Yao needs...everyone to chill, it was just one off game

Its been two straight games but yes, we need to move on

 

Yao needs us to stop thinking he's the best center in history, because he's not.. he's not even the best center in the league. He's just a really good player who happens to be a little inconsistent.. that's the truth, he's a very good player, I like watching him when he's on, but he frequently has horrible games in which he essentially destroys our team's chances of winning (see: missing the last 9 straight shots in a game against the world champs)

that's the thing, when he misses 4 straight, pull him out, don't keep him out there to be embarrassed/humiliated.. forget "regaining confidence", think "winning games"..

 

what have been said about yao by all of us here since last night is nothing new, at least not in the sports world. it happened in the past, it happens now, and will happen again in the future. could happen to any player (or coach).

 

Rockets need better fans......

 

Can we please stop making Yao thread after another Yao thread. It is getting ugly and I am tired of that.

On the 1st page there are 5 threads about Yao. Not enough? Sure, he played bad but what? It is not the end of the world.

Chill out

 

So true.

 

yao himself thinks he's the best center in history? where did you get that valuable piece of confidential information?

and "he frequently has horrible games in which he essentially destroys our team's chances of winning"????? wow. i agree. one bad game out of 4 games is 25%, that qualifies as "frequently", doesn't it? some say it's 2 games in a row, so it's 50%. let's look for yao to destroy our chances at that rate for the remainder of the season.

and when yao misses 4 shots in a row, pull him out. how brilliant. leave those rockets who have missed n times in a row (routinely, or not) on the floor. put in our wonderful backup centers who are 6'9 and watch them battle the 7-footers of the opponents and expect our backups to hit n times in a row. what a brilliant strategy, you should at least be hired by morey to be amongst adelman's top aids.

 

You're just adding fuel to the fire by starting a new thread. Since you made this thread I've said it before and I'll say it again. When Yao plays bad everything is BAD. 8 points is bad but at least make up for it by grabbing rebounds, playing better defense, not getting used and abused by Kendrick frickin Perkins, picking up stupid fouls and doing his best audition for a Sprite commercial by getting rimchecked with nobody around.

 

who aren't satisfied with horrible performances by their best players
who know the difference between playing the NBA Champions and the Oklahoma Thunder
who know its 41 years of tradition, not 6 years of tradition
who aren't blind
who know where Houston is on a map

 

Wherever Yao ranks in the pantheon of great centers it's pretty clear that this Rockets team is going to be reliant on him to be the centerpiece of the offense. With that in mind it doesn't make sense to bench Yao this early in the season. He needs to stay out there, get his minutes and get his rhythm back. And all of the big three need practice/minutes with each other.

 

If you don't think Yao's performance raises a giant red flag for a possible Rockets vs Celtics Finals matchup, you're in denial.

This was no fluke. Tom Thibodeau knows exactly how to stop Yao, and he has the personnel to do it. Smaller but stronger, athletic bigs that can play defense, rebound, and shoot the midrange jumper are Yao's weakness, and everyone saw it last night.

I'm sure you will tell me how dumb I am when Yao explodes on the Blazers. "See look! It was just one game!" Yeah, except Portland != Boston. What if more teams emulate what Boston did last night? Will Adelman be smart enough to stop running the offense around Yao if that happens?

Yao reminds me of the Phoenix Suns team the last few years. They dominate in the regular season and put up monster numbers, but when the going gets tough against strong, disciplined, defensive teams, they fall apart. Yao has a lot to prove.

 

I agree, people on these boards overreact about one regular season game. If this was the post-season that it would be different. It is the freakin 3rd game of the season. Yao will prove the haters wrong in the games to come.

 

valid points. but you're overstating the celts a little bit. at their full strength, they got us by 4 pts. and we still have 78 regular season games and many playoff games to go through before we meet them in the finals.

 

I dont care that he had a bad game becasue even great players have them. But what really got me mad was the two miss dunks he had. I mean at 7'6 you shouldn't miss a wide open dunk he don't even have to jump that high.

 

I think we will beat Boston if Battier and Mutombo are playing, but I don't see Yao playing a big factor in these wins. The worst thing we can do against Boston is play Yao extended minutes. This was no anomaly. His poor performance was a direct result of the Celtics gameplan on him. He's just not a good matchup against them. We can kill ourselves and continue to expose Yao and embarrass him out there, or we could go with the more favorable matchup and play Deke more and perhaps Dorsey once he starts getting playing time. Landry's/Scola's midrange game would force their bigs to leave the paint as well.

And when Yao is on the court, we shouldn't necessarily be treating him as the #1 option unless it's actually working. He's clearly being frustrated by the smaller, peskier Boston big guys. We would be wise to bring Yao out of the paint and punish them with T-Mac and Artest. We should really be able to expose Ray Allen on offense. Taking Yao out of the paint opens more room for cutters.