http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1193711 Would it apply to the Rockets? The 99 Knicks got to the Finals when their star center, Patrick Ewing, went down, much of it because they had a capable replacement in Marcus Camby and good overall talent. It's harder in this year's Western Conference, but the Rockets certainly have talent, and guys expected to take Yao's minutes are not scrubs, either.
With or without Yao the Rockets look like a respectable team. I think they'll do all right no matter what. But man...Kobe, Gasol and Bynum. The West is awfully tough this year. I'll root for the Rockets, but I'm not sure that I'd bet on them.
it depends on what you'd consider a capable replacement. Camby was a young center who had to replace a star center. I don't think they had to change their style of play too much to slot Camby in. The C spot was just utilized less offensively. We're trying to use a real green, somewhat undersized PF and a real old C to replace an in-his-prime C. I'm not saying we can't do it, but its not a perfect comparison to the '99 Knicks. We're going to have to use a very different style of play to make up for Yao's absence.
Only 1 coach can take an 8 seed to the Finals. We already got rid of him. Unless we ask him to come back and co-coach.
I think if everything went perfect we would still make finals but its at a 1 percent chance if. My friend brought this up 2 seconds after I told him. I literally called him said Do you have a gun Yao Ming is done for season. His response: That sucks; Ewing Theory?
we have the most capable backup center anywhere in the basketball world. Period. P-E-E-R-I-O-I-R-D period!
The problem is that the West is so loaded that you could make an argument that 4 or more team would be the favorite to win it all in some years past. I do think this team is talented enough to win a ton of regular season games but I just don't see us making much noise in the playoffs.
Nice take on the situation. As a personal comment, I am so glad Ewing is gone. I cannot figure out why JVG brought that bum on board as an assistant coach. Anyone who went to a game and paid attention noticed that Ewing spent more time watching the power dancers than he did doing any sort of coaching.
Losing Yao is obviously a huge loss, but we definitely get better defensively with him out. There's no denying that. Dikembe is a top 3-4 shot blocker of all time and he's still bringing it. Also, how many times a game do the Rockets turn the ball over just trying to get Yao the ball, maybe 4 or 5? Add to that the amount of times he himself turns it over and that's a potentially significant swing in that department. For instance, we only had 10 TO's tonight. In contrast, we had 16 Sunday with Yao in the game. That makes a difference. 6 extra possessions is huge. I know this is a very small sample size, but I think we will turn the ball over significantly less with Yao out. Another difference is we can push the ball up the floor. Deke will actually throw an outlet pass. Yao doesn't even know what that is. This is going to get us a lot more buckets in transition. Don't think I under value Yao saying all this, losing him is a huge loss, but we do improve in some areas with him out.
i am a knick fan, and Simmons is wrong, even though Ewing did miss the finals, he did play in the playoffs, his performance vs the HEat was off the hook and without his performance vs the Heat, the knicks never would have won that series, which happened to be a really clutch running 1 hander by allan houston.
he's crazy. even with yao, rockets are not favored in the first round of the playoff, let alone making the finals.
If the Rockets can make it to the playoffs I'll be happy. If they make it out of the first round I'll be ecstatic. That's good enough for this year.
Im going to watch every minute of every game we have left this season. I think we will make the playoffs. We may or may not get bounced in the first round, depending on who we draw. I hate to say it, as Ive said so many times before, but just wait until next year. If we keep this group together and add another big (since Deke will retire, but hopefully stay within the organization) to backup Yao. I think we will be an early season favorite. I truly do believe that. Plus, we will have tradeable contracts at the deadline next season. I hate saying it, but wait 'til next year...
