Who thinks this team is better w/out Yao?

hmm??Even so still yao ming would destroy them.they have noone who could stop him.I don't understand people saying we were slower with Yao ming.We the same when deke in, but yo ming has offense.Go watch the 8,9,10 gms we won in a row.We was still doing good things with fast breaks.Yao ming just wan't apart of it.Centers are not ushally apart of fast breaks anyways.

 

Wow. I think you need to shut up already about Yao this and Yao that. It's getting real annoying with you repeating the same crap over and over again.

I guessed you feel really smart now that Landry is injured and we don't know how long he's going to be out.

 

Wow, you sound even more stupid everytime you open your mouth.

 

We must be looking at different games then. As I remember, as soon as Yao put the ball on the floor, double teams by AK or Williams came from different angles, they pretty much ignored everybody excpet Yao and Tmac. We had Rafer, Head and Hayes who couldn't make any open jump shots in that series.

 

To be honest, I believe the key is Rockets outside players are shooting better than they normally do all at the same time.

Rafer, Head and Battier had never shoot that well from outside at the same time when Yao played. If they do that consistently while Yao is playing, we'd blow out basicly everybody.

Ealier this season, Rafer, Battier,Head, James, Wells were all in a shooting slump, missed OPEN shots after OPEN shots. Scola couldn't make mid range shots at that time either. Landry didn't play. Now it's just different., they make those shots consistently.

 

Agreed. Tmac is more valuable to this team than Yao. Records with Tmac injured vs. Yao injured indicate so.

Yao is no doubt a good scorer but I would hesistate to call him great. That would put him in a league with Kobe and Lebron who consistently put up 30+, 40+ games. Yao has had a handful of 30+ this season and I dont remember the last time he scored 40+. The criteria someone ealier suggested that if one scores 20+ with good efficiency and good FT percentage is a great scorer is a category only a few people are in such as MJ, Kobe, Bird, Nowitski. But these players consistently take over games and score 30-40+ frequently.

I have been a big fan and still am of Yao, but he has some glaring deficiencies. He will always be a defensive liability for a man of his size. Poor lateral movement and lack of hops hurt him badly. Pick and roll by the opposition are his kryptonite. Good teams ran this play almost exclusively in the last few minutes. Whether he makes up for this deficiency on the offense end is debatable. Personally, I think in Adelman's system, he is a detractor. Teammates spend too much time trying to get him the ball since he is poor at establishing position. Furthermore, he spends too much time trying to make a decision with the ball. Adelman has a flow and rhythm system.

Yao is a good player and we are a good team with him, no doubt. We will no doubt always win 50+ games. But my question is, are we a perennial championship contender with Yao. He is not someone we go to consistently in crunch time and is often the target by the opposition in crunch time. Ten years ago, before the rule changes, he would have been much more formidable. But the game has changed favoring guards and high scoring and the slow deliberate center is being phased out. Granted, Duncan and Shaq have been cornerstones of champions for the past several years, but they are much more agile and defensively capable.

From a business perspective, we have to keep Yao. He is money in the bank with his marketability. So Mr. Alexander has quite the dilemma....What yall think?

 

Here is Yao statline for the last 2 to 3 years vs Suns and GSW:

Suns:
07/08
G M A Totrebound PPG
2 8 18 9.5 21.5

06/07
3 7 13.3 7.7 20.7

GSW:
07/08
3 6.3 13 11.7 20.7

06/07
3 9.7 17.7 12.3 24.7

05/06
3 10.7 19.7 17 27.2


Wow, you are talking out of your ass.

 

Great username!

 

Thanks!

Tell me Desert_rocket. Who else on the Rocktes can average 20 and 10 against the Suns and GSW? I can't believe Yao is getting no respect. He ain't perfect but there's no doubt about it that the Rockets are even better with him NOT without him.

I guessed the Spurs suck too right because they aren't scoring 100ppg.

 

Owned.

Yao against top 5 run and gun teams(Nuggets, GS, Ind, Phx,Seattle):
22.6/12.7 on 47% FGs and 86% FTs in 36.5 mins

FG perecntage is worse than season average, but he more than made up for that by making 1.4 more FTs per game because those small team tend to foul him more and by gradding 2 more rebounds in less minutes.

In other words, Yao is eaually or even more effective against those "run and gun" teams.

 

Look, I don't know if they're better with him or without him. I'm not prepared to say either way after such a small sample size.

But the analysis isn't, "who else can average 20/10?" Because averaging 20/10 isn't the goal...winning is.

If being without Yao allows them to play a style of basketball that brings out everyone else's strengths....then MAYBE they're better without him. MAYBE. It is possible the collective improvement from playing a different style outweighs what Yao brings.

 

Last year Rockets also put on a show after Yao went down, won 7 straight in a row. But eventually their new style was figured out and they played .500 ball, lost 4 of 6 in the end to force an early return by Yao.

Let's wait and see.

 

b/c when u don't have other options outside of tmac like we did last yr, eventually teams will double/triple tmac and they will win.

this year, we do have options and a system that allows alston/battier to be better than they were last yr. plus, you have scola and landry (hopefully he'll be fine).

remember, we had hayes playing a lot last yr and he was an offensive liability, along with deke. scola/landry are not offensive liabilities.

this is not some "luck" or inspired play by this team. we are a very good team even without yao. we are BLOWING teams out, not simply "squeaking" by. we are executing, scoring in the paint AND making our jumpers.

obviously, we need yao so anyone who says otherwise just does not know basketball. unless we get howard or amare (who i believe fit this system better in what adelman is trying to do), u need yao.

 

This year's supporting cast and bench are obviously better. And RA's offense is also better, so without Yao this is still a very good team. But in playoffs post presense is twice as important as in regular season, that is also a major reason why Spurs won so many championships while Suns got none. when opponent's defense becomes tight, sometimes there is no better option than throw down low to a dominant post player and let him go to work. Without Yao, Rocket doesn't have that.
We shall see.

 

the reason teh suns don't win is b/c they do not play defense. they do not get pissed when teams scored on them and just want to "outscore" teams. that's not a belief to live by if you want to win championships.

even when we run or score a lot, defense is still our #1 priority. we pride ourselves on defense. alston was the man when he came out and said to the team at halftime that i won't let terry go off and shut him down. can u imagine anyone on the suns saying that?

i don't think we'll win a championship without yao b/c our team is not full. and you're right, when times are tough, we need someone to score some buckets. but we've proven that if tmac/alston make a conscious effort to penetrate, we can score in the paint. remember, we haven't tried to post up scola a lot b/c the guard penetration has been so good.

i think scola can be a legit post presence and force some double teams (b/c cmon, if ilguaskas can draw double teams, scola can too) and hopefully that will compensate for yao's absence.

the only thing i worry about right now is landry. if his injury is minor, we'll be ok. if not, it's going to be even tougher.

 

He wants to know how Yao did against a running team like the Suns and GSW and I show him the statline. What more do you want? Yeah of course winning is everything. But a good statline doesn't hurt.

 

Why do people forget that rafer was improving and laundry was playing great even when yao was there.We won 12 in a row with Yao.the only that change is they take a little bit more shots.The team was Great with Yao and every one was playing to there strengths.

 

yes,rox is ok without yao,at least in the past few games.
but this thread is the same boring with such thread "rox is a better team without t-mac"when t-mac injuried.
enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
pls!!!
maybe,at least we should talk about this when this season end.