Smart to stick with Tmac and Yao?

I don't think anyone in Houston fully answer this. We've seen each have MVP worthy play when the other is out, but have rarely seen the two together playing well.

I wish our offense was more free-flowing and allowed Yao to be more creative with his game as when he first came in the league. I think being more than a low post presence would have helped him in this series.

When they shut you down on the block (which is just unbelievable, and should never happen), then you can come out of the paint a little more and shoot. In turn, you are keeping the middle less congested for the smaller and quicker guys to get in the paint, and hopefully draw fouls from their big men.

It's all words and speculation. But I'm tired of seeing our talent guys be restricted so much.

 

Yes, stick with them.

I don't think Yao was near 100%. I remember in the first game Harpring looked like he went out of his way to roll into Yao's legs. If Yao's 100% he shrugs it off, but I think they kept going at his legs and he unconciously became more passive and let his offensive mismatch advantage be negated while accentuating his defensive mismatch disadvantage. Again, if he's well both physically and mentally, he has a much better series.

(I also don't understand why Yao falls down as much as he does... I think this probably plays into why the refs don't give him some calls he deserves.)

McGrady played well. He scored and created. Can't blame TMac.

During the late 4th quarter run by the Jazz, they had 3 different players hit clutch shots on three straight possessions. They exposed our holes at PF and PG brilliantly and covered up their weaknesses almost as well through favorable matchups. Going in to the 7th game, they had won 3 of 4 and their win in 7 did not surprise me at all. They were a better team.

Given the Rockets overall talent level, it's clear Yao and TMac have to play at a consistently high level to win. They need more help and I think this series proved that the more critical need is at PF, where the Rockets must get a serviceable NBA player. Juwan played well during the regular season, but in a series where teams can scheme with greater attention, he is negated. Hayes is what he is, a short, hard working, no scoring, deficient NBA PF.

Finally, nobody on this team appears to be truly clutch, though Tmac comes close. In the last three minutes, I kept looking for Battier to make a defensive stop, Yao to get a block or a choice bucket (he did hit his free throws late), or someone besides TMac to step up and make a play. None did.

 

I think the Rockets should definitely stick with them. There aren't many teams in the league that wouldn't kill to have a two-star core like the Rockets have. IMO, the issue with the team is the surrounding personnel - they need some players who can do something beyond camping out on the 3pt. line and chucking away. Preferably one of these players would also be a PG who can run an offense without making an ass of himself and forcing T-Mac to once again have to create for everyone.

 

Shaq and Kobe was one Horry's clutch 3 point away from elemination, a couple refs calls away against Kings from elemination, and was down 15 or so against Portland in a game seven 4th quarter. Even though they went through, there was some luck in it.

It takes time to build up chemistry. Rockets were a couple rebounds away this time. With a couple good role players or a better bench, the team can become true contenders.

 

At least one more year. A pair of players like this comes around once a decade -- and is even rarer for some teams. We have to give them another year before we start *thinking* about moving one.

 

Tough question - if Yao can get physically stronger and TMac's back holds out, I would say yes to sticking with them. However, both of those are unknowns. I don't know how many times I got upset to see Yao get his shot blocked or have the ball stripped from him. How in the hell do you allow someone who is 6'10" or shorter block your shot when you are 7'6"??!! To me that is unfathomable. Maybe Yao wasn't at 100% but he didn't look like he was this unstoppable force on offense. Instead he looked like Mark Eaton with a jump shot that would go in from time to time (defensively, Yao wasn't even in Eaton's league this past series).

The problem with the Rockets besides their offensively challenged coach is the supporting cast outside Yao and McGrady sucks hard. Battier is okay but that is about it. To truly get some decent players to surround Yao and McGrady, the Rockets are going to have to trade some good ballplayers. I don't see how they can do that AND keep Yao and McGrady.

 

And this is the conundrum; our celebrated management team has put the Rockets in a pickle. Frankly, TMac and Yao play better apart than together. One probably has to go.

 

This is difficult to face but, look at the games when Yao was out. We won, in fact, i think during that streach we had the best won-loss percentage of the whole season. OK, if we could win without Yao nthen how did we do it? Were we quicker, what was the reason? The fact is, Yao is worth at least two first round draft choices or a first rounder and a proven player. Perhaps we should look at this.

 

1 half each?

 

It is safe to say that fans usually want to trade all the rosters and rebuild after a bad failure like this. But those teams that actually did that would suck for another couple of years to come.

It is not NBA live 2008 where you can rebuild and gel in one hour.

 

You wrong, the best w/l record is when yao returns to the team.

The team without Yao succeeded because Mutumbo played out of his mind in a big stretch. But he can last that long due to his age and the Rockets began to get beaten by scrubs likes Celtics and Hawks when Mutumbo did not play exceptional. Yao's timely return bailed us out from that.

 

I don't think the Yao/TMac tandem is the issue that should be discussed. What's so blatantly obvious is how is the ball going to be fed to Yao every single time he has established position on the low post? I'm always so frustrated when I watch Rafer and Head not work harder to feed Yao the ball, or cough it up with a weak pass resulting in another TO.

The 2 issues for me are: who's the right point guard for this team who can reliably run the offence and make the right decisions to give Yao AND TMac the best scoring opportunities?

Who will be coming off the bench? As a backup PF/secondary enforcer, and as backup PG and SG? Snyder and VSpan played WAYYY too few minutes. and no knocks on Deke, but we can do much better than him as the next meanest thing on our bench..