Yep, pretty much. The only time we came close to having the great support around our two stars, one got injured during the season and took himself out. The other got injured during the second round. Such luck. This lineup was going to win a championship that year: Brooks/Lowry TMAC/Wafer Battier/Artest Scola/Landry Yao/Deke/Hayes So much fight and hustle. It really is a shame and I hope we strike gold this lottery, or Dwight comes to Houston. Not making the playoffs sucks.
sum up. ppl regret coz they think amare is better. this is only reason i can see ppl regret. let's go a little bit deeper before making any prematural conclusion. amare hasn't won anything yet first. second, he is not with whoever drafted him. he is with ny. what's the different btw him and yao? do you think he won't head to ny if we draft him? please be realistic. to me there is no difference btw amare and yao. none of them brought any hardware to teams who drafted them. at least, at moment of draft evening, rox was on the big stage for millions and millions ppl to watch.
In hindsight, That was a really sh!tty draft. Who would you have drafted to build the Rockets around if not Yao? The only players still making significant contributions are Nene, Amare & Caron Butler. I wouldn't build around a highschooler, Minnesota(KG) and Cleveland(Lebron) are good examples of this or a foreign player. Butler was a good pick, but just not a franchise pick. The only other choice would be Jay Williams at point. The only good thing about taking him at #1 is that we would have known his career was over the next year.
Why? So we could suffer through his injuries instead? And have 0 defense in the paint while we're at it? The answer is no. Hindsight is 20/20, and Yao's injuries sucked, but to not gamble on that sort of talent, you'd have to be an idiot. Just an absolute idiot. I'm glad we had Yao while we did, and you should be too.
not the case ny is in the pic. i am sorry to say that but amare is not a type of person who doesn't like ny.
Do the T-Wolves regret drafting Garnett? The Rockets got out of Yao pretty much what the Wolves got out of Garnett: multiple playoff appearances/50-win seasons, but only once did the team get past the first round.
the only other person i'd want in that draft besides Yao is Amare and factoring the class and professionalism Yao brought I rather have Yao. He not only made you proud as a player (when he was on the court) but as a person as well. Its a shame, the round the clock basketball and his huge frame probably killed any longevity he may have had in his career. honestly though go back and watch some clips of Yao in 06-07 before he got injured by tim thomas - the guy was just a complete beast
you cant regret drafting him. if he came into the league w injury problems then yes, you could regret it. but injuries are a part of pro sports. he could have lasted as long as shaq for all we knew.
That is not obvious. For all we know Amare would have left us for NY like he did Phoenix. I am quite happy with our choice from a fans perspective.
No way. The only thing to regret was holding on to him too long. Imagine if we traded him in the 2006 offseason. He played only 57 games, but averaged 22/10 shooting 52%/85%. Phoenix would have given us Stoudemire if we wanted him (he only played 3 games that season due to injury) and thrown in Marion and a 1st rounder too. No one was anyone a more valuable pick in that draft -- Stoudemire included -- the only problem was that we sat around and watched his stock collapse and did nothing.
Along with a 1st round draft pick, the return of their traded 1st round draft pick, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff's expiring contract, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes and cash. Oh and 12 seasons vs.... how many of Yao's seasons count?
**Briefly relevant... I just want this night(a)mare to be over!! Rockets need to do something big to get us excited to be fans... its probably been a couple of years since I was Excited for the upcoming season because we have been such a team of mediocrity... at least Yao brought some hope (Even Tmac brought some) I just want hope!
This. Only two players in the running for the top pick, Yao Ming and Jay Wash. Saying Amare is a cop out as he came from nowhere, he was the 9th pick and we would have been laughed out of the building if we had picked him at the time. Yao Ming's draft was just one of the suckiest drafts in history, too bad that's when we got the top pick.
Oh, damn! How can one miss such a thing. It's ridiculous Carl Hererra purposely glossed over the massive amount of success Minnesota had upon receiving such a bounty. How that trade went down in history as the NBA equivalent of the Herchel Walker trade.