I T-Mac has played terrible for several games and bad in others and has had a few decent to good games this year. He is obviously not the player that everyone on this board knows and loves. Anyway, T-Mac is playing through an injury right now. Whether he is dealing with the injury correctly or not is a different story, but the fact of the matter is that if he never got this injury in the first place, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Yao on the other hand is not playing with an injury. I know he was injured last year but a broken bone is far different than a knee issue. Once the bone is set and heals, that is about it. It is difficult to reaggrivate it. A knee injury can linger for the rest of your life and may never heal properly. (I know, I have two brothers who have had kneee surgeries and have never been the same) Yao has had some great games this season and I think you could argue that he has had more great games than T-Mac has. But, to be honest, he has also had some of the worst games I have ever seen this season either. I know everyone is talking about the Toronto game (unfortunately I was out of town and didn't see it), but aside from that game, I don't think T-Mac has had games where he is an absolute negative on the court. Yao has definitely had some games this season and throughout his career where I thought it would have been better to play Chuck Hayes than to play him. Just take every game in the first playoff matchup with Utah 2 years ago. He was an absolute negative in every single game that series. He couldn't guard the guy he was guarding and he couldn't score when he got the ball. In fact, many time, our guys try to pass the ball to Yao and because he cannot hold his position or the defender gets around him, the pass is stolen or thrown away and the turnover goes to the passer where it was clearly Yao's fault. And because he cannot hold his position, we spend nearly the entire shot clock trying to get him the ball and we either fail to get him the ball and we turn it over or we are forced to take a bad shot. Either of those things look bad on someone elses box score, not Yao's. In fact, T-Mac is definitely our best player at passing the ball in to Yao and I think this year he has put extra effort in trying to get the ball into Yao in the exact place Yao needs it to be effective. T-Mac loves reposting Yao, but everyone on this board wants to call T-Mac the cancer of the team when Yao would never get the ball against a good defense if T-Mac wasn't there to get it to him. No on runs this team better than T-Mac. No one is a better passer (not even rafer) than T-Mac. I TOTALLY agree that T-Mac has had a terrible year (especially shooting) and I know that he wears his emotions on his sleave and lets it effect his game. But I cannot understand why Yao gets a pass on sucking just because he tries hard. I know he tries hard and puts in the effort. But when an eastern conference team with bad defense can still find a way to front yao or push him around and cause him to be a net negative, then he should be blamed for that. In the end, I think Yao has had a decent season and some really good games, but I just get the feeling that he only has good games when the defense does a bad job of defending him (i.e. playing him one on one without much physical pressure) To defend him, all you have to do is push him a little bit and front him and he is almost useless. That is why he will never be good in the playoffs because a coach has 7 games to scheme against him and take him out of the game.
your premises are wrong, so it's hard to believe you've got the conclusion right. for example, everyone has ups and downs during a season in terms of on-court performance. but mcgrady's problem, or his biggest problem, is his antics such as quitting during a game. for another example, mcgrady is NOT "playing through an injury". i don't understand how, after all these reports from all sources and media, poeple can still say that. he's is supposedly doing catch-up with his conditioning right now; something that should've been done long ago.
i was skeptical about Yao after the first game against Boston and he had followed up with some more bad games, but since than he has been pretty consistent...and much more consistent than tmac.
Regardless of that, you didn't address my assessment of Yao. He still is getting paid a max contract and almost any team could guard him if they are dedicated to doing so (i.e. fronting, playing physical). I believe he has played extremely bad as well as TMAC. It is hard to say who is worse and TMAC has probably played worse since he is getting paid more than Yao and his manerisms have been quite subpar. My point is that Yao gets a pass for his crappy play while TMAC even gets bashed when he has a good game nowadays. Everyone just needs to stay fair. Also, I'd like to comment on the whole quitting in Toronto. I never saw the game and I really wish I had so that I could have some more perspective. But I did see the infamous play where TMAC "quit". I understand it looked really bad, but didn't everyone see how TMAC was running down the court and he was noticeably limping? I agree that he should have at least grabbed the guy to prevent him from making a dunk. But it was clearly obvious that he was laboring down the court. I'm sure that on the way down the court he was thinking, "how should I handle this? Should I foul or try to run back and play defense? I won't foul and I'll try to play defense...oh crap, I can't run for beans...oh man, this guy is kicking my butt down the court because my knee isn't holding up and I'm limping down the court..." and before he knew it, the guy was right by him and dunked it home. It was a speed thing that was a split second decision and he made the wrong one. Does that mean he quit? No. We've all made mistakes. We've all said something in the spur of the moment that sounded much better in our heads than it actually did when we said it. He made a judgement call about his body and he was wrong so it looked really bad like he quit. I understand everyone's reaction, but I do not think people are thinking deep enough into this. TMAC has no reason to quit on this team. We still have a decent record and there is much season left. It is not like orlando where their team sucked and they were heading toward the lottery. He just had a really bad game. If he made plays like that consistently, then I would agree with that. I just think people are pissed about the season and they are looking for a scapegoat. It also doesn't help that the chronicle has turned against him and is printing all of these highly negative articles about him. I bet you many people wouldn't have even noticed that play as much if it weren't for Blinebury writing that blog about him "quitting".
