Game 2 of the Dallas series. It is one of my favorite games because both Mac and Yao dominated. Yao made 13 field goals out of 14 and scored 33 points on the road. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250425006
ok, but the mavs did not defend yao as tough in that series at all. that's why the pick and roll b/t tmac and yao were so tough. they would double tmac a lot and leave yao to roll to the basket. i'm sure you can find the game on youtube. yao wasn't a superstar yet at the time so the defense on him was softer. but yes, that game, EVERYONE on the team played well from tmac to yao to sura to james to wesley to bowen to barry. that's what we need. hopefully next yr, we have playoff games where EVERYONE who get into the game can dominate.
Were u a GM, you would find TMAC's talent is not so important as before, Bonz,MJ, SF3.... are here with Adelman. I guess TMAC will be traded before next season, but not for Kobe. This is a commercial socity. Yao will be traded after 4 yrs too.
Aren't you trigger happy? The 3 afformentioned players that you mentioned were each busts last year and are unproven in the regular season this year. I can see how you could say T mac will be traded. But YAO?????? This guy is hands down the best center in the league and will continue to get better for at least the next 6 years while maintining his dominance.
of course not. but i'm saying if yao is "hands down the best center in the L" and can't OBLITERATE an average player like okur, what does "hands down the best center" gonna do for you? yao can't even draw a double team consistently in that series. utah basically threw ALL of their perimeter players at tmac to give him different looks. it was basically okur v. yao the whole series. and yet yao couldn't bust out a dominant game. if yao was a "shaq-like hands down best player" in the league, he's as untouchable as you can get.
the three are proved good players in the league, Bonzi at Kings with Adelman and SF3 in Rockets with Rudy, they are not busts at current age. As for Yao, if he still has 6-year long good performance, the highest value for trade will be the fourth year. I like TMac and Yao, just make this guess from the view of management.
This is revisionist history. McGrady didn't get double teams either. He consistently got single coverage by AK, Giricek, Fisher, or Harpring. Yao was doubled on the second dribble and the defense sent help if McGrady got in the lane. This is the reason why our role players sucked; they weren't open since Utah didn't double hard on either McGrady or Yao. Duncan also struggled with Okur in their series, being held to 21/9 and averaging 5 turnovers a game. Okur is not a bad defender if he tries; he admitted that he sucked on offense because he was expending all his energy on defense.
Those 3 players were each good at one point or another in the past. But if you look at all 3 individually last year, heres how it would look: Bonzi-complete and utter bust, in fact was so detrimental to his team. He assigned himself a leave of absense so he wouldnt be a further distraction(or at least thats what the media told us). Steve Francis- Also a bust last year with New York, averaged career lows in lots of categories and had an assortment of injuries. He was quite effective in a few games though. Mike James- Bust also and had his starting job taken by a rookie. They are still unproven for next year and you cant go by what they did in the past and believe they will reproduce the same numbers or be the same player they used to be. With all this said I still believe every single one of these players will be signifigant contributors to our team this year but not enough to warrant trading T mac the year after.
but at least sloan threw EVERYONE at tmac to give him different looks. ak47 is long and lanky. fisher is strong and quick. giricek is quick and furious. harpring is strong and physical. hell, sloan even used freakin' milsap on tmac for stretches. so tmac had to make adjustments. and they doubled tmac on EVERY pick and roll. sloan doesn't double alot on isos, even on kobe. but for yao to face okur for 7 games and seeing what okur had to offer defensively and not to break out and just kill him? tmac had to face 4-5 different guys every game and thus had to alter his strategies multiple times during a game. yao just had one guy covering him. which is tougher do u think? again, duncan still shot 55% in that series. and put up 22 and 10. yao shot 44%.
I guess when Fran was saying he turned down the 23 G's to write about a trade with the Lakers, Richard Justice accepted it instead. Would I trade Kobe for T-Mac straight up? Hell no, I'm not a Yankees fan--I want to win a championship the right way, with the good guys, not ruthless mercs. And you know what? We actually have a great chance this year, without any Kobe talks or Steve Franchise signings ruining it. Well scratch that second part, but still, there's something to be said about chemistry too.
Don't forget in that series, Yao spent most of his energy on defending Boozer, who is the best player of Utah. On the other end, Boozer was not the one to defend Yao, so Okur could take some advantage. That was a mismatch throughout the series since we don't have a good PF and JVG is too sturbon to make adjustment. You can't expect a player focus on both end, even Shaq will get lazy on defense end. If Yao can focus on offense in that series, I would not surprise he can easilly OBLITERATE Okur. And the series totally is not Okur v.s. Yao. It's Boozer + Okur v.s. Yao
Again, you only compare position to position and forget the player's role on the game. Basketball is not just offense. Spurs has much better PFs during that series.
Did they double him? No? Maybe showed on screens? All of the defenders they sent at McGrady were extremely flawed defenders. AK was in a sh*thole, Fisher is 6'1", Giricek doesn't play defense, and Harpring is too slow. McGrady shot sub 40% for the series and 25% from 3pt range. If you're going to say that Okur contained Yao, then I counter by saying that this motley crew of flawed defenders who McGrady should have abused effectively contained McGrady. Besides, Okur proved that his defense against Yao wasn't a fluke in the SA series; he sacrificed his offense to play better defense. We're not even mentioning the fact that Yao had to guard Boozer, Utah's #1 threat and a mismatch for Yao, and that McGrady basically stood around on defense.
so we can use that excuse for yao and not for tmac? and yet everyone blamed him for not finishing game 7.
SHUT UP!!!! How do u konw that? Is ROCKETS manager less clever than u? Those who are Rockets fans all konw YAO is the future of the rockets,and what you say has proved that u are not a fan of the rockets!So u should not be here speaking!
so u want yao to guard okur, that's a mismatch too in utah's favor since yao will be at the 3pt line. wow, asked anyone who says fisher is a bad defender, giricek is not ferocious. ak47 was in a ****hole ON OFFENSE, not on D. and tmac stood on D? for what, so he can expend all his energy creating for his teammates, who all had to do was make their wide open 3s. remember, in games 5 and 7, tmac combined for EVERY FG EXCEPT FOR 8 OR 9. so tmac didn't do much in your opinion?
yeah, I am not denying ur arguement from beginning. Tmac is a superstar under any system. However, two top contracts in a team is a heavy burden, and Yao means a big market for Alex. If Tmac is not so important for the offense of Rox, then he will go.
Did I blame Tmac? Utah is a better team in that series, simple as that. And that's why we did so many chagnes during the offseason.
