Thibodeau believed Yao could almost double his rebounds if he was allowed to set in the paint like Shaq.
he never would have said that...more bs from bs. lets see the link. the leading rebounder in the league doesnt average that.
I beg to differ. The fact that he doesn't bang as much in the paint will let him get more boards on offense. How else do you think Hayes gets his rebounds? Certainly not by camping in the paint.
i dont think yao ever be much more than a 11 rebound guy, unless he just gets a lot of lucky bounces that year. 1) he tips a lot of ball out 2) lack of speed to chase down balls outside of his reach 3) lack of quickness off his feet 4) doesnt really block people out well 5) minutes.
Except Yao basically rebounds in his area, hardly the active rebounder Hayes is. I can't picture Yao explode for a rebound from the FT line. He's just not athletic enough. If the ball doesn't come to him, he's not going to get it.
exactly. if he's not under the basket and the ball is coming near him...he isnt getting it. Anywhere outside the paint he has a hard time
i expect most numbers to go up but points to go down. there are far more scorers on the roster this year. the ball doesn't need to go into yao EVERY possesion like it used to. more scorers = more balanced attack. in addition, with the princeton offense, and scorers to pass to, i see yao averaging at least one more assist per game. of course he should make about one or two less shots per game as well. there will be more possessions per game thanks to coach A. this means more chances to rebound the ball and more chances to block a shot. i think realistic numbers for yao would be: 23ppg, 10.5rpg, 3apg, 2.5bpg
He just needs to show up in the 3 second area every now and then. That's how he got most of his boards in the past, when the defense was keyed in on someone else other than him - he would then flash in the paint right before the shot went off.
