Yao Watch (renamed)

If only T-Mac was playing up to par. But he's not.

he's a highly over-rated soft player

If he's so soft, why is he one of only four players averaging at least 20/10 right now?

Like wut Jae said, 20/10 doesn't have anything to do with being soft...

he doesn't block that many shots.. he either has horrible timing, lacks quickness to the ball and prob short wing span for his height.. prob all 3..

How about: the refs don't give him respect.

And thats why dalembert gets the respect? Maybe if you watch yao played, you would understand, but you seem too biased.. Kobe Bryant shud be getting 5 blocks a game cuz of the respect...

If you watch Yao Ming play, he coughs up the ball WAY too much, and gets stripped down low and from double teams, if he actually had good ball control, he would be getting like another 2-3 dunks + 2-3 assists a game instead of losing it..

Maybe earlier in the season, but not now. He has averaged 1.2 turnovers in the past five games, FYI.

Turnovers don't tell the story all the time, losing rebounds, not looking at the ball(yao doesn't do this) or not catching it ( would prob result a turnover in the passer) I do know he has avg 1.2 turnovers in the past 5 games, but maybe u shud watch Yao play instead of quoting numbers thats been quoted already....

they said he was aggressive all game, i'll like to WATCH one of these games and see how hes doing.. his #'s are great tho...

Seriously, dude, that would be a great idea, because "It is obvious you prob haven't really watch yao play..."

i have watched at least 12 + games this season that yao played in sir..

At least it's good to see him performing well... if everyone really thinks about it more carefully, I think it took Yao at least 1 season and a half to get a hold of english... maybe the language barrier was a bit of a problem? I can tell you that interpreters aren't always word for word so I think Yao would have found it tough at first. And then fitting in with the team would have been harder cause he couldn't communicate as well. Not knowing the language fluently might have made him feel more shy... and maybe less confident on the court.

Would language/new cultural settings have been a problem to his development and his efficiency on the court?

1 mintue left Yao with 38, 10 and 4 blocks... Rockets trail 99-98

38 points 10 rebounds 1 assist 5 blocks in 37 minutes in a come-back from 17 behind win against the Pacers.

I think its clear-Yao is clearly doing something significant with his game, whether its getting past some communication difficulties, or filling his system with steroids...He's done SOMETHING. Comeon. 38 10 and 5? Those are Shaq-tacular numbers *rebounds a bit low* but nevertheless, Yao is getting a lot more consistent.

And he's helping to lead the Rockets... thats the most important part! He's a leader!

wow, another great game, if wonder if he has suddenly emerged, maybe being in all-star festivals in houston this season WITHOUT much problems with the language has helped him, i'm sure the first season, he was just, scared.. 2nd season he was prob realizing his problems on court, and the next 2 seasons will prob be the time he breaks sum barrier with his language, and get comfortable with the game...

at this rate, he is wow, really blown away by how he is performing, i always thought he would be a 18/8 guy at max, watching him was disappointing since i'm chinese 2 and i would luv to see him do well..

but i have yet to watch a houston game post all-star break, my last game i watch him was phoneix game where he recorded like no rebounds and got blown away by 30 points..

Funny thing is that he kept getting posterized in the all-star game... maybe he had enough haha.

Yao was also 12/12 from the free throw line. If he can become assertive consistently, he will be just as dominant as Shaq was. Because of his size, he can shoot over anyone in the league. He has a nice 15 jumpshot if he isn't getting position, and when he is, it's impossible to guard him. If you foul,you're going to get burned, unlike with Shaq.

This of course is all based on potential. He's definetly stronger than he was a few years ago.... with the lack of opposing centers in the league, he could be unguardable for years to come.

He's always 'automatically' been one of the better big men in the league... his performance post All-star have only just made him look even better.

I hope that he will play like this for China at the Worlds!

Because of his size, he can shoot over anyone in the league

his mechanics are too slow, so smaller athletic bigs can contest his shots w/o trouble.

lol he's not Bill Cartwright slow. he still shoots over them anyway

i just notice if you do the math ( well im assuming) hes no different than he was. the extra 5min he is playing is the difference in his numbers

Like wut Jae said, 20/10 doesn't have anything to do with being soft...

