Rafer Alston clearly No!!!!!!!! Because he is not a playmaker Point Guard and because of that fact that can't take over the leadership of the team.
I agree. I also think that we're so far away is due to the fact that our coach stinks. Not all should be blamed on JVG, but he definitely should take the blame for the quick 1st round exit.
You're absolutely right. Yao wasn't always single covered by Okur and often burnt him. However, in clutch situations, Okur did enough (mentally) to get Yao to rush his shots and miss. Plus, I blame it on Yao for trying to hit those useless turn around fadeaways on Okur when all he could've done was just go to the baseline and force a foul.
Yao is not Shaq - so that's why we'll never be like the Lakers. But also, our role-players are fairly atrocious. Guys starting on our team have no business as starters. This needs to be corrected for us to be a title contender. Especially in the new era where the most important position is clearly point guard. Detroit: Chauncy Billips - former finals MVP Utah: Deron Williams - scored and can dish out 10+ assists G.S.: Baron Davis - 'nough said Phoenix: Steve Nash - 2 time MVP Chicago: Kirk Hinrich - about to get swept out - but still better then us SA: Tony Parker - weakest point guard of the group perhaps - still A league New Jersey: Jason Kidd Cleveland: Lebron James - budding superstar See a pattern?
im not saying tmac is a better scorer than kobe NOW, obviously he's not. but what kobe did back then w/ shaq was less than what tmac has to do w/ houston now. so we can win even if tmac plays "average" for his standards in the playoffs. what we need is yao to become more of a force on both ends, rather than tmac being superhuman. again, kobe could avg 21, 5, 4 and shaq coulds till win the whole thing w/ that? u think tmac could do that and yao can?? the answer is no kobe is the best scorer now bar none. it's not even a question. but tmac's passing and overall game compensates for that. kobe still can't make his teammates better. i mean look at odom. dude is a borderline allstar and has regressed.
again, if u want him to be a scorer FIRST, then have players who can create. if u watch the lakers, u rarely see kobe at the top of the key all the time like tmac does. he's usually in the post or the triple threat looking to score. b/c of the triangle offense, u dont really need a creator/true PG. w/ our offense, tmac is our creator. when the team needs u to create ful time, its hard to focus on scoring w/o looking to pass at the same time. if u saw us w/o yao, he scored when it was ALL on him to score. but w/ yao back, and b/c he's such an efficient scorer, JVG wants him to be more of a facilitator and score when he has to. so its not tmac's fault that scoring is not his first option anymore. he has yao now, plus, he doesn't have a creator so he has to do that too. both are his first tasks.
actually hughes handles more of the ballhandling and PG duties as the season progressed. bron is still the guy, but hughes has been taking more shots and getting more assists lately. we need a guy like that somehow. ppl say bron has little help. he has hughes who can create. he has a 7'5 center who can score. he has a rebounder and good shooter in gooden.
I really liked Will's opening post and his theory. It's dead on, as tough as it is to admit. Shaq in his prime was still much more dominating than Yao has become. The good news being that Yao still looks to be climbing and showed flashes of true dominance in December. McGrady doesn't have that much ceiling left it appears, and he may be the Drexler to Kobe's Jordan (that was painful to write). The supporting cast comparison couldn't have been better. One reason that the Lakers got there three peat was because the league as a whole was at a low tide. The Eastern conference was a complete joke, and the Duncan Spurs were still transitioning from the Admiral era. At the same time, they won simply because they had two of the top 25 players in history both at near peak coupled with one of the top 3 coaches of all time keeping them together. I don't personally see us as being close at all to the level they were at. a) Yao and McGrady simply put aren't at their level and it is exceedingly optimistic to expect them to be (soon). b) Both Yao and McGrady have the opposite personalities of Shaq & Kobe: while the Lakers broke apart because neither could handle being the second star, both of our guys are too quick to defer to the other. Nearly anytime we've seen true greatness out of McGrady or Yao, it's been when the other was sitting out. How many times have we seen both of them, in the same game and together on the floor, bust out their A+ games? Do they need another year to gel, or do they both need to feel pressured into being dominant as the last resort? c) Bonzi failed the team, and I agree that he'd be invaluable had he been a third dynamic scorer able to create for himself. Mike James showed how important that role was. Maybe a Morris Almond can be that guy for us. Maybe Spanoullis will find his inner-John Starks and take that mantle on. We certainly can't continue to look towards Juwan and Rafer when we need a third option. I wouldn't break up the team and change direction, mostly because we'd get 40 cents on the dollar for McGrady and I wouldn't move Yao for almost anyone. I'd try and emulate the Spurs model and bulk up to a better supporting cast to do so. Evan
tmac will prove you wrong next yr w/ an offseason under his belt. yao better prove me wrong that it was his injury for his playoffs performance than anything else. again, like i said, kobe could put 21, 5, 4 and lakers won their first championship. shaq was just on another world during those stint. and the lakers had a better overall team w/ better veteran leadership. and they had PHIL JACKSON.
we have 2 all stars....we thought we had the 3rd scorer in Bonzi.....whose fault is it that it didn't work out?...I think if we get a 3rd scorer, we can make a run...definitly get past the first round.....I don't want to see huge changes...just bring in a starting PF, and another point who can dirbble penetrate and we will be fine...
