Sorry dude, but Yao is not a superstar. He is an all star caliber player but no where near a superstar level. Superstars are guys like Kobe, Wade, Lebron, younger Tim Duncan, Brandon Roy, Chris Paul etc... Those are superstars. Yao is no where near the level of those guys. Those guys can take over games and will be a threat to the other team no matter what. Even Chris Bosh isn't on that level yet. I think Kevin Durant will be a superstar later but right now, he's still an all star. But Yao is a good player and a all star caliber player but he is NOT a superstar. Dwight Howard maybe but he's still an all star in my book. So overall, Yao is a good player but he is far from that superstar level. What keeps him from that level? Well, first of all, his big massive frame alone makes him very vulnerable. His inability to dominate and take over games. He has one dimension to his offense. He does not have any counter moves. For a big guy like him, he has a hard time boxing out other players his size and he can barely crack 10 boards per game. In his career, he only overage 10 rpg but he played less than 60 games. His career average in rebounds is 9.3 which is average for a big men that is an all star. Compare that to Shaq who career average in rebounds is 11 and Dwight Howard who career average is 12.6. To me, a superstar caliber player is a guy that can take over games and lead his team. Tim Duncan, who isn't very athletic like Yao but he is a superstar because of his amazing basketball IQ and his ability to take over games. Tim Duncan career averages is 21.4 ppg, 11.7 rpg, 3.2 apg and 2.3 bpg. Even though Yao stats are very similar, his assist is half of Tim Duncan as that is 1.6. Yao just has way too many weakness in his game. Even though his jump shot is great for a big man, probably has the best jump shot compared to any other big men in the league. But he has a hard time getting into position, his defense has a lot of weakness, and his fatigue is probably a big factor. Tim Duncan is proven to be much more clutch than Yao. Tim Duncan simply makes smarter decision than Yao. Throughout Yao's career, I have never seen him take over games. He does well with another star by his side. Yao does well during the game but when it comes down to crunch time, Yao often struggles. When the defensive tempo increases, he struggles. He often admit that he cannot keep up with the fast tempo sometimes. Down the stretch, Yao is very ineffective. When the defense fronts him, he has a hard time getting around the defense and often gets called 3 seconds in the paint. Even when he finally gets the ball, he often forces up the shot due to frustration.
Yea Yao never takes over games, he only gave us home court advantage in the Portland series..and took game 1 from the Lakers, but no, he does not take over games.
Yao and TMac never worked out I am the one against the trade since the very beginning. TMac needs the ball in his hand, needs the paint vacated to be effective. In Magic every teammate is either a shooter or a rebounding bigman, much resembling the team AI had around him in 76ers, only he didn't have a defensive anchor like Mutombo. That kind of team can never win a championship but TMac can benefit from it. He shot his career best in Magc, for 3 of 4 season, he shot better than .450, with the last season being the exception, in which he quit. Now after he was traded to Rox, Yao had to take up the center, all of the sudden the lane to the hoop was filled with help defenders. He had explosive first step but was never a finisher fond of contact. He was never as good a 1v1 player as using a screen to get loose. It's no surprising his game became YM doing a screen or shooting contested jumpers all the time. As a result, his best had been 0.431, with .406 and .419 in between. In terms of efficiency, that's no better than AI. Superstars are supposed to play off each others and make each other better. Kobe is shooting better with Gasol in his team, Gasol had career years in Lakers for field goal percentage. That's not the case for YM and TM. We didn't actually see TM and YM connect very often. TM got most of his assists by diming into corner 3s. Did we see TM command double team and YM with an easy hoop? Rarely. For TM, YM didn't even help him as much as a 40 old Mutombo, we saw that as well. This was a failure since the very beginning. I saw it from a mile away and called it as a minority. To be honest, I am a YOF. And I hate to see YM wasting his prime with this pretended superstar that never figure out how to play with another superstar. I proposed the exchange for Hamilton and Billups in the beginning of last season, and Gordon and Noah when it went bad in the middle of the last season. Granted, my opinion didn't matter. But I am happy this is finally over. Morey's good at finding supporting roles for cheap. But NBA championship is won by all stars, and most of time, at least 2 of them. Too bad though, with YM probably passing his prime, and TMac's contract unlikely to get an all star in return, Houston's window has closed. I feel pity for YM, he never had a chance.
YM deserves quite a bit to blame too..... The 2 fragile players could never stay on the court together for an entire season. I'm sick of Yao's injuries. Every year it's the same thing.....what could have been....he's seasonal injury is just too devastating for a team to take and "be a contender". It's an end of an era..... I pray for a full season from Yao Ming, but hopefully he'll have some other star power helping him. If these injuries continue....trade him....
It's a shame really. Last year was our best chance to win a title in my opinion, but we just couldn't get everyone healthy. I'm quite dissapointed it had to end like this, but that's the NBA. You get your chances, and if you can't exploit it, then we move on to give other people a chance.
Sure, but what I meant to say was that they never clicked. Ideally TMac should play along prime Mutumbo and D.Howard, while YM should fit better with Kobe and Roy.
I don't know, they did have their bright spots. I do recall in the 2007 series against the Jazz, both were beasts in the playoffs. However, in game 7 of the series, they both had around 30 points, but everyone else just faltered. They can't carry the entire team, they need help. And, well, we all know what happened against the Mavs. I think, if a few things had gone differently, the Rockets would have another championship by now. Course, that's how it always is with the Rockets. If only...
Why not measure TMac's shooting with a legitimate center? He never shot over .431 as a Rox. If you want to compare apple to apple. Consider a good center will take up the paint and make penetration so much harder. TMac never figured out how to be effective with YM.
1. Yes, I know defense and boxing out is not measured. However, Kobe doesn't box out much. You don't get as good stats as T-Mac without putting in some sort of effort. T-Mac was the team is Orlando. In Houston, Yao wasn't as tough as he is now. Yao is, was and never will be anything close to what Shaq was in his prime. 2. LeBron is physically on another level. His skills don't match Kobe but he's just so physically dominant that it does not matter. I would pick LeBron over Kobe if building a franchise.
come om. when T-Mac came to Houston he said something like that "well, I'd like to play with Yao, cause now I shouldn't come to the floor and score a 40 points every night to win games, like I did in Orlando" He was disgusted, especially in his final season, when he scores a lot, but his team sucks and countinued to suck His women type of ego can't handle it and can't handle a pressure after his words and final of Pistons drama, so he started to blame, cry and bash everybody in Magic stuff
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This man wants attention. Someone give him some. He probably thinks he deserves a cookie for his "clever" post, one that we've seen in about 10 other threads in the past 24 hours alone.
