No matter what the rhetoric from his fellow superstar teamates was, no matter how much we fans wanted it, and no matter what is being said through the media, you just don't get the feeling that he's the numero uno on the team. This is further by the fact that he couldn't carry the load himself last year when T-Mac went out. This stretch, that changed. The team proved it can win without McGrady, it finally proved that with Yao as the head guy, the Rockets can still be a team to be wreckoned with. It's finally here, the time is Yao, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm with you here. I get the feeling this injury created a passing of the torch. I've gotten to the point where I'd be happy to trade Tracy for some players that fit better on this team.
In my opinion these past few wins have nothing to do with Yao. He hasn't been playing superior in any way. I think it's all about the supporting cast, AB, Rafer, Scola, and Bonzi to name a few. Mostly things are just clicking for us. The right passes are being made, and NO ONE is being selfish. I remember at one point 5 of the 6 field gaols in the second quarter were all assisted, everything except Rafers full court press breaking lay-up. That's what you call GOOD basketball.
The difference is, it was Tmac's team then. Tmac carrying Tmac's team doesn't equate to Yao carrying Tmac's team.
That was the same feeling I got during the New York game. I was like, this is a good team with Yao as the center piece. I view it like this: Yao + Tmac with the team is like having a giant turkey and dressing surrounded by a bunch of empty plates with roll players sitting by them. Yao + team is like having a turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, wine, cranberry sauce, some duck and Toyota center fans have the plates now. Problem is, when the Spurs, Mavs, New Orleans, Phoenix or Denver comes to town, will they bring two turkeys? Anybody hungry?
I think it's mostly about the system and role players. it's very diffcult for JVG's system without TMAC to win a single team, YAO's performance did not matter at all. Now we spread the load to multiple players (almost the whole team): head/wells/alston/scola/battier/brooks AND yao, we could still win if one or two guys had an off night. Before that, we had a single fail point -- tmac
In my opinion,It's the correct way to paly with the whole team. Inside-out,Give ball to Yao-Pass to another,so there are more chance. But you guy only want to want T-mac play superior ,It hurt the team. The time T-mac with ball is too long,it slow the offense and waste time. when others get the ball finanlly , but it's not a good chance to score. They are not T-mac ,so they seemed to act badly. It's the reason why they play well T-macless!
This is Adelman's team At least we know some guys other than the Big two will stand out every night, lack of which was the reason we lost last year's playoff series. We still need TMac's good performance to beat elite teams like Spurs, Mavs, Suns.
It should be Yao's team in the 1st half everytime. Until teams adjust and swarm, then you bring him to the HP and allow others to attack. And in the clutch I probably would rather have the ball in a healthy McGrady's hands.
Man, some of you guys are a reactive bunch. And Ziggy's right, this is Yao's team until we face the quick, athletic opponent with a quick PF like Boozer who can front Yao, then we are f**ked. We need everybody.
