Houston is getting very hot in June. It's 91 degree Fahrenheit (33 degree Centigrade); Yao Ming was lying over his sofa at home, eating a piece of water melon, and watching Game 5 of San Antonio Spurs vs Phoenix Suns on TV. Yao Ming said: "Amare's improvement could be a blessing in disguise for me; it will motivate me to train harder this whole summer. Just wait and see; I will definitely block a few more shots over his head in the new season." Prior to Rockets' elimination by Mavericks, Yao Ming predicted San Antonio Spurs will be the Western Conference Champion, and the Duncan + Ginobili duo did not fail him. Yao Ming felt jealous when he saw Popovich and the Spurs players celebrating with the champion cup aloft. "There will be only one victor in the final. Whoever lifts the champion cup, he is the most fortunate/happy guy. To be frank, I'm not feeling too comfortable deep inside, seeing others becoming champion. After all, we beat them twice in the regular season." Yao Ming was jealous about Spurs becoming Western Conference champion; he was even more jealous about Amare Stoudemire breaking playoff scoring records (11 consecutive games of scoring over 30 points). "That fellow was like a wild bull in the playoff; If a wild bull is on the rampage, no one can stop it." Even though the Sun's trip to the Grand Final was cut short in Game 5, Yao Ming was still dumbfounded by Stoudemire's dazzling performance. Yao Ming thought the Suns had made a wise pick on Amare; he felt that if not for his education and family background, Amare could be qualified for the #1 pick in 2002 for his raw skills and athletism. He felt that Amare had worked very diligently and had completely transformed as a player over the summer. He felt that Amare is going to have a bright future. Both are from the 2002 draft. But after 3 seasons, Amare has made NBA All Team 2, and is only one step short of Grand Final. This had stimulated Yao Ming that right after his return from San Francisco over the week-end, he had braved the extreme high temperature, and worked out in Toyota Centre. "Just look at him. How can I take a seat back and not give my best ?? Wang Fei said Yao Ming phoned him May 30 and told him that he was training hard in Houston. Yao Ming said that he felt he was doing okay in the past season, but compared to those elite players, and in order to become more successful in NBA, he felt he was still far off, and had a lot of rooms for improvement. His first areas for improvement is on his stamina/strength and basic skills. He felt that his strength and stamina was still not good enough to sustain high-level competitive matches. He got tired and exhausted towards 4Q most of the time. So he thinks he needs to work out more on his strength and conditioning. He was also working hard on his basic skills, in particular his low post positioning and ball handling. He is not working alone, as the Rockets has designated trainers assigned to work with him on these areas.
Yao needs some kind of motivation. Shoot the way it looks right now you can make an argument that Amare should have been picked first overall in that years draft. The thing with Amare is he has that killer instinc that Yao has yet to develop, I think he will learn in time. Once Yao learns he should be gettting dunks every other play on offense.
drake, did you write this or is this from another article? Quote it if you didn't write it. Thanks. As for Yao, it's great that he's actually training harder than before. Him and Stoudemire enjoyed similar success in their first season, but in the second and third seasons, both improved but Amare did it by leaps and bounds. If Yao can develop to Amare's level again in 2 years, he'll be a beast.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">drake, did you write this or is this from another article? Quote it if you didn't write it. Thanks. As for Yao, it's great that he's actually training harder than before. Him and Stoudemire enjoyed similar success in their first season, but in the second and third seasons, both improved but Amare did it by leaps and bounds. If Yao can develop to Amare's level again in 2 years, he'll be a beast.</div> I've always felt that Yao would put up better numbers in a high post motion style offense. That type of offense seems to be a better fit for his skills IMO. That's why Stoudemire has been better in his career. He has been allowed to play to his strengths, while Yao has been forced to play almost totally in the low post, where he can't take full advantage of his excellent passing and mid range shooting skills
jmc1, I get where you're coming from and I feel that if we can get a guy like Tyson Chandler in the offseason, we could see Yao doing it more and more. The reason that Yao hasn't been able to exploit this set-up is because of no offensive rebounding threat. If he'd missed the mid range shot, no one would be down low to recover the ball. With Chandler or Reggie Evans down low to clean up the boards, I think Van Gundy should be willing to use this setup more often. Also, Yao's post game is also one of his strengths. He's an excellent finisher around the basket and has a good hook and baseline fadeaway. He's also a great passer out of double teams in the post and it has served him well. Stoudemire is playing up top because he has the quickness and handles to isolate his defenders and drive to the basket. Yao, instead, can only shoot or pass in the high post. It takes away an advantage of being in triple threat position.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting jmc1:</div><div class="quote_post">That's why Stoudemire has been better in his career. He has been allowed to play to his strengths, while Yao has been forced to play almost totally in the low post, where he can't take full advantage of his excellent passing and mid range shooting skills</div> I agree with Trip.. since Juwan Howard seems to fit more as a high post player, they need Yao to take advantage of his size and stay inside for those offensive boards.. If they get a big, athletic PF maybe Yao can switch over to high post.
Yao just needs some motivation. Also he won't have to play for china in the summer this year so he will get a break.
