I think I understand what Juugie is really saying. He's saying that Yao really didn't put up better numbers than Steve this season, that was just a fabrication. He's saying that Yao stinking up the last 2 weeks is worse than Steve stinking up the whole season. He's saying Yao really didn't have those good games while Steve never had those bad games. He's saying we should dump Yao and go back to the good ole guard oriented defence and the fact that we did not make the playoffs the previous 4 seasons was just a fluke. Did I miss anything Juugie?
I didn't mean for my post to be another "trade Yao" post. I didn't post it to bash him, certainly not after he played such a great season. He has tremendous shooting touch. What I'm trying to do is clarify that the question some people on this board have asked -- Can we improve our team by trading Ming? -- is not static. It's dynamic. It depends on what we can get for him, which depends in turn on how he's playing. If Ming doesn't play stronger next season, then we probably can't improve by trading him, because nobody's going to offer us enough in return. But if he adjusts better to the NBA game, we might get some attractive offers. If you think he'd continue to shine as a Rocket next year, then by all means, keep him. But if you think he's going to continue to have a hard time being a physical force in the paint and playing soft defense and having a hard time getting 10 boards a game when he's 7'6'' and highly coordinated, struggling to change his game to fit an American league, then why not consider trading him for a better fit? Some of you have argued that we can't get enough C in return for Ming. You've suggested focusing on getting a PF instead. I think you make a good case. The object is to improve our team, and if we can do that best by targeting a PF, I'm all for it. Maybe defense and rebounding is all we need at C. Think of all the games Jordan won with Bill Cartwright. Most of you seem to think Ming is untouchable, on grounds of basketball talent or loyalty. I disagree with you, but I doubt I can change your minds. But for those of you who have a price at which you'd be willing to part with Ming -- this or that PF, plus this or that C -- I'm hoping we can hit that price next summer. To do it, we need Ming's help. He'll be happier in the long run, and so will we.
You're kidding, right??? If the Rockets needed him to play well tonight (against the Jazz), he would have played better than that. The remaining regular season games bear just about no significance whatsoever for the Rockets, and Francis knew that. So did Van Gundy, or Francis and Yao wouldn't have combined for 51 minutes...
Well then I guess we'll have to keep Francis if what you say is true... That's fine with me. Good sweet mother of crap... Please for the love of all that is holy, tell me that post was sarcasm...
It's never going to stop. Once Francis is traded, can you imagine what's going to happen those days when the Rockets lose, and SF's new team wins? Prepare for the gloating right now. Raven
If you all realy want to go back to the GOOD OLD DAYs of Francis running the Team and doing just what he wants, then that fine with me! Bring back Moochie so that all the buddies will be able to play on the court at the same time,in our three pronged Guard Offence and Defence.Bring back full blown Dribble Mania, its so entertaining! Be sure to trade Yao Ming to a Team that plays Team Basketball! Any one of about 20 Teams would just love to have him on their Team! I think he might play well with Le Bron James and Carlos Boozer dont you? I just think that it has been so cruel to have Steve Francis, our Star Player, who did so much for Rockets Basketball, change his game to a style that has just ruined his statistics and disturbed his mind set. Lets face it Yao Ming no matter how great he becomes he just doesn't fit our Run and Gun Style of Game, he will never realy adapt to Steves style of play!
So far he's the best draft. I bet if we trade Yao for Amare, the Suns boss/GM would say yes in a second.
If we had Hakeem or anywhere near it I would agree. How many games would a Rik Smits or Joe Barry Carroll or even a Zo Morning have won with Kenny Smith. How many rings? My point is everyone seems to think that the problem with Yao's game is that the other players aren't goog enough shooters. Everyone seems to look around Yao for the answers when Yao's problems stem from inside. The problem with his game is that if you push him, he goes away. In the Olympics, in the world championships, the American team always said, if you get physical with him, he tires and goes away. Well after two full years of NBA play, if you push him, he goes away. The Lakers finally convinced Shaq to muscle up on him before he gets the ball, and they damned near shut him out. If things are going well, he scores at a high clip. If not, he goes inside his shell and disappears. He doesn't even compete. Don't think the rest of the league doesn't scout the guy. You get a reputation like that, you get no respect from the refs. They aren't going to bail you out. Like Barkley said. Some guys are tough guys, some guys are not. Yao is not a tough guy. He is soft. He's not even the player talent or toughness wise that David Robinson was and David didn't even sniff a ring until he got TD. And we called DR soft. Well, if Robinson is soft, Yao is whpped cream. So sure, trade Steve. I'm sure he'll be happier. He may even demand a trade in the offseason. GM's are also smart. We traded Pippen - a top 50 all-time player - and couldn't even get a superstar in return so what makes you think we'll get one for Steve after this last year? If it was just a matter of surrounding Yao with role players and shooters, we could just play a lineup of Yao Padgett JJ Boki Piatkowski. Then Yao should be able to put up those MDE numbers some of you dream that he can. Houston needs to never try to replicate what we had with Dream with Yao. Because Dream's biggest assets is Yao's biggest deficiency. Heart, determination, drive, competitive spirit, a refusal to give up, a refusal to lose.
Hey Yetti, Have you noticed something... If the Rockets win both their games, they will have 46 wins for the year. The Rox won 45 in a tougher Western conference without him - and without Rat Van Gundy might I add. People talk about the old Rockets and Rudy, but Yao hasn't really made one bit of difference record wise. Name another soon to be best player in the league that joined a team but made no difference in wins and losses. I would dare say that if the Rox had traded with the Clippers and added Amare, Odom, and another lottery pick that the Rox would have won over 50 games the last two years.
Nomar stick to movie reviews man, by using this example you are implicitly comparing Steve Francis to Michael Jordan. Can you... not do that again please?
ha... the other day at the clippers when he only scored twleve but set the tone with interior D. you're just ridiculous man... disappear for quarters, games, weeks at a time. i'm pretty sure steve doesn't do that right? okay, at this point in his career, Yao needs another star. as the other guy said... you are getting 11M in contracts back for steve. i'm pretty sure we can get as much production if not more.
In case you haven't noticed, Yao wasn't guarding either of them. But hey, who cares about facts when you can bash Yao.
sigh. Yao started guarding Kaman. Who ended up scoring 1 point in 25 minutes. Elton Brand played 41 minutes and scored 20 point on 20 shots, and isn't Yao's primary assignment anyway. Drobnjak played the majority of his minutes after Yao sat for the rest of the game because the Rockets put it away already. And I said interior D, Drobjnak takes 20 footers I'm okay with that. What do you say to that? DavidS has figured you out. You just desperately want Steve to stay on this team and do so by trying to discredit Yao. You don't answer questions about how we can improve the team without trading Steve and you don't answer questions about how you think it the team can be improved if we built around Steve instead. You are so dogmatic it's just ridiculous.
You know Juugie, you never fail to amaze me how stupid you are. Aside from the size advantage: 1. Yao's in his 2nd year and already better than Rik Smits 2. JBC also had what's that called again? Oh yeah, an attitude problem 3. Your moronic ass haven't seen Zo when he's healthy have you? Boy the Heat sure where lingering in the lottery when he didn't have the kidney problem. 4. In case you wonder, Kenny Smith wasn't the only role player on that team. The whole friggin' team is built to surround Hakeem. Right now this team has a 4 that can't hit a 2 footer, another 4 that never passes the ball, a 2 that misses easy layups and a 1 that turns the ball over and can't shoot from the outside while the center in this center oriented offence takes the 3rd most shots on the team. That's a great way to run an inside out offence.
