Well, even if this article is false, he still complained about not getting enough shots. He can't do that when he has the ball most of the time, and decide to camp 3 steps out of the 3pt line.
Who said anything about focusing all the attention on one player? We have discussed Brooks struggling, Rafer's struggline, Yao's lack of rebounding. But, right now, the biggest PROBLEM with the Rockets is Tmac...is he the only problem? No....but he is by far and away the biggest....thus the discussion about him. Don't get caught thinking people believe there is some magical jelly bean fix....I certainly don't, but I also can see a problem when there is one. Face it, when the: 1. Organization quesitons your work ethic 2. The coach questions your effort 3. The players question it It is fairly obvious what THIS particular problem is.....but if people want to ignore it...fine...but the truth is the truth...Tmac is a problem....and right now, there is no viable solution other than benching him....IMHO.... Oh, was he motivated and playing last night in the Knicks game? DD
100% correct. But he does have some mental toughness issues, he is not hard enough going after rebounds and punishing guards for reaching in...Yao could use some Deke elbow lessons. DD
So you want guys to play injured and play terribly now? First you say they should stay out and get healthy, and now if they miss a game due to injury they are unmotivated? You can't have it both ways. That's why I think no matter what t-mac does you will hate him. If he plays and goes 2-9 - you will rag on him. If he stays out and tries to get healthy, you will find a way to rag on him. You didn't see the Thunder game...but he progressively lost jump and quickness as the game went on, but played hard despite that. he would go up to the basket strong have no jump and get blocked by 2 players. C'mon don't you think the guy deserves a break for trying while injured? I do. And I think you're going to rip on the guy no matter what...you've set that precendent...it's like you don't want to look bad if T-mac plays well - just find a way to dismiss it and rip on him to prove your point. Just like D&D.
Don't you think that's more of the reason why the Rockets haven't been out of the first round rather then Tmac? I mean the guy got scored all over by Boozer and Memet Okur Neutralized him.
Yes, I think he should sit until healthy, mentally and physically. I blame the organization for letting it get to this point, they should have taken a harder line on the guy much earlier. But he was playing BETTER at the beginning of the year than he is now, and that is purely because of effort. I don't think for one second he is injured, not one second...I think he is moping and is afraid of pushing his knee out of fear.....and I think the organization is hoping that he gets through that by playing and it is hurting the team overall by doing this. Put his butt in rehab and work him OUT HARD !!!!!! Help him build up the trust in his knee again and be the same old Tmac, because this version is killing the team.... Bench him...for the good of himself and the team. DD
As Jonathan Feigan said Yao is anything but soft. The guy plays center against the biggest and toughest men in the NBA every game. The NBA lets the big men battle inside unlike guards who can't be touch or it's a foul. That's the opposite of soft. Getting pushed, kicked, scratched, elbowed, every game takes a a tough guy to take.
I agree with that. I said that last week that I wish he would stick those elbows out to keep players from going in there reaching once he gets the rebound. I still don't get why this board thinks he is soft. People need to realize that he is 7'6. Being that tall will have it's disadvantages when it comes to his lack of quickness. The few people that have around the same height as Yao turned out not to be good. Yao is the only one that has had a good career and he's an all-start caliber player. People really need to appreciate him more than they do on this board.
The Knee stiffens up when he plays on it...don't you see it's wrapped up while he's sitting on the bench. That's an injury my friend...not just mental. In anycase, it looks like T-mac will be sitting out. With only 4 games in the next 12 days, Adelman is reviewing things and has said that both T-mac and Artest may be put on the shelf.
You claim that all your thoughts are "analytical", evidence-based, and only with the best of the team kept in mind.... and then you go out there and spout this drivel... as if those two are the main reasons why this team didn't advance in the playoffs. When in reality, those two are likely the only reasons why this team even had a chance in the playoffs in the first place. Go ahead... try to argue otherwise. Try to come up with some circumstantial reason why these particular two caused the team to fail. In reality, you're simply furthering the claim many have on here that you're too biased to be takedn seirously with your "takes". Lumping Yao's problems as simply "lack of rebounding" along with that of a 2nd year bench player and a borderline starting PG says a lot. Its not just Yao's lack of rebounding, and you know that. As far as discussing THIS.... what purpose is it then to have 100 threads discussing him, and coming up with factless/baseless theories about why T-mac kicks puppies.... when there are several FACTS and game-evidence right in front of us of OTHER problems that are clearly causing this team to underachieve? I'm not saying don't discuss it... i'm saying discusss it in the frame of context with REAL evidence-based anaylsis (not rumors from out of state gossip columnists). For instance, yes T-mac's inconsistency is hurting this team... but that's no reason why Yao is having a year where he's seriously regressed across the board (when he's supposedly in his prime), and this team's overall intensity has struggled. Its hard to say if they're all related, if the team's apathy is causing T-mac to act up, or vice versa. Its all gossip-infused non-analysis that is WORTHLESS when it comes to truly suggesting ways for this team to succeed. And, just as somebody said above... once the T-mac "problem" is solved, the attention will then go to the Yao "problem".... then the Adelman "problem"... then the Toyota Center "problem"... and so on and so forth. Scapegoats are fun... until you realize that the true problems are far greater. And its the ability to consider ALL problems when attempting to fix a team that makes great organizations greater. The Rockets thought they had it all fixed when they let JVG go. The Rockets thought they had it all fixed when they traded for T-mac (when everybody knew they needed more than Yao+T-mac and a bunch of stiffs). The Rockets thought they had it all fixed when they handed out ludicrous contracts to Mo-Taylor, Moochie, Maloney. There's more than one reason why this team hasn't been nationally relevant since 1997...
Wow, DD I see an improvement. One hour ago you would say "trade him or bench him" and an hour earlier: "Trade him"
He's not soft, just slow. In any case, I see Yao's play has been improving finally to pre-injury level recently...I think that's going to be a big key down the strech. The key is not to overuse Yao while T-mac and Artest recover....If we can just get healthy by march or april, we'll be fine.
It's been 8 months since he had his surgery and 6 months was the max time frame to fully heal for removing loose particles. How many more months will it take before his fan base stop using the injury excuse. 9 months? 10 months? 1 year?
Everyone heals differently. even Wade said it took him over a year to recover and wade is a lot lot younger.
