Shaq if he truely wanted to could still be dominant, not as dominant as before but 20 10 and 2 blks dominant. He simply has grown tired of the game, just not the paycheck. He's more interested in doing Miami police work than playing basketball. He just can't say no to 20 mil a year. If he matched up against Yao you better believe he would make it a point to dominant. It would be an even match up but still one I don't especially like compared to the other options in the West.
I voted for New Orleans just because they have a lack of experience in the playoffs. I'm sure if it came down to it rox would play a better game because T-Mac and Yao would be unstoppable.
I totally agree. The Shaq trade was manna from heaven for the Rockets. Yao can guard Shaq, Hayes can guard Amare and Marion will no longer harass T-Mac and kill the Rockets with 3-pointers and fast breaks off of Rocket misses. How many times has T-Mac taken an ill-advised 3 pointer only to be burned on the other end by a Marion slam or 3? Too often. Thank you Phoenix for this gift.
New Orleans has had our number the last few seasons and they matchup well against us. Chandler is probably the best 1v1 defender against Yao in the league. And we have never found an answer for their pick and roll. We've done ok vs SA this year but they have had nagging injuries in the regular season and they are >>> us in playoff savvy. We play similarly to Dallas, but Yao is badly exposed when they play Bass or Nowitzki at the 5, and we never have an answer for Terry. I have no idea what the Lakers will be like yet. Suns matchup (with Shaq) is best. The main advantage is not Yao over Shaq but TMac vs (non-Shawn Marion). Grant Hill can't keep up with TMac and Bell is too short. The Suns make the trade to match up better vs. SA and Dallas, but it hurts them versus us, as it weakens their speed advantage over Yao. Scola/Landry should be able to score 1v1 on Amare and Chuck will be a pretty good defensive pest against him.
I call Bull. Shaq had all the motivation he needed 2 years ago in a finals matchup against Erica Dampier. He couldn't deliver then. The Heat lose that series if not for Dwayne Wade's heroics. And now that he's two years older and more than 2 steps slower? Yao would eat him alive in the playoffs. Plus he has the added effect of limiting Stoudamire's effectiveness, making it easier for our power forwards to contain him. And who's going to guard T-Mac for them now? Raja Bell? McGrady will eat him for lunch. They could try perhaps putting the bigger Grant Hill on him, but Grant Hill is too slow to stay with McGrady, and we'll have yet another mismatch in our favor at the 3 with Battier/Bonzi on Bell. This would be a GREAT matchup for Houston.
I know everyone is scared of the Lakers right now...believe it's still hype right now. Everyone is already got this team pinned in for representing the west without playing any of the other Western powers...typical. After they lose one to Dallas, S.A., Suns, Hornets, or Rockets that start to fall to earth. It's not like they have Yao Ming over there, or even Boozer or a Garnett. Gasol is an all-star calibur player, but to extent of the three above I doubt that seriously. And as good as Bynum was coming on, can you really say he was dominate... I am going to say take the Lakers after, the Nuggets and Hornets. It's lot of the basketball left to be played, and the most talented teams over the years in most cases don't always end up with titles.
The Spurs were and still are overrated, they're not that good. Out of those 5 this is the team we can definetly beat, regardless of the fact they are defending champs. It doesn't mean anything that they won the championship last year, we can take them.
Spurs 1. It's an even year. That means SA has no chance at a title. 2. Their performance thus far is actually validating statement #1. They are getting older, finally struggling with injuries, and losing their defensive edge. 3. We match up well against them. Yao has outperformed Duncan on average the last handful of times we've played. 4. The Spurs hate hate hate Bonzi. Bonzi on the other hand loves the Spurs and would like nothing more than to give each player a bear hug and say "I WISH I COULD QUIT YOU".
4 titles in the last 8 years, won over 50 games since 97. One of the best defenses in league. One of the best coached teams in league. Since 99, they've only being eliminated from the playoffs by three teams.....Lakers (the Shaq and Kobe version), Mavs, and Suns (Duncan got injured in the playoffs). They're much better team in the playoffs, they will slack off from time to time during the season. But when the playoff bell rings, everything is turned up notch. And the only areas we have a clear advantage over them is C and SG. That's about it. Yao or T-Mac would have to play out of their minds for us to even have chance in the series. And you think team that hasn't been out of first round in a decade, with two questionable superstars and average supporting cast is going to knock NBA champions out of the playoffs, easily.
Then again it does depend on how our rookies hold up and see how they might hit the wall. If Landry, Scola, and Brooks keep improving, we can beat any team in playoff picture and maybe little help from Bonzi. This team on pure talent should be one of the better teams in the league. But as I said, before talent is not everything.
Yup i think we can knock them out but i never said easily. There are no teams this year in the West that are going to be easy to beat but out of these 5 we have the biggest chance against the Spurs. - The Suns are too fast - Hornets have CP3, David West and three point shooting - Mavs are just a really solid team which is hard to beat - Lakers have a strong cast + Kobe who imo has an edge over T-mac I wasn't talking about the Spurs from 99 till now, i'm talking about last year and this year. They're good but still overrated.
if suns really trade marion away, and having shaq in the team. then let's face suns, they might be weakest top 4 teams there. a very stupid trade for suns, never understand
