Sorry if anybody experienced an upchuck reflex at the mere mention of his name, but Charley Rosen took on a couple of Rockets questions. Q: You are an idiot. Yao Ming is clearly the best center in the league right now and possibly for the next few years. The last Houston teams to win championships revolved around another great center, Hakeem Olajuwon. Granted that Yao is not Hakeem, and never will be, still T-Mac is on the spot to give Yao more help than Hakeem ever got. With Yao playing lights-out, T-Mac has gladly taken a back seat and become more of a playmaker. I apologize for the idiot remark since you obviously wrote your appraisal of the Rockets so early in the season. What's your take on the Rockets these days? — Roy, Cleveland, Texas A: You are entirely correct in estimating that Yao is not as good as Hakeem. The latter showcased quickness in every aspect of the game (especially quickness to the ball), mobility, stamina, a highly competitive nature, and was essentially a face-up center. On the other hand, Yao is slow in every aspect of the game (which makes him extremely foul-prone and a less than dominating rebounder), lacks stamina and competitive fire, has a high-dribble that leads to an unacceptable 1:2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio, and cannot adequately defend any opponent who can face-up-and-go. I agree that Yao is most likely the best center in the league, but look at the competition — a rapidly aging Shaq; an even more-rapidly aging Ben Wallace; the gawky semi-skills of Zydrunas Ilgauskas; over-rated guys like Chris Kaman and Andrew Bogut; lightweights like Mark Blount, Samuel Dalembert, and Tony Battie; the likes of Primoz Brezac, Eddy Curry, Fabricio Oberto, etc. Not exactly Wilt, Russ, and Nate. Even so, Yao is probably good enough to power a championship team these days. As for T-Mac —he's generally considered to be highly overrated by the league's coaches and scouts. His FG percentage is low, he still takes too many bad shots, his assist and TO totals are inflated because he gets so many touches, and his decision-making is iffy. The Rockets commit too many turnovers and rely too much on converting 3-pointers to be a consistently excellent ball club. Right now, they're a dangerous but underachieving team. If they do find a way to take better care of the ball, and take better shots, come the post-season tournament they'll certainly be the one team none of the higher-seeded is anxious to play. As for your observation of my general intelligence … I've certainly been called worse, and there are many who would agree with you. All I have to say in self-defense is that I can only aspire to becoming a basketball-minded idiot savant. Q: Do you have any idea why the Rockets will not play Bonzi Wells? — Bob Potter, Monroe, LA A: Because he came into training camp out of shape, injured himself, and (for the same original reason) is slow to recover. And because he's arrogant, selfish, totally out of control, doesn't work and play well with others, and doesn't buy into any concept that doesn't have him on the court for 40-plus minutes while giving him license to take 20-plus shots. In other words, whatever cohesion and harmony (on and off the court) the Rockets have developed so far will be instantly destroyed as soon as Wells suits up. Rest of the mailbag: http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6231164 ______________________________________________ While Yao doesn't have the competition at center that Hakeem had, that is beside the point. Anybody can see the skill that he brings to the table, and for all of the advantages he has as a 7'6 player, there are disadvantages he cannot avoid. Anyways, the idea of T-Mac being overrated is ridiculous, he does take bad shots and therefore is shooting a bad percentage, but his court vision is on par with LeBron in my eyes, and once his mid range game is on--and it's only a matter of time--then we'll see why he is anything but overrated. BTW, are Nash's assist numbers inflated because he has the ball so much?
Mr. Rosen, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. this guy si a certified moron.
You lost me at 'Rosen'. Even when this guy is wrong (all the time) he will argue his point just for the sake of winning the argument. Not to mention he's bascially never had a positive thing to say about the Rocekts, I personally wouldn't torture my fellow Rocket fans with his crap.
Dear Idiot, Aside from the peers who outdid him during the early stages of his career, what competition did Shaq face? Sincerely, Shawn Bradley, Matt Geiger, Kelvin Cato, and That Guy The Nets Had.
Good christ. That was some of the most spiteful and generally indefensible idiocy I've seen in some time. What a pompous jerk.
Wow, that was enlightening. Glad to know our 11-5 team is "underacheiving" and that our 26-point, 10-rebound per game center actually sucks. Also, our clutch shooting guard who has been injured and actually gets very little attention, he's actually overrated. Great. Well, until I see otherwise, I do agree with him about Bonzi.
i think the competition argument is misleading. Yes, there are not as many traditional centers in todays game. But i think people neglect the fact that the game today has greater length and athleticism than ever before (imo). Not to mention versatility of players that are 7 foot today. And lets not even get into the zone defense and doubling rules.
