Of course I do. His last name is Park, dummy. Thought Zhou Qi could use a little bulk like the immortal Hulk Hogan.
http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/Zhou-Qi-makes-early-impression-with-Rockets-12230319.php Zhou Qi remains a rookie with a long learning curve. But Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said he did turn heads in the first practice of training camp on Tuesday. The Rockets do not expect Zhou to compete for a place in the rotation this season, but D'Antoni did like what he said from Zhou's first workout with the veterans. "He has a chance. He has a real solid chance," D'Antoni said. "He's 7-2. He can shoot 3s, run the floor, knows how to play. There's no reason other than strength and bulk and things that come naturally. I'm looking forward to having him up here all year and working with him. We'll play him when we can. We're not going to rush him. It probably won't be this year when he makes a mark. But everybody keep going, 'Wow, he can be pretty good.' "What's surprising is he's 7-2 and can shoot like he can, pass and do all that running. He's very coordinated. I'm sure I'll learn more about him as I go forward."
He's going to be a plus minus wonder kid. As bad as he shoots in summer league, he had the best raw plus minus. Looks like the trend may continue in the right direction.
Rox would be insane to trade him. First of all the Chinese backlash would be (L)insane, as we all know the Rox are China's fav NBA team and that means a ton of NBA merch sales so it's important they maintain their good image. Secondly with the Rox getting limited by capspace they need talent on the cheap and Joe Chee fits the bill. I'm really excited about the dude, he reminds me a lot of Porzingis in that he can shoot 3s but also bother people defensively with his length. He can be our Anderson successor.
I don't care about the backlash from Chinese fans. I just want Zhou to stay because of his talent. I think he's the future of this team. But he'll need to get stronger. And I don't mean Andre Drummond type of strong. We want him to keep some of his quickness and be mobile enough to cover the PnR. I think Anthony Davis and Giannis Antetokounmpo are good examples of what Zhou should strive for as far as building his body goes.
I just don't see it. He has decent instincts defensively but he struggles to understand positioning on the court and often gets beat. Sure that could come with time, but the league is too quick and dynamic for a guy like Joe. Maybe he can be a 12mpg guy when he's 25 or so, but I don't see him contributing in any significant way in the league as of right now. If you're reading this Joe, prove me wrong!
Good progress this summer league. He can cover a lot of grounds with the mobility and wingspan, but he'd be even better defensively by learning not to close out too much on quicker guards. He's surprisingly good in limited post-up defense mostly due to his length.
Well the diff is Yao was made a traditional back2basket and he had coach Thibbs aka the career-killer as his development coach. Qi is gonna be a 3nD big so he will hopefully have a longer and healthier career.
Considering that Yao was on the verge of taking us to the finals I would say ruined is a adequate assessment.
I don't entirely agree with this. Yes, it put more pressure on his feet, which were already injured even before he joined Houston, which shortened his career. When he was light, he was pushed outside the paint with ease. He couldn't score without holding his position. Making him into a back to the basket player, made him a successful center. We would never seen the Yao/ Shaq encounters without that.
Yeah but if Yao Ming played today I highky doubt they would force him to be a traditional big man, rookie Yao had good speed, handles and was pretty quick for his size, Yao also made some 3s so maybe if they focused on that he could have been the first modern NBA big man. In retrospect making Yao a back2basket was a mistake because it interfered with Tmac's play, as a result JVG had problems when both Tmac and Yao played together. One thing I admire about Kobe was he was able to get his while playin with Shaq, other playmakers like Harden, Lebron and Tmac struggled to play with a ball dominant traditional big man.
