CD and Rudy T. Ruined This Franchise More Than We Thought.

i would agree that they make very hasty decisions. the cato deal springs to mind instantly. the guy has a good preseason game and he gets locked into a 7 year deal. yikes.

but drafting yao?? who wouldn't have drafted yao with the first pick that year?? that's 20/20 hindsight.

 

Not a bad decision at all. Name 7 players who will be better than
Yao in 2002 draft? Considering 8 teams passed Amare, I wouldn't
bet CD and Rudy would have selected him with #1.

 

The one that sticks in my craw is passing over Rashard Lewis. Not once, but twice!

I know hindsight is 20/20 but that was a no-brainer! Possibly the worst (non) move in franchise history and we did it twice.

 

I'll give it to Refman, though. He thought the Rocks should trade down and take Amare. Remember...had we made the trade with the Clips we likely could have had Odom and Amare.

But the value of having an international superstar like Yao far exceeds what happens on the court...unfortunately for Rockets fans.

 

Our drafts sucked with rudy and CD starting with the Rashard year we wasted 6 first round picks in that time frame.


Mirsad
Drew
Dickerson

this was rashards year not one of those first rounders are in the league now.

Three first for Eddie and you know where that put us.

That right there is the downfall of this team. We should have someone from those 6 first but we have zero and now you see we are old and have very few assets.

 

the thing is amare would not fit in this JVG "system" he is a fast breaking type of player not half court

 

I think Yao was the best, if not the second best, player taken in the 2002 draft. He is averaging about 19 and 9. Amare is averaging about 25 and 9. But if you take into account the fact that the suns score 20 more points a game than the rockets, then the differences are not that pronounced. I prefer to take a more analytical look, which is percentage of total points scored. Yao averages about 22% of the rockets point scored, whereas Amare 24% of the suns point scored. Pretty close, right? And when you take into account that yao creates more open shots for his teammates than amare, that amare plays with steve nash as a point guard and not charlie ward, then it begins to be evident that yao is the better player.

The percentage of total points scored makes more sense than simply comparing points per game because of the type of offenses we run. We run a more slow down style of game, where it is more difficult for people to score more points because of less possessions. THe suns, on the other hand, have many more possessions, allowing many more points to be scored. Therefore, it is not only unfair but also not smart to compare simply points per game while neglecting the number of possessions.

 

We still have the chance to trade Yao with Amare.

 

Considering we already had Griffin, CD and Rudy T were more likely to draft a "lanky and good shooting" 2 or 3.

At that time we had Kenny T, Mo Taylor, Griffin at PF.

Plus, you thoughts is exactly like "we should have drafted Jordan rather than Hakeem".

 

Yeah. it's still not too late. I can't believe how our management picked Yao instead of Amare, who happenes to be 10 times better player than Yao will ever be. That pick, clearly, is the worst ever in NBA history. Yao, at best, is Rik Smith at his prime. Amare is the real deal. Baby shaq! man. i just love to see him dunk on Yao.

Oh, while we are at it, can we also include T-mac in the deal? u know, T-Mac's eyes just bother me somehow. Besides, he's just poor man's Kobe. so, I propose we trade Yao and T-Mac for Amare, Marion, and Nash. The reason we have to include Nash in the deal is that without Nash passing the ball to him, I'm afraid Amare might get lonely here. Man. i gotta tell you, just by saying Amare repeatedly turnes me on.
What a fantastic player he is!!!

 

amare is not a player without nash. i mean he would still be good but not like this. He has no post moves in a half court set he would not do a thing. Also amare coming out of H.S. nobody thought he would be this good. So you saying i cant believe we choose yao over him is dumb because you did not expect it. It is not like amare was the second selection

 

During the time of that draft, only 2 guys were considered good enough to be pick #1, Yao and Jay Williams. This was agreed by EVERYONE, including every GM in the league.

 

I can understand a wistful sigh when talking about Amare Stoudemire and how he coulda been a Rocket; and I certainly lead the pack in saying that our management has screwed up time and again, especially in drafting one-trick-pony white players (Drew, because he hit a game-winner in the NCAA tournament, and Rudy always seemed to go for that player who could hit a game-winner, even if said player screwed up all game long prior to That One Shot; not to mention how Rudy kept looking for The Next Rudy [Turkcan, Damn Lanky, Boki]).....BUT NO REAL ROCKETS FAN WOULD CLAIM TO ENJOY WATCHING YAO GET DUNKED ON.

 

I believe they had Amare #2 on their list.

 

I disagree on Yao. Look at first picks through the years.

2004 Dwight Howard - too soon to tell

2003 Lebron James
2002 Yao Ming
2001 Kwame Brown
2000 Kenyon Martin
1999 Elton Brand
1998 Michael Olowokandi
1997 Tim Duncan
1996 Allen Iverson
1995 Joe Smith
1994 Glenn Robinson
1993 Chris Webber

How many of those guys would you take ahead of Yao, for their careers? Lebron probably, Duncan definitely, Iverson and Webber probably. Who else? Brown, Kandi, and Smith have been busts. Robinson's had a rocky career. Brand and Martin are good, but not really franchise players. That puts Yao in the middle, #5 out of the 11 first round picks between 93 and 2003. People have unrealistic expectations just because someone's a first round pick.

 

You mean they already decided to give up Griffin?
We also had Kenny T and Mo Taylor. 3 PFs already.
Besides, I believe they also wowed Caron Butler and Dunleavy Jr.

 

Funny, I don't remember anyone saying we should have picked Amare instead of Yao 2 years ago...

 

thank you thats what i am thinking....