If you call him soft, then whatever. If he can get 28/14 since the All-Star break by being "soft", then I'm fine with that.

And thats why dalembert gets the respect? Maybe if you watch yao played, you would understand, but you seem too biased.. Kobe Bryant shud be getting 5 blocks a game cuz of the respect...

The reason doesn't have so many blocked shots is because he doesn't want to. He's getting so many fouls called against him that he starts to stop challenging shots.

Turnovers don't tell the story all the time, losing rebounds, not looking at the ball(yao doesn't do this) or not catching it ( would prob result a turnover in the passer) I do know he has avg 1.2 turnovers in the past 5 games, but maybe u shud watch Yao play instead of quoting numbers thats been quoted already....

I don't know what you're trying to say here, but Yao doesn't lose rebounds anymore. I think you're talking about the games you've watched before the All-Star break. Now, Yao doesn't lose those tough rebounds. And he no longer regularly gets stripped.

his mechanics are too slow, so smaller athletic bigs can contest his shots w/o trouble.

There's a diference between contesting a shot and making a man miss a shot. Kareem's defenders could contest his skyhook all they wanted, but it still went in. Now, I'm not saying Yao's fadeaway or turnaround is a Kareem skyhook, but it's still effective, contested or not.

Theres a reason no one could stop Kareem's sky hook.

There's a reason Yao is scoring 28 post-All-Star break.

lol yeh.. KAreem was unstoppable because he was allowed to travel/commit an offensive foul (his left arm clearing out) each time he used the sky hook

not sure someone can be 'soft' when they are dominating a game on offense

Why is Yao doing so good? Simple, Rockets suck. There are many players in the NBA that can step up the same way if their teams were struggling. Tmac is still battling his injuries, nobody else on the rockets is any good, Yao has to play this way if he wants his team to appear in playoffs. The sad thing is that I do not see Rockets getting much better for the next few seasons in the NBA, even if Tmac and Yao improve. They are an average .500 team that will not get the top pick in draft.

not sure someone can be 'soft' when they are dominating a game on offense

Antoine Walker's dominated games offensively in the past, wouldn't exactly call him "tough"

Then again Yao is an inside player. I watched some clips of his last few games the other night, he looks fantastic... it's like he's realised that he is 6 inches taller than everyone (at least) and isn't a complete invalid. It's cool.

Why is Yao doing so good? Simple, Rockets suck. There are many players in the NBA that can step up the same way if their teams were struggling. Tmac is still battling his injuries, nobody else on the rockets is any good, Yao has to play this way if he wants his team to appear in playoffs. The sad thing is that I do not see Rockets getting much better for the next few seasons in the NBA, even if Tmac and Yao improve. They are an average .500 team that will not get the top pick in draft.

they were way above .500 2nd half of last season.. they lost sura, and james, got alston, swift
sura will be back next season.. i don't see how they wont' be better than .500
especially with Yao and Tmac healthy

There are many players in the NBA that can step up the same way if their teams were struggling.

Are you saying that lots of players in the NBA could have three straight 30/10 games when their team was struggling? Are you really saying that? Just forget that it's even harder for a big man to score, how many players do you think could do that in the face of double-teams every time.

They are an average .500 team that will not get the top pick in draft.

Last year they won 51 games. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a .622 winning percentage. This year, without injuries, they probably would have done at least as well, if not better.

Are you saying that lots of players in the NBA could have three straight 30/10 games when their team was struggling? Are you really saying that? Just forget that it's even harder for a big man to score, how many players do you think could do that in the face of double-teams every time.

Sure is getting old, I doubght he will be any better than he was last year. He will always be bothered by injuries, hell I think Tmac will get injured again next season.
And No, I am not saying that many players can have 30.10 game, but if your star is injured I see many guys steping up and getting 5+ppg and some more boards, steals or assists.

There are many players in the NBA that can step up the same way if their teams were struggling.

And No, I am not saying that many players can have 30.10 game

Contradiction there.

I've seen some of his past few games and I'm impressed. When there's a close-up shot of Yao, he has that "I want to dominate you and eat your children" look on his eyes.