That it takes a great deal of energy to lift 310 lbs. off the ground. You know, rocket science, gravity, things like that.
the Pistons have been successfully working on Darko's vertical. Their focus was not on his 1st jump but on successive jumps. He would jump 28" the 1st time, 19" 2nd jump & then 17" on the 3rd try. They also spoke about how, initially he was only a left foot jumper.... that had to be corrected because most scenarios involve jumps off of both feet. At this point in his development he is at 30" 1st, 28" 2nd & 26" 3rd. They've been able to improve his jumping but, as evidenced by his playing time, they've also benefitted from slowly integrating him into the team. Yao has not had that luxury.
I draw your attention to a photograph , which was shown last Season where Yao Ming and Jason Collier went against each other in a Jump Ball. It looked like Yao Ming has a verticle of about 24". The problem is that Yao Ming needs to learn that he should jump amd must remember to do so.
Yetti's 24" estimate is close. According to a Chinese web site, Yao's flat footed reach is 297cm (9'9"). Yao once said his reach was 355cm (11'8"). So his vertical according to these two pieces of information is 23". I remember somebody said Shaq's reach was 12'2". So, Yao's reach is not that good, which could be on par with Steve Francis' reach.
Interesting. I'll add that it looks like Shaq's feet are about 6 inches longer than Yao's, or anybody else's, so when Shaq get on his toes, or jumps, it just gets him that much higher.
Sure it would be great if Yao had a better vertical but what really concerns me is not his vertical but the quickness he has getting off of the floor. He just does not explode off of the floor the way the more dominant big men have during the NBA's history. Moses Malone was a perfect example of someone that did not appear to jump all that high but he had great explosion and great floor positioning. The one thing that I have seen Yao Ming improve drastically on this year (not including the SA game) is his rebounding position on the defensive end. I am convinced that if he could infuse a little more jumping quickness that his 7'6" height would be more than enough to off set any lack of vertical. One other thing I would like to see Yao Ming do is get the ball up over his head when he is in traffic. I would also like to see his team mates pass him the ball a lot higher and not around his knees. I have seen tons of turn overs this year because Yao Ming could not get low enough to grab the pass cleanly.
