Rockets should have planned forward that season. Instead of drafting Yao, conserve cap space dont take on risky deals and maybe tank toward the Lebron, Wade, & Bosh sweepstakes the following season.
I think they made the right choice and I'm glad they drafted him. I