How about trading the 3rd year Yao with the 3rd year KG? Would you do it? If the KG+TMAC combo doesn't work out in 2 years and Yao becomes better elsewhere, will you trade KG to get him back? I know NBA is a business, but I just hate seeing constant shuffling of your best players. It may give you a short term solution but a great franchise can not be built like that.
Well, 3rd year Garnett was much younger than 3rd year Yao. Remember Garnett came directly from high school. The poll shows more ppl prefer the trade. Obviously they doubt Yao could ever put up KG like stats and win league MVP.
I just became the 146th yes vote. So far there are 125 no votes. I think we need a second poll on what those 125 people are smoking.
this is absolutley a no brainer. i would trade yao for kg in a second. yao will be good, but never kg. garnett has a fire that yao will never have. that being said, im completley satisfied with having yao. i think he will, at his peak be a 22-10 player at least, and that is solid because he's not gonna have to be the main man on the team as long as tmac is around.
Lopsided trade, Garnett by a mile. Yao will never win an MVP, he is going to be very good but I will be astounded if he ever becomes the MVP player Garnett is. If Minny trades Garnett for Yao, expect that other players or draft picks go in return, Yao for Garnett even is no trade.
Stupid question because it cannot happen. Salaries will not match, even if Yao gets the max. So now the Rockets take on KG's salary? That and T-Macs is enough to make this a 2 horse team and no more. I like the idea that if the Rockets are willing to spend that type of money to get a third high salary type like, lets see.... how about a great PG? Jason? Or a killer Power Forward? It makes for debate but it's not good for this team. Besides, Who will be the center for this team? Mr. Motombo, all 45 yrs of him? OK another player to be named? Or, lets' make KG the center, right....
I would probably do the trade, but it no slam dunk either. KG is a more impactfull player than Tmac as well, and Tmac is older than Yao, so it seems stilted that so many would be for this one, and against the Tmac deal. To much weight on one 7 game series we lost anyway. Personally, it would be hard to pass on KG for either Yao or Tmac, but is it also possible either trade would burn you.
There are too many good PFs we could get and not enough centers to trade away a young center who is soon going to be the best center in the league for a great PF that is not the best PF in the league. Yao against most other centers is just a bigger mismatch than KG against most other PFs. Pick up SAR and this is a better team than Garnett and any center we could get. I suppose you could follow the Phoenix model (playing Garnett at center like Amare), but Sura is not exactly an MVP caliber point guard.
A question for those who want a Yao-for-KG trade. In the summer of 2004, T-Mac had Orlando completely over a barrel and could have forced a trade to any team he wanted. So why did he choose to join the Rockets, not the Timberwolves?
Agree completely. Let KG defend Yao, I'm sure most people know the results. Also I'm not that impressed by KG's scoring. He's not that better than Yao in that regard and IMO Yao is as good as him in defence.
I would never trade Yao for KG. No one denies that Yao may never catch up with KG on stats. Basketball is a team game. Yao is better for this team, better for T-Mac. Plus another title for Rockets will need the third good player around two superstars, KG sure kills this.
I don't think the Magic would have traded him to ANY team he wanted. The other team would have to have something of value that the Magic wanted. The 3 teams most rumored to be interested in Mcgrady were Houston (who had Francis and Mobley to dangle), Phoenix (Marion and Joe Johnson), and Indiana (Artest). There was NO WAY the Magic were going to trade Mcgrady to Minnesota for a 35 year old Cassell and Sprewell and the albatross contract of Wally Szczerbiak. Mcgrady may have secretly wanted to play with Garnett, but there was no chance of the Magic ever agreeing to it. Which could be why the Wolves were never really in contention for Mcgrady.
What is so special about the centers nowadays? Do the two teams playing in the finals have the best center in the league? No. The best center was defeated in the conference final, and the so called second best center hasn't won a playoff series yet. Yao is a good player, probably a top 15 - 20 player, but KG is clearly a better player. We are talking about a guy so versatile that he leads his team in scoring, rebound, and ast. Yao may be a more efficient scorer (in limited time), but KG is better in so many other aspects.
If I were Yao, after reading all this, I'd have second thought about staying here. Maybe I'll go to the Lakers to join Kobe and Jackson. If the fans are not loyal to me, why would I be loyal to the fans? Personally I wouldn't trade Yao for anyone, with maybe the exception of James. Even that is a big "maybe", because James hasn't proved he can win. I think Yao will have a breakout year next season. If not, then you can start to think of trading him. Yao matches up very well against the other four dominant big men in the league, TD, KG, Shaq and Amare. His problem is that he is not aggressive enough and makes silly mistakes.
