As usual Jeff wrote a great article and is one of the reason's why I keep frequenting ClutchCity. I found this section of the article to be of particular interest "Personally, I'm still not sold on Ming as a player, but the rewards may simply be too great to ignore. If the guy is a solid NBA player for the next 10 or 12 years, even if he isn't a first-ballot hall-of-famer, he is worth the risk. " My question is even if he has NBA caliber skills, and the Chinese Government does not give us any problems, How long will it take for Yao to become a solid player? My guess is three years. And even then I expect him to be an upgraded version of Rik Smits. Toward the bottom end of the top tier centers or at the top of the second tier. Maybe I'm impatient but I want to start winning next year. As a long time fan I can learn to live with the Rocks choosing Ming but I won't be excited about it and I would not expect fo the Rocks to make much noise in the playoffs anytime soon because of him. Now if the Rocks managed to trade the pick for established players, rid themselves of some contracts and pick up an interesting player or two in the draft (NBA ready Caron Butler) . Now IMHO that would be exciting. BTW if the Rocks select Ming and continue their losing ways (as theorized above) will they start having problems atttracting free agents or keeping their own players? Should that be a concern when deciding whther to take Ming or trade the pick?
DearRock - How are those situations applicable? I do not really follow those teams but: Nets did not do anything until they got Jason Kidd arguably one of the best PGs in the league. Boston took a long time but if they had gotten rid of Pittino earleir they may have reached the playoffs sooner. Detroit loaded up with some established players. All three teams are in the easy um I mean east so their level of competition leaves something to be desired.
