You can't win a championship without rebounding. The Pistons had Rodman and Lambeer and the Bulls had Grant and later Rodman. Who is gonna rebound with our team if we trade Yao for T-Mac? Cato (who's too soft to be a freaking F)? Mo T? Oh, I got it. After we trade Ming for T-Mac then we make the obvious trade of Mobley for Brand and MoT for Shaq....
Rockets championship teams were very poor rebounders. That is one of the reasons Barkley was so appealing. It also shows how good our defense was, we had to shut down a lot of second chances.
Dream and OT were awesome rebounders. How many other teams had 2 guys that had 10+rebounds a game? And Horry was decent as well. The second year I see your point, but the 1st, I find hard to believe.
So what have you proven? That a great center can win a title? Duh. I agree with you, I'm just pointing out that the center-driven philosophy isn't the only avenue to a championship. Just to play devil's advocate, our rebounding actually went up when we made the Thorpe-Drexler trade. Even though our starting PF went from 9 RPG (Thorpe) to 5 RPG (Brown), we compensated with excellent rebounding from other areas (including Clyde's 7 a game). And Cato is as good a per-minute rebounder as Yao - he's just doesn't bring anything on the offensive end of the court.
Yup. That is a testament to the power of the Jordan rulez. One reason why Kobe wants to dump Shaq is to get icon status like Jordan. He has to get the calls like Jordan did and he just may get them. It sure is looking like it in these playoffs.
In another thread I am advocating trading Steve and Cat for TM. Why? Because it is the one my brain says makes sense. Not because of what I have seen on the court but because any person who knows baskeball would trade Steve Francis before Yao Ming. Its that simple. You can 't find a 7'6'' freak who can shoot and pass anywhere in the solar system probably have to travel a few parecs before you can find another skilled big man that size. So basically I am a sheep following all other sheep. But the truth of the matter is that even though Steve played like crap last year. Every time he left the court we would go in to the tank except for maybe a couple games that Mark Jackson played. I would be screaming at the TV hoping JVG could hear me and put Steve back in the game. But when we would take Yao out. I never felt like the we were in a position to start losing. Infact many times we would play much better when Yao is out. The number one problem with Yao's game is his hands. He cannot grip the ball strong enough to lose it. Especially in traffic. Shaq and A. Stoudimire never lose the ball in traffic. I think Yao had more turnovers than anyone else in the team but many times they would not call it a turnover. When he couldn't handle a rebound that fell in his lap or a entry pass that got stolen those aren't turnovers on Yao but in my book they are. The problem is that you cannot strenghen you grip. I know because I have the same problem and I tried very hard to stregthen mine to no avail. Think about the deal the Clippers offered us Lamar Odom, plus the #7 pick that we would have used for Nene or Stoudimier. At this point would you rather have Yao Ming or Amare + Lamar. A combination of Steve, Cat and McGrady would be fun to watch and depending on how good Tracey is will determine if we can repeat what Jordan did in Chicago or not.
That is a really astute observation WB. As to the lst paragraph, with which I also agree. We already know how good Tracey is, and it is not Michael Jordan.
Another point of view previously expressed by yetti is that this was a tactic used by Francis in reaction to Yao and against JVG. He & Mobley would only play at their top level when Yao was off the court or when Yao was having an off night.
stop right there... anytime you start a sentence with this one can only come to the conclusion you are clueless.
However, there isn't and there won't be any guard like Jordan any more. Besides, Jordan+Pippen is probably the tallest guard combination in NBA history.
When Yao was in the game SF and Cat looked like they were taking it easy because Yao made it so easy for them. THe offense would run through him on every possesion. So when Yao had to go the bench because he was tired after about 3 minutes of really productive basket ball when he would try to beat the 6'9'' centers fronting him. You know when Yao was tired because he would start flailing his arms and just fall to the ground on the slightest push. Jeff face would go stone cold and he would immediately call on our other highly skilled big men to come in and save Yao from another dive to the parkay. That is when SF and Cat would start playing pick and roll with each other. Playn their heart out. Bumpin chest with each other and point toward NY were Moochie was dribbling down the clock in the Mecca of BBall. After taking a productive 10 min without Yao the would run, then jump in the air and in mid air would do a 180 and bump butts. Knowing they could start taking it easy since Yao was coming back in the game to get another beat down from the Danny Fortsons of the world.
Not true. In Miami they run a drill with WZZ where he has to hold on to a ball for dear life while an assistant coach furiously tries to knock it out of his hands. I had weak hands when I first started playing organized basketball in middle school and I started squeezing a tennis ball. Worked like a charm. In football, receivers and defensive backs do drills to soften up their hands so that they don't drop passes and can catch balls without bobbling them. Almost about any problem, as long as it isn't mental (and oftentimes when it is), can be fixed.
