I don't know if anyone notices this but when the shot goes up YAO does the "right" thing and boxes out his man before trying to go after the board. Fundamentally this is the right way to play but a lot of other people in the league don't box out and instead position themselves to rebound as their first move. I think this gives the "good" rebounders in the league an edge 'cause they are already great athletes and put themselves in position to go after the rebound but YAO boxes his man out then goes after boards he can get to. Since he isn't looking to go after boards he just ends up with the ones that are near him and more often than not this clears the way for his teammates to get rebounds. This also limits the rebounds his man gets, for example..... Bradley had 1 board in 27 minutes today.
Not surprise at all. Yao is a fundamentally sound player much like Tim Duncan with a good understanding of team game and willingness to do the little things. In this season, I noticed that even sometimes when Yao rebounds in single digits he still out-rebounds his man most of the time.
Good point Henrock. I too have noticed that the first thing Yao does is find his man, and box him out. Many times, Yao will push his man to the edge of the paint. No one else on the team boxes out like that so as Yao clears the area, the opposing team comes rushing in to grab offensive rebounds. But kudos to Yao for doing his job.
I think this has been discussed many times before. Since Yao's not athletic enough to go after boards, at least I think he boxed out his man well. Last season he only got out rebounded may be 3 or 4 times out of 82 games by opposing centers.
Sometimes when Yao box his man out and goes for the board, someone like Sura or Howard would go up for it at the same time and Yao just nicely gives it up to'em.
I think you made some good points. But Yao did lose some rebounds which he should have grabbed, either he fumbled the ball away or players of the other teams poked the ball loose from his hands. I think it's a matter of concentration and focus. The ability to stay focus and secure every single possible rebound through out the game separates the great rebounders from the average ones.
Yao is what i call a "pushover" for his teammates. He does the right things and plays a team game, so that his teammates get open looks, and easier rebounds, while he does the little harder to notice necessary things. I thinnk a lot of his teammates just use him as a giant decoy so they can pad their own stats for points (by shooting more than a role player should).
I agree this happens and not just on rebounds. Does anyone know if this happened in China also? If not it could be that he is used to playing against inferior opponents and is surprised when the NBA players do it. Then again he should be used to people swiping at him after 2.5 years.
Hmm.. checking back over some games... Haywood 9, Yao 7 Curry 3, Yao 3 (Curry plays 22 minutes to 11) Okur 9, Yao 4 Nesterovic 3, Yao 4 (Yao with 28 minutes to 19) James and Potapenko 11, Yao 9 Haywood 3, Yao 9 (Yao with 32 minutes to 23) Pryzbilla 11, Yao 8 Foster 2, Yao 4 Curry 2, Yao 10 (Yao 30 minutes to 23) Mihm/ Grant 11, Yao 8 Olowokandi/ Griffin 9, Yao 14 (yao 41 minutes to 35) Dalembert 7, Yao 5 Where no minutes are recorded, it is within 3-4 (at most)! Well, that's our last 12 games (can't be bothered going further) - but there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming trend of Yao outrebounding his opponent (or vice-versa) - it seems like Yao has been outrebounded 6 times, won the contest 5 times, with one pretty close call.. So I don't think we can conclusively say that Yao always outrebounds his man... I mean, it's not like he's been up against any dominant rebounding centres in that stretch either (ok - Foster + Pryz are pretty good rebounders!) I think we just need to accept the fact that Yao is an average rebounder - and stop trying to make excuses to make it seem better... he doesn't "always outrebound" his opposition, nor does he "make his teammates better rebounders"...
Based on stats at 82games.com, Yao outrebounds his man by 2.3 rebounds for every 48 minutes which converts to about 1.5 rebounds per game (2.3*31.2/48).
