I know yao didn't play in all 82 games of each season but he was in the majority of the games for the rockets since his rookie year. As I see it so far, i don't think the rockets know how to play without yao ming. Our offense is pretty basic, it consist of either running the pick and roll with yao & t-mac, giving the ball to yao on the post and let him work, if they double, the kick it back to the perimeter. And you can't forget where they just give the ball to Tracy and let him work his magic. Now with Yao out of the line-up, that takes away two of your primary offensive sets. You can't run the plays out of the post because we have nobody else that could demand double teams or score like yao. The pick & roll can still be ran, but once again we're missing yao's offensive threat and post presence. So that leaves tmac to work his magic but what good is giving tmac the ball to create something when every player from the opposing team is trying to guard him? Not to mention the role players not hitting their shots. Defense shouldn't be a big problem because we've had stretches in games where we would look better without yao on defense. It has to be up to our role players to step up and hit the open shots that mcgrady creates for them. Now it'll be interesting once we get a few guys back from injuries as they should give us more offense and more depth on the bench. But without Yao in the middle, we have a very stagnant offense. It almost looks like they're playing a pick-up game in the park. I'm thinking, we really need our injuried guys to come back or yao played a bigger part on this team than we all thought. Whatever it is, we need both yao & tmac to play if this team is going to be successful. JVG is the brain, TMac is the Heart and Yao is the spine of this team. Without the heart or spine, we can't fully function.
What's your point? Any team that loses a player of Yao's calibur is going to struggle, especially when you have 3-4 other players that are out as well.
Well, i'll dumb-down what i was saying. The point i'm stating is that, IMO, Yao has been in so many games for us that the team doesn't know how to play without him. In no way was my rant a bash on yao and the team or a trade proposal, i was just speaking my mind. I can express my opinions on why i think the team struggled the last two games right?
In terms of the Rockets not knowing how to play without Yao, I dunno. There were numerous times last season where Yao was in foul trouble or just fatigued and on the bench, and the Rockets were able to pull through, with crazy 3-point shooting from Wesley/Barry/James/Padgett, T-Mac taking over, Howard contributing with his 18 footers or baby hooks, etc. Sometimes I thought the offense looked better without Yao there... not always of course (Yao often looked sharp in the 4th quarters). More than anything, injuries hurt this team. T-Mac hasn't looked as athletic as before, and missing Sura and his gutty Clyde Drexler like drives to the rim hurts big-time. Even Juwan Howard hasn't been the same since his injuries last season. Aside from injuries, I also really miss Mike James and Padgett.
This is the coach's fault for not benching Yao. He should also bench TMac so we know how to play w/o him too.
no...i'll dumb it down for you... ALL OF OUR PLAYERS ARE HURT! you can't teach less talented players to become more talented. it's like saying the rox lost without Tmac because we haven't learned to win without Tmac....IT MAKES NO SENSE!
well we haven't won without tmac this season yet have we? i think your comment was dumbed down too much.
That makes no sense whatsoever. Since we haven't won w/o tmac are you saying we should bench tmac so we can learn to play w/o him? We've won w/o yao so we've learned as a team to play w/o yao? I'm confused.
No matter how many games Yao is out, the team is not going to "learn" to win without him, because there is just not enouugh talent on our roster with all the injuries. Same goes for TMac. We cannot expect to win many games if Bowen, Graham, Baxter, et al are getting starters or even rotation minutes. Those guys should be our inactive reserves, not providing the bulk of our rebounding.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-051224-25 By Marc Stein ESPN.com 1. This might be a media first, but here goes: I am here to praise Yao Ming's toughness. The toe injury he has been playing through for a while now was actually a serious infection of the bone that required two surgical procedures this week. Yao contends that he might still be playing, too, if not for a couple painful encounters with Danny Fortson's feet in Seattle late last week. Yao told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher -- a story Buch related on Tuesday night's NBA Coast to Coast -- that a tangle or two with Fortson took the pain to a point that he had to stop, just one night after Yao registered 30 points and 16 rebounds at Golden State. Surgery was prescribed soon thereafter and now Yao might be forced to sit out until after Houston hosts the All-Star Game. If you're struggling to remember Yao's last long-term injury, it's because he has never had one. He was widely bashed for failing to lead the Rockets to a single victory in the eight games Tracy McGrady missed recently with a back ailment, but he has never been properly recognized for his durability. Yao missed just two games in his first three seasons, even though he started each one drained by a full summer with the Chinese national team. In short, the 7-foot-6 behemoth is tougher than he ever gets credit for.
Umm...that's sort of the point of having him, we actually structured the team around our two best players...damn that was stupid for us to do that!
...we haven't "learned" to win without T-Mac either... ...we haven't "learned" to win without Yao... ...we did learn how to win without jon barry... ...we did learn how to win without rafer... ...we did learn how to win without sura... are you seeing a trend?
and where is that lazy backup center of ours? Where did that slouch disappear to - you know, Mutombo? Why isn't he out there doing his Yao Ming imitation which he was supposed to be reviewing with Patrick Ewing while they sat together on the bench? You know, learning to play Yao's offense? All it takes is Gundy's motivational attitude course and Deke can become an instant Yao on offense!!! Oh yeah, Mutombo is out with an injury too!
