Not too shabby. The doors opened at 12:00pm but we got there at 1:00pm. It was perfect timing because the guys didn't start practicing until 1:30pm. As far as the players, McGrady was a bit rusty but did have a nice Alley-Oop dunk. Yao was looking strong and had a couple of shots. He did get blocked by Mutombo once though. Yao also still tends to tip the rebounds away like its volleyball. I came away impressed with Reece Gaines. He showed hustle and was involved in a few plays. Nachbar looked pretty good. He was still missing his shots from the outside though.
Man Nachbar still missing I was hoping this would be his year to repeat that stroke he showed in tryouts.
From what I remember Bok i hit 1/2 from the three and had a long jumper. Don't remember him missing many outside....
zimmerman played pretty good but just couldnt make his free throws.. mcgrady air balled a three pointer and had a smile on his face.. yao did pretty good.. lue is really fast and does his job by givin it to yao.. and yao went up for a layup and dikembe blocked it
Boki missed two threes and made two, I believe. He's still the same old Boki. Gaines really showed some hustle. He's quick and he has a few moves, too. You could tell this guy wants to make the roster and play. Everybody looked as though they hadn't really had proper warmup time before the "game." Lot of missed shots. But with the exception of the guys who are obviously fighting for a spot in the rotation, the whole thing had a pretty mundane "another day at the office" feel to it. It was definitely just practice. Here's a couple notes with varying degrees of relevancy to anything. -T-Mac's legs are like optical illusions. I don't see how the guy WALKS, let alone levitates. -Yao looked pretty strong. He's got average NBA musculature at this point, I'd say. Don't get TOO excited, though: His game is the same. Yao didn't try to bulldoze anyone. There's still only one Shaq. -Mo and Howard seemed to be getting along real well. Howard seemed pretty friendly with everybody, actually. -Mutombo DID oblige a few fans with the finger-wave. He seemed to be having a good time out there and still makes the middle tough. -Gaines and the three training camp guys played the most. Gaines even switched teams at one point to stay on the floor. Zimmerman has some huge hops, but probably won't make the team. Gaines looked like he had a shot at some playing time. -Sura was not in attendance. It was a real bore to wait around for an hour and a half for them to drag the players out, but hey, it was free. It was also cool to sit as close to the court as I'll probably ever be again. Clutch was funny, but the grumbling grew as we waited forever for what we came for. The "game" went by quick, but it was a good time.
I hope Yao gets more of his shots blocked by Deke. I'm sure last year against Cato he could just go in there and put up some soft layups over him. But with Mutombo he will develope a better power game, because its power game or getting blocked.
Man I guess this was sort of anti-climatic to what I was anticipating. Oh well I guess it was wrong to think that this was going to be a playoff caliber practice. Still looking forward to tommorrow.
I can live with that. The same old Yao will still be pretty damn effective if he can keep his stamina up and manage to get better position.
Yeah, Yao should have/could have dunked that - it was nice to see Deke block him. Boki looked pretty good, although he was harassed by the Defense into a bad turnover at one point. Charlie Ward hit a game-winning clutch 3 pointer with 1 second to go - that was pretty cool. Yao had the ball in the post and kicked it out to TMac for that wide open 3pt airball. TMac also seemed to have some chemistry with both the point guards - he got the alley oop from Ward and kicked a ball to Lue for a 3 pointer that Lue made. Oh yeah - POWERDANCERS! NEW UNIFORMS! DADDY LIKES!!! Oh yeah, and I saw B there, but I didn't see any other of the likely suspects.
I wouldn't expect Yao to actually 'bulldose' or play overly physical in a practise session, anyways. I mean, there's no need to risk injury to anybody...
i dont think we'll see yao peak until hes 29 or 30. i do see him going for 20-10 next year. id say 20-10 for the next 8-9 years.
They werent going 100% they were just running a couple of plays. It was more for the fans just to look at them. SO as far as not expecting anything from Yao, I wouldnt go there. Yao looks great, and expect him getting better every season.
Ok fine. Not gonna post em then. What really happened is that I totally forgot about pictures and had a friend buy a disposable on his way.
