"I know right now, everybody's hopping off the Yao bandwagon," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "That happens. People are fickle. When a guy doesn't make (shots) it's condemn Yao. It's either Yao is right behind Shaq (O'Neal) or Yao is right below the worst center in the league. With Yao, the only thing I feel badly about is people try to raise expectations up so high, they're actually satisfied with nothing that he does. I feel badly for him in that way. "I'm not going to jump off because everyone else has." OK, I'm with you, as well as with the Rockets. I'm staying on the bandwagon. Do you all think our expectations of Yao are too high? Is it him or us, or both?
I've never stopped supporting yao...I just realize he's not the superstar savior everyone else thought he would be...he's a great talent but he's made it clear that he's more willing to provide a supporting role opposed to the primary role...
Most of us here are in it for the long haul and will not be hopping on and off the bandwagon. Though I am an Astros and Texans Bandwagoner.
Does anyone think Jeff's loyalty to his players angle is the best way to make more fans not demand his head during these times? It's getting played out. He sees a problem that people think of his players. Then shouldn't he be the one to correct or mask it???
I'm definitely not jumping off of the bandwagon. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to sit through an entire game. At this point I channelsurf back and forth to check on the score, which inevitably winds up being a Rockets loss with the team failing to crack 90 points.
Right now the Rockets aren't a good team. But the fact remains the season if very young and T-mac should be back soon. All I can say is I have no idea what will happen - but I'm still going to watch the games. I mean, I watch the Rockets because I enjoy watching them - good or bad. Maybe I don't have the huge expectations other people do...
Yao's play this season has satisfied me. If Shaq and Yao exchanged places, we wouldn't be in a better situation.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3487342.html Nov. 27, 2005, 11:31PM Yao target of fans' unrest But Rockets center is a victim of rules changes By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Yao Ming said nothing, but his expression screamed. Yao demanded the ball. With Derek Anderson on the perimeter, Yao pointed toward David Wesley, ordering that the pass go to Wesley and then in to him. After his sharp move to the basket and his strong finish through a foul, Yao pumped his fists more with determination than anger. An hour later, his emotions were as open, the desire he had demonstrated on the court perhaps making the disappointment greater when they were unfulfilled. He sat in front of his locker, with his sore left ankle packed in ice that could numb that pain, but not his growing frustration. Yao had said often that with Tracy McGrady out he has felt the pressure to carry the Rockets through their troubles. For all the pressure that follows him as the focus of a nation's sports interests, for all the expectations that his combination of size and skills inspire, this was a challenge he had not experienced in the NBA, to carry his team past its failings. But when Yao's 30 points Saturday were not enough to overcome the usual late defensive breakdowns and the crippled offense through much of the game, the Rockets fell to a seventh consecutive defeat. And for all the Rockets' obvious problems, the examinations of Yao have become as much of a preoccupation as stopping him has been for opponents that don't have to concern themselves with McGrady. Off the bandwagon "I know right now, everybody's hopping off the Yao bandwagon," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "That happens. People are fickle. When a guy doesn't make (shots) it's condemn Yao. It's either Yao is right behind Shaq (O'Neal) or Yao is right below the worst center in the league. With Yao, the only thing I feel badly about is people try to raise expectations up so high, they're actually satisfied with nothing that he does. I feel badly for him in that way. "I'm not going to jump off because everyone else has." Yao has averaged 18.9 points per game so far this season, after averaging 18.3 last season. He has not shot as well, but that is not necessarily the source of the rising dissatisfaction. More than anything, it is that the Rockets are 3-11 and no one makes a more obvious target for frustration than the player viewed as being at a level that would prevent such a slide. There have been players so dominant they turned around previously horrible teams. But since rule changes that began with the 2003-2004 season, Kevin Garnett could not prevent a Minnesota slide to the lottery, Kobe Bryant could not keep the Lakers out of the lottery, and McGrady could not stop the Magic's fall to 21-61. For McGrady, the frustration was so great that he said he was contemplating retirement. He laughed Saturday that anyone took that threat seriously, describing it as intentional hyperbole about the then-new rule changes. But as maddening as facing defenses twisted to stop him while Grant Hill was out, McGrady said it has been much tougher for Yao. "It wasn't as tough for me as Yao, because I had the ball 90 percent of the time," McGrady said. "It's different for a guy like Yao because we have to get him the ball. I already had the ball. I can create my own shot and create shots for other guys. That's why it's on us to get him the ball." When Yao had 18 points in the first half in San Antonio, the Spurs adjusted their defense to keep him surrounded. He took one shot in the second half, scoring one point. He had 15 in the first half against Dallas before the Mavericks adjusted and Yao had just five in the second half. A night later, the Suns did not wait, stationing a player in front and another behind Yao. He had a season-low eight points. "With the rule changes and the ability to completely take a guy out of the game like they've been doing, it's simple," McGrady said. "I was trying to tell the guys, it's on us. It's on the guys handling the ball to get him the ball. It's going to be hard to get him post-ups. It's going to be hard to throw him the ball on the post with a guy playing in front of him and a guy playing behind him. With me out, all the attention is focused on Yao." Against the Bulls, the Rockets effectively rolled Yao into the low-post position. They always use Yao screens to get big men off his body, allowing him to move to a position more easily. When the Bulls' big men got in foul trouble, Yao got low-post position and had his highest scoring game since February. "He had a bad stretch. We had a bad stretch," Van Gundy said. "A post player is much more dependent on who he plays with than a perimeter player. Our strength as a team is not entering the ball to the post. We're getting better. Tough on post players "Certainly the game has been made harder on the post player, and it's a perimeter game. The foul calls the perimeter players get can be a little softer than inside. The touch fouls on the perimeter and the mayhem inside can be ... for any big guy, a little bit difficult to figure out. But that's how the league is." That won't change, but McGrady will come back, possibly even on Tuesday against the Hawks. Without him, the Rockets haven't had a perimeter player to penetrate consistently and have not shot well enough to change defenses determined to keep Yao surrounded. McGrady's return might change defenses. More remarkable, though less important, it might even change opinions. jonathan.feigen@chron.com
I've been supporting Yao so hard this season with friends of mine who have been dogging him. Yeah Yao may no be able to carry the load by himself ala KG but this team was build to be around a combo of Yao AND T-Mac NOT one or the other. If you take Yao out of the line-up for this pass 8 game stretch (where we played the BEST teams in the league on THE ROAD) and put T-Mac there instead, we would be at best a .500 team (probably sub .500), not a championship contender. We need BOTH of them to a contender, not one or the other. I hate that Yao is getting all of the blame but then again that's how fans are, the same happened to Steve, and now is happening to Carr (although nowhere as bad as the wrath steve got). Winning cures all ills. When T-Mac returns and we start winning again all the whinning and sky is falling attitude will go away and Yao will be loved again.
