I'll be honest - I really think Yao should have been rebounding better than that! I mean come on - these guys aren't HEAVY rebounders like the NBA players are. And for as tall and physical he starting to become, he should be avg. double double. But it is a start, but I'd like to see him finish with at least 24/12 stats. If he is going to do well in the NBA then he needs to step it up here in this tournament!
An updated stats sheet after Day3. Yao's stats is even more amazing. Is big Z on the Lithuania team? http://www.eurobasket2005.com/diamond_ball/uploads/toppld3.pdf
Kobe and TMac is the top 3 players and they don't have great rebounding averages. I don't see anything wrong with Yao's rebounding. Stats doesn't mean always **** especially rebounding. Another 3 more rebounding pushing your own players out of the way when knowing they are got them don't make sense to me.
Yao actually tops the rebounding in the tournament, and leads 10 of the 16 statistical categories of all players including 24pts per game in just 28 mins! -G'day-
Come on. You can't compare Yao, who we all hope is the next dominant big man in the NBA, and a couple of Shooting Guards in terms of Rebounding. Dominant Big Men, need to control the boards. It's that simple.
Let's see Kobe and T-Mac are BOTH Shooting Guards... Their job is get the ball in the bucket. Yao plays Center - right UNDER the board - his job is to get the darn ball! He SHOULD have a higher rebounding average! He is a center - now if he was our Small Forward or Shooting Guard or EVEN our Point guard I wouldnt worry too much about it. But the point being these guys who are playing in this tournament AREN'T NBA Calibre players and Yao isnt averaging Double Double? I love his points per game, but would like to see him start learning to be more aggressive and rebounding better. Because with the loss of Cato - we are losing a solid rebounder (even though that is all he can do) but at least this is a good opporunity for Yao to refine his rebounding skills before he comes back and plays in the NBA!
Give it more credit than that. This is international level competition, the same level that beat Tem USA twice last year in Indiana. It's certainally not NBA level but glorified scrimmages? Come on now.
I'm not saying that these are not quality teams. Half of the teams in this turnament has a legit chance to win gold in the Olympics. However, you think that these teams are dong their best in these games two weeks before the Olympics so that their opponents can see how to beat them during the real thing? These are warmup/practice games. Teams are trying out different strategies and giving their bench players chances to play. So yes these are glorified scrimmages. I'm sure that Yao is holding back something. So are his opponents.
The final Individual Stats Sheet. Yao lead Points and Boards by miles, and so did he in the turnover department. This is the same Yao we saw in the past two years. http://www.eurobasket2005.com/diamond_ball/uploads/toppld4.pdf
Ha! This is the same level of competition that BLEW OUT the US dream team 6 this afternoon. Both Serbia and Argentina are better teams than the Italy team based on world ranking, BTW. Did you see what studs like Amare, Boozer, AI, and King, Watermelon did against those scrub Italians?
I have a feeling this might be Yao's stats next year except less TOs. 22 pts 9.3 rbs 2 asts 2 blks 3 TOs
9.3 boards? I hope he can do better than that, coz there's no one else boarding for us right now. Cato, Francis...