Will, with regards to the 2-superstar model, I will just say this,Tmac & Yao is not Kobe & Shaq. That's obvious. But Tmac & Yao is a great foundation anyone in the NBA would love to have. So if the model is 2 guys and scrubs then no we can't do that. If it is 2 guys and some decent players, then yes. I think if this team added some more quality starters and something off the bench they would be able to do damage. Battier can't be our 3rd best player. We have to have a 3rd scoring option. We have to have at least ONE reliable player off the bench that can score. I mean at minimum, if this team had Mike James and Bonzi Wells (playing the way we know they can play) they would have gotten past Utah and probably past GS to reach the West finals. Could they have beaten the Spurs? I dont know, but they would be very close. That said, I like thacabbage's trade idea.
The problem right now is these two guys take half of the cap space... makes it very difficult to add any decent players to the roster.
Phoenix, this season, is dishing out $37.6 million to their big three. Yao and McGrady are currently collecting $28.9. It's tough to say that the Suns have been struggling to add to their roster - they've got a great chance at the #4 pick this year despite having the second-best record in the league. It puts a lot on the GM, and Colangelo really made them happen in his time there. We have to find a way to do the same. Unfortunately, it's been Les' priority to focus on desperate late-August FAs willing to take lowball deals (exceptions being Swift and the James attempt). I fully believe we can get a scoring swingman in the late first round that will be a rotation guy for us. Finding a way to upgrade the 1 and 4 spots will require some creativity from Morey. Evan
I agree that getting a contributing swingman in the draft is a likely scenario. I think there are options in bolstering the PG spot this offseason. But improving the PF spot might be difficult. You would probably have to use Sura's 3.8M expiring combined with another player and take back a PF with a much longer contract than the GM is probably willing to do. The Rockets were frugal last offseason. It will be interesting to see what Morey will do this offseason. Is he willing to take back longer term contracts? I have my doubts.
I do not recall clearly, but without kobe AND horry's clutch plays, I do not know how many rings shaq would have.
LOL - didn't know that I have a "meltdown" - as the 'annoying twit' (yer words not mine) likes to put it. I didn't really add him to ignore anyways so whatever. Methinks he likes to troll certain ppl on the board but meh.. I have to admit he is a smart guy and I usually do enjoy reading his opinions. Anyways - after watching Utah win last nite, I'm starting to think they might actually get to the finals. In a sense that would make me feel better - to have lost to a "finals" team in a tight 7th game is a lot easier to swallow.
Deuce, I'm happy to have Yao and McGrady on my team. I agree that in a sense, they're a foundation. I'm just doing a reality check after the Jazz took us out. All the commentary before and during the series was that the Jazz had no answer for Yao and McGrady. We had these 2 superstars, not to mention home court, so we'd go through. In retrospect, what did they/we misunderstand? It wasn't the role players: We'd seen them all year. We knew what we had there, little as it was. And still we expected to go through. I can't speak for anyone else. But what I thought, maybe unconsciously, was that Yao and McGrady were just too good, that they had carried our role players this far (Yao early in the season, McGrady later) and would get them past the Jazz at least. And that turned out not to be true. 111 were fine but unspectacular. McGrady was too easily cowed by the harassment on the perimeter. And I'll never forget the sight of Yao giving up those offensive rebounds at the end. It was a cold, hard lesson in the limits of our 2 stars. The practical implications, as I see it, are: 1) As we're looking for pieces to add to this team, we have to think bigger than "complimentary" players. We have to find guys who can do a lot more than that. We need either 1 very good such player, or 2 pretty good ones. And that's gonna be a b***h to find. 2) If Van Gundy still thinks he can build a championship team with Yao, McGrady, and "complimentary" players -- i.e., we can get by without a guy like Wells -- then he definitely has to go. And in any case, we need to rethink our whole offense, to make it more balanced.
I do recall - none! We all remember hack-a-shaq, don't we? That was the unanimous choice of defensive strategy against the Lakers at that time.
People give out the "superstar" tag too easily these days. We have two good players, and they can play like a "superstar" from time to time, but they are are "superstar" yet. Any player can have a big night once a while in this league, but very few can do it consistently, night in and night out. That's what separates "superstar" from average players. Our two stars have too many "average/off nights", especially in the playoff when the team need them the most. That's why they cannot be called "superstar".
