Well no matter how much you like and respect Yao, he is what he is a total unknown if he can complete an entire season healthy. Until that happens no star player is going to put us on the want to go list. Why would they?? The new order of doing business is bond together with other players and win it together. The only way the Rox get a Type A player and personality will be to trade for a disgruntled star with a long term contract so he doesn't bolt the first chance he gets to leave. Paul with a 2 year contract isn't worth the risk unless he signs an extension or we get a Pau Gasol type deal. I don't see it happening. Personally I think Paul and Melo want to team up and go to NY. I wouldn't trust either one of them in a trade. And not everyone hates you DD, some people do think your amusing.
I believe that Yao will go through the season well in limited playing time and in critical time. Coming playoff, he will trust his body more and ready to do sth.
Yao is simply too high maintenance. Too many things have to line up perfectly for him to play at a high level. Even though I admire him, I won't shed any tears when he's gone.
How will the Rockets be able to fill the Huge Hole in the middle if they are foolish enough to listen to some of the "get rid of Yao" now crowd? Nice post DD.
Yao doesn't hurt this team. Nor does he hinder it. There is no one in the league short of Dwight Howard or Pau Gasol, and perhaps Blake that is superior at his position. Even Bosh does not give you inside presence like Yao does. If Yao were out of the picture, the Rockets would have no championship hopes. None. Don't kid yourself and think this team with the addition of CP3 can win a ring when you have stacked teams like Miami, Boston, and L.A. out there. If you want to knock those kinds of teams out - you need to have an advantage against them. Not just be competitive at each position. And Yao is that advantage. He is the one weapon that changes everything as when he is healthy, he is dominant and creates problems for those teams. Enough to give us a chance at winning a series. Without him, we will not win a ring unless we can get some major influx of super star talent - and that is very very hard to come by.
Oh OK. Stuck with Yao because we need a center. Great argument there. I guess teams with a Yao as their center can never win Championships?
This is and has been my position and I am sticking to it. I the TMac-Yao is over, and I mean OVER. The postscript idea that the Rockets can still "build around Yao" is insanity. Here is the plan, don't sign Yao until the season is almost over and only if he is healthy at that time, and the new contract should be a reduction, short term, and filled with qualifiers. If Yao performs poorly or is reinjured in any way, no contract, end of story, new era. If the Rockets don't follow this prescription they are courting disaster.
Not really, that p*rn aspect of "H" is coming from Japanese word "Hentai", which Chinese internet users happily adapted.
These expectations for Yao are really not fair. The bar is set way too high for him (coming off an injury no less) and even if he performs decently he's not going to get a fair shake around this board because everybody is expecting monster Yao and honestly that's the Yao we would need to even have a hope of competing this coming season. I can see people bashing Yao into oblivion if this season is a total disaster.
"Hentai" literally means pervert. The p*rn aspect of the letter "H" is because it's the first letter in the word "horny". As for Yao, my guess is that he and the Rockets will do well this season as long as he can stay injury free. The Rockets have had an extra year playing under Adelman's system, they've got more offensive weapons than in the past and they should be used to the idea of stepping up considering they just played an entire season without Yao.
Health - that is the key. If the team gets that, then this team will explode. Health gives us Hope. DD
Very well written of course and i agree with alot of what is said. I also maintain that you cant count on yao to finish a season. Simply put, off court cash doesnt help the on court failures. Take out the hardworking part,which people tends to say doesnt apply and the same can be said about tracy. You cant build a house with a cracked foundation no matter how big or pretty it is. My solution is always based on logic and minus emotions. People always tend to think i dont like yao which is false. I just like the rockets organization more than any player because that the way i feel. Personally, with martin,brooks,scola,chase and some of the other offensive option on the team, i would rather have a defensive guy like thabeet or multiple bigs like gortat and a combination. I dont care how i get it, but i can get 17ppg and 11rebs from the center spot, i'm good. It doesnt have to come from 1 guy either. So right now, yao is an expensive,oft broken,jaguar. It looks nice and rides good with alot of bells and whistles until u find out its breaks more than it runs. Teams have had playoff success minus a high touch big like yao in the post. It would be one thing if he established quick,scored in transition, or could beat a guy off the dribble. At his size, you dont expect him to be like that anyway, but he kills the pace and the shot clock offensively. Everything has to be perfect for him to score. He has to to get the ball in the perfect spot,often losing precious time on the clock. The pace was slower for a reason,not by accident. His biggest contribution to me is defensively. I said this last offseason when the battier fanboys where talking about the uptempo and keeping a top defense. The hayes fan boys where talking about chuck being a top defender so it shouldnt be a fall off. Well, both were wrong and they wouldnt have known they were wrong if they had watched the rockets and checked the ppg and fg% when david wesley was on the team. Being 7'6 and holding your arms up is alot more effective than a 6'5 guy taking charges or battier putting his hands in someones face. All in all, they wont admit it, but its just time to move on and restart the the process.The sooner the better.
