yeah...and that's why he averaged 30 and 11 during the playoffs...because he can be stopped.... people on here need to realize that amare is a GREAT PLAYER. i like yao and you can't blame anyone in the organization for chosing him over amare in the draft but at this point in their careers and most likely the way it will come to an end will be amare being remembered as a dominant player and yao a very good player who could have done more. amare is one of the top 10 players in the NBA and the sooner people realize that on here the better.
To be honest, I kind of wonder how well the triumverate of Steve, Amare, and Yao would have worked. I'm sure Steve and Amare would have had some decent chemistry because Steve likes to throw up those lob passes, which Amare would undoubtedly flush with authority. But on the other hand, a lot of Amare's success this season is due to the fact that he's been running the pick and roll with a fantastic partner. Steve's never shown that he can be anything special on the pick and roll, and I think that would ultimately hold Amare back. Make no mistake though, a team with Steve, Amare, Yao and Cuttino on offense would score in bunches. But it would be more due to their individual talents, than any kind of cohesive chemistry. Too many finishers, not enough creators. The Yao/Amare tandem would be absolutely scary though. One thing that gets overlooked is that Yao has very good interior passing skills. Not game-changing revolutionary level stuff, but still very good. If Yao had Amare on the receiving end of his inside passes instead of Howard, Padge, Mo, Cato etc. then Yao's assists would go way up. Especially once Amare realizes that if he cuts to open spots near the lane, Yao will look to get him the ball. That's just the way Yao plays. On defense, Yao and Amare would be very good no matter what. If JVG still ends up as the coach then this team would have a dominant defense. With JVG's constant harping and emphasis on defense, Amare would be a defensive beast. And you stick a guy with his quickness, and athleticism next to a mammoth eclipsical center, then that's all she wrote for points in the paint. Steve, Amare, Yao and Cat would have been very good. Maybe even title worthy. But if CD has the vision and saavy to STILL make the trade for T-mac without giving up the Yao or Amare, then it's all over. T-mac + Amare + Yao would have been lights out for the league. Damn, I really've spent waaaaaay too much time analysing this scenario.
i think amare would have been better than nachbar, no matter how rudy t coached him... he could still be a very raw talent right now if we had him.
We could have had Richard Jefferson, Tony Parker, and Zach Randolph (together, mind you) in 2001. Desmond Mason and Q. Richardson were both available at 15, where we drafted Collier, in 2000. In '99 we could have had both AK47 and Ginobili. Obviously '98 was the Rashard year. Like Carl said; it's best not to think about it.
That's not what I was going for, but the parralells are pretty interesting. And anytime a promising career gets derailed by injuries, it's disappointing. But did having Hakeem and Ralph on the same team suck? I think not.
What's this talk about us needing to draft better? We didn't make a mistake by not picking Amare. We didn't have the opportunity to make such a mistake because he was gone before we got up to bat. If you are dreamcasting, then sure, I'm POSITIVE that any of the teams picking in the 5 or so spots ahead of Phoenix would have traded their pick for our pick and Eddie Griffin. So we could have gotten Amare and we'd have an embarassment of riches. But then again, one of the reasons that Amare slipped to Phoenix is that he only worked out for the Rockets and Phoenix (and maybe Chicago) before he injured himself and was held out of any further workouts by his agent Bill Duffy. So other teams couldn't evaluate him and realize that they had a manchild on their hands. So if he didn't get injured, he'd probably be playing for Memphis right about now. We can twist these hypotheticals any way we want. But assuming that Houston picked Amare, I'm not convinced that a lineup of Francis, Mobley, Amare and Yao would have flourished. Francis is a poor man's Marbury (remember when Marbury called out Francis a couple seasons ago, "I'm the real All Star"). And Phoenix had to dump Marbury and pick up Nash in order for Amare to burgeon into the dominant force that he is. So the position we'd be in if we had drafted Amare is that we'd have calls coming in from all across the league trying to pry away one or two of our stars from us. And that's not such a bad position to be in. Only if . . .
Makes me wonder how good Yao could become if he only focused on offense? If he would shoot at least 20 times a game I think Yao/Amare would have been an awesome combination.. but I dont think either would have developed as well as they could w/ SF3 and Cat at the helm. Yao / Amare would probably be relagated to rebounding and defense and hoping to get put backs. hahaha J
You know, now that I think about it, I think we would have ended up swinging the deal for T-mac by giving up Amare/Steve but taking back the #1 pick. We might have even been able to keep Cuttino in that scenario. Like I said, I think Steve and Amare would have some decent chemistry due to the alley-opps that Steve likes to toss up. So they might have wanted to keep them together. And Steve/Amare/change for T-mac/#1 pick/change would sound a bit more even than Steve/Cat/Cato for T-mac/Howard/Lue/Gaines. But in this scenario, I'm guessing that Houston would draft Okafur. He was a more sure thing and also a Houston area product. But seems like Howard would have been the better pick. Anyway if I were to rank the various teams that we might have had, they would go: 1. Amare, T-Mac, Yao 2. D.Howard, T-Mac, Yao 3. Okafur, T-Mac, Yao 4. Amare, Steve, Cat, Yao 5. T-Mac/Yao 6. Steve/Cat/Yao Okay, I really need to stop thinking about this ridiculous scenario.
BLASPHEMY! Part of the pride I have developed as a Rockets fan comes from the fact that we didn't have the "darling" of the NBA, Michael Jordan. I was so impressed by Hakeem's abilities compared to the skills of all the great centers of the past. He was such an amazing player to watch and I would not trade that for anything. NO Bulls championship run was even close to as entertaining as our 1995 run to glory. To this day, those first two series (against the Jazz and Suns) are the most exciting, entertaining, and dramatic playoff series I've ever watched. If we had drafted Jordan, would we have seen Elie's kiss of death?
I think that T-Mac is the best player that has ever worn the Rocket's uniform. That is based on talent and skill level alone. He hasn't put it all together yet, like Hakeem did in '94 and '95 but I think their talent level is very close. I enjoyed waching T-mac doing his thing so much this season and, like my above post, wouldn't change that for anything.
sorry for the multiple posts but: When we had the #1 and #15 picks, I was screaming to everyone that we should pick up Tayshaun. How good would that guy look with Yao and T-Mac. He could guard the opponents best scorer and he's a good passer/spot-up shooter. Basically, he's what we all wanted Boki to be.