This is what i've been telling all my friends, im not jumping out of the bandwagon anytime soon. GO ROCKETS!!!!!!!!
For me, there's no bandwagon to jump off. I'm a Rockets fan. Up or down, I'm going to stick with this team. And as ugly as it is, I'm going to keep watching - they WILL turn it around.
Not watching Rocket games for me would be like asking me not to breathe. I schedule my whole life around their schedule. Always have, probably always will.
I am interested in what JVG's expectations of Yao are. He kept saying that people had wrong expectations. But I never hear him say what his are and what he is trying to do with Yao in terms of his ultimate goals for Yao.
One thing I'm wondering. If Van Gundy doesn't want people to raise their expectations of Yao too high, then why does he run his offense through Yao as if he were a superstar franchise center like Shaq or Dream? If you build your team and design your system around a player as if he were a superstar, people are going to expect superstar results from that player.
Yao's career will be defined by how many championships he wins and how far China's basketball team advances in the International picture. It will not be defined by points, rebounds, and blocked shots. Interesting thing, TMac's career will be defined by how many championships he wins. If he wins none, he will just be another George Gervin type player who put up huge stats but didn't win anything. Both of our SUPERSTAR players will have their NBA careers defined by how many championships they won. So what if Yao is the Pippen to TMac's Jordan. Jordan won zero championships without Pippen also. It wasn't just that Pippen couldn't win without Jordan. Jordan couldn't win without Pippen either. I'm sorry, if Pippen retires instead of Jordan and Jordan is trying to win in 94-95 without Pippen, he goes down to our Houston Rockets, that is if he even makes it to the Finals. Here's the facts about Yao. There are less then ten players in the NBA that teams would not trade to get Yao. That being Duncan, Garnett, Lebron, McGrady, Shaq, Kobe (maybe), Dirk (perhaps). Any GM except Riley in Miami would have Yao on their team and make him their starting center in a heartbeat, and give him 20+ touches a night. That should tell us something. Yao is an extremely good player. TMac is an extremely good player. But neither one of them has won anything...............yet. Kareem had his Oscar and Magic. Shaq had his Penny and Kobe and Wade. Jordan had his Pippen. Thomas had his Dumars and Aguirre. Duncan had his DRob and Manu. Bird had his McHale and Parish and McHale. Walton had Lucas and Hollins. Hayes had Unseld and Dandridge. And on and on. The only exception of teams winning championships without at least 2 outstanding players would be the 2004 Pistons and I would argue with the best coach in the country that they had 5 very, very good players. None of them may have been superstars but Billups, RIP, Rasheed, and Ben all qualify as star players and Prince was at least a very good player. We have two outstanding players on our teams that almost every team would trade anybody on their roster to have. We need to add pieces to what we have and build on this foundation. There ain't no Lebron for Yao or KG for Yao or Duncan for Yao trades in our future. We have to make our players surrounding TMac and Yao more effective than the players surrounding Duncan and Manu.......period. Change coaches? Who we gonna get? Big Chief Triangle has a job. Rudy T is finished with coaching, even if he weren't under contract to the Lakers. LB has a job. Daly is retired. Do we really think that somebody like Paul Silas is gonna do for us what Van Gundy isn't? Nope. We've got the basic components to build from. Our team needs a ton of experience playing together, maybe some more upgrade in our peripheral talent, and some adjustments by Van Gundy, not a firing of Van Gundy and another new coach with a new system. Van Gundy needs to make some adjustments. I am disappointed with our start but I'm not discouraged.........if TMac comes back and Yao stays healthy. I still think we will reach the playoffs. And this start may be a blessing in disguise if we can get the 6th seed and maybe get all the way to the WC finals where anything could happen.
I was never on the Yao bandwagon to begin with. Well, at least not the one that said he would be the most dominant player in the NBA, that sort of hyperbole is used by the sports media and small picture fans to set up Yao so they can bash him when he doesnt meet their 30/15 expectations. Yao is and always will be that valuable second option to a superstar a la TMax. When TMax is out, the Rox will struggle even though Yao is averaging nearly 20 and 10 during the stretch. I don't blame Yao for the losses, because quite frankly I never expected him to be able to carry us. This is not a putdown of Yao, who as everyone knows, I think very very highly of. I'm just not gonna blame a r****ded kid for losing the spelling bee.