Why does everyone expect Yao to be like a Messiah for this team. That is/was and always will be McGrady's role, unfortunately he was never up for it and Yao, an inferior player by all means has performed to a higher standard than McGrady has at what was supposed to be his job. Yao isn't the best player of all time or anything, he's a great player, that's it. McGrady is the supposed superstar of the team so people shouldn't even have an issue with Yao and it rightfully has mostly all fallen on Tmac.
The shot he took at the end of that game was a busted play. He played with good intensity throughout that game. He has been for more consistent than Tmac this year. He does lack the killer instinct, but I have come to the realization that is something we are going to have to live with.
Yao is the hardest working player in the league. Sometimes even too hard for his body to take. Imagine the T-Mac with Yao's work ethics, how good would that be?
yao's crappy play? his season avg. is really close to 20/10 i believe. since when that's crappy? you may argue he'd have played better, but "crappy"? and since when yao gets a pass when he has a bad game? not on this board for sure. for cry out loud, a lot of folks here were crying about his stupid 2pt shot in the lakers game - loudly. when mcgrady got his 3-double game, ... well, you go back and check how many were... well, crying, like they had finally found jesus. and we even had "mcgrady appreciation" threads. all most people are complaining about is #1's antics of quitting. open your eyes and give it a fair play. you will discover a lot of things.
Since when does Yao Ming get a free pass when he plays poorly? Over half of this board is anti-Yao and anybody who defends him is automatically labeled a Y-O-F. I've seen numerous threads pop up grilling Yao for his rebounding and whatnot.
EXACLTY!!! i wonder where all this "yao get's a free pass" is coming from. i don't see him getting free anything. in fact, there's a ton of thread started saying he's getting a free pass then continues to criticizes him. i don't get it. most people on this thread are pretty fair in evaluating him based on his production... which is never 100% positive. maybe, it's cuz of how badly TMac is doing and people think if you're critical of TMac, you're automatically giving Yao a free pass.
This is basketball this is what have you done for me lately not what have you done in the past, if that was the case then we should play deke for his offense more because he use to average 15 plus points in the past
Yao's averaging about 20 and 10 at high efficiences. Plus he gives the game everything he has every night. I'm confused about what you're saying.
Mind I ask you how old you are Leeb? Since the era of Hakeem how often can you find talents like Yao and Tmac to build around? How many 10 years can you wait to get guys like hakeem to rebuilt? Stay realistic...
tmac was one of those very rare players during his prime. at this stage, unless he gets healthy (which he rarely is unless it's the playoffs), he's not one of those franchise players anymore. tracy right now can only be a franchise player for very "short stretches" (and we're all praying it's enough for the playoffs where hopefully he can dominate 75% of a 20-25 game stretch--if we go that far. but for an entire reg. season, tracy isn't that player any longer. yao was never a franchise player. the tag was put on him b/c he was a #1 pick. he has always prefers to defer to his teammates, whether it's steve francis or tracy mcgrady or even rafer alston.
Don't talk bosh, Just Trade your to Lakers... Yao+ Kobe + Gasol = Champ.... Rockets become 30% Jumping-shooter team... wow,,,
Maybe one is making 20mil per year, the other only half of that? or one is far worse than his old self, while the other is just a little worse? or one is considered 'hard-working', the other been called 'lazy'? Of course, both of them have little, or no success in this league when you consider their team has been miserable in playoffs, so I guess you can always put both of them down together.
Don't be fooled. Kobe only advanced w/ Gasol & Odom playing great. We need T-mac & Artest healthy to advance.