Honestly, that was one of the better Rosen commentaries. He does possess a lot of knowledge (if not smarts), but his "take my opinion as fact" approach kills half of what he says. I read him simply in hopes of fun tell-all material that he gets from Phil (usually anti-Kobe). Rosen is one of the many that hated Yao before he even saw him in action, and can't accept that he was wrong about him. He'll only see what he wants to see, unfortunately. He's dead-on correct about Bonzi, though. With McGrady, he's just pulling crap out of his ass. Evan
One of the things that makes me laugh when discussing Yao is how he is so slow. The dude is 5-6" taller then the legit centers and 8-10" taller than most of the guys he plays against. Of course he isn't going to be as quick. Can you imagine Duncan trying to guard Kobe, Tmac, or ANY wing player in a face the basket situation? He would get destroyed and TD is a great athlete for a 7 footer. Size doesn't matter. Also, comparing Yao to Dream is just stupid. Dream is probably the most athletic big man to ever play - there are a few that are up with him like KG and Amare- but none are better athletes. Watch any video highlights from the late 80s to mid 90s to be reminded how athletically gifted Dream was. Slighting Yao because he doesn't mathc Dream's athleticism is just plain dumb.
I love Yao...LOVE him, but if I had to choose between a 25 year old Hakeem and a 25 year old Yao..... Hakeem 100 times out of 100. DD
Well sure, DD, but we're damned lucky to have the best center in the league, despite his name not being Hakeem.
I don't know about his first assertion that McGrady is considered overrated. I agree about his FG% being too low (that's kind of obvious at this point) and that he takes too many bad shots. His assists are "inflated" because he gets too many touches? By that logic, Stockton's assists were also inflated. Or Magic Johnson's. Silly. McGrady is a very good, willing passer and has excellent court vision. Regardless of the number of touches he gets. And while McGrady's turnovers are slightly up this year (he's passing more), throughout his career he's been one of the very best players in the league in terms of creating shots while limiting turnovers. In general, McGrady is a solid decision maker. I don't think his decision-making is any more iffy then, say, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James. Sometimes he gets shot happy and looks to make difficult shots instead of the simple play. Again, same thing could be said of Kobe and LeBron. How does Rosen explain our 11-5 start to the season if our big center in the middle is merely a "second fiddle" and our other star is highly overrated and inefficient? Does he think Luther Head, Rafer Alston, and Shane Battier have been carrying the team this whole time? Please.
Excellent point. Today's dominant/good big-men are dominant in different ways. KG, Nowitzki, O'Neal (Jermaine), Bosh, Okur. Which is precisely the reason why team's get so excited about players like Yao, Dwight Howard, Greg Oden. And then you do still have the Duncans, Howards of the world, too. The same thing can be said about the high dribble leading to a higher turnover/assist ratio. It is definitely a valid argument, but heck, Yao IS tall. The point is, why overanalyze. Just analyze. Yao is averaging 26/10 while shooting 53% from the field, 85% from the line with 2 assists and 2 blocks a game. On the negative, he IS turnover prone (so are Duncan, Howard, Randolph, Bosh to some extent), isn't as dominant a rebounder as you would like and can be prone to commit one or two more fouls a game than necessary. All told, that makes him the top center in the league and one of the top 4 big-men in the league (Duncan, KG, Boozer and Yao). Why analyze any more than that?
here is a list of NBA centers from the 99-00 season where Shaq won his first NBA championship and won the league's MVP. he has garnered the recognition as the NBA's "most dominant ever" playing against these scrubs: Phi-Theo Ratliff Orl-John Ekwugha Amaechi Bos-Vitaly Potapenko NJ-Jim Mcilvaine Was-Jahidi White/Muresan Ind-Rik Smits/Austin Croshere Cha-Elden Campbell Tor-Kevin WIllis/Charles Oakley Det-Christian Laettner/Jerome Williams Mil-Scott Williams/Ervin Johnson/Tractor Traylor Cle-Andrew DeClerq ATL-Deke/Lorenzen Wright Chi-Will Perdue Uta-Greg Ostertag SA-old David Robinson NY-old Patrick Ewing Minn-Radoslav Nesterovic Dal-Shawn Bradley Den-Raef Lafrentz Hou-Kelvin Cato/old Hakeem Olajuwon Van-Bryant Reeves Por-Arvydas Sabonis Pho-Luc Longley Sea-Jelani Mccoy/Greg Foster Sac-Vlade Divac/Scot Pollard GS-Adonal Foyle/Erick Dampier LAC-Michael Olowokandi
But you don't get to choose between a 25 year old Hakeem and a 25 year old Yao, you got to choose a 40 year old Hakeem and a 25 year old Yao. Of course if you could choose, you could dream about dating Angelina Jolie, but you don't get the chance, and you still go back home kissing your loved ones. If an aging Shaq with Wade can win the championship, what prevents a better Yao with a rejuvenated T-mac from winning a championship? better role players and better luck? it is doable for sure.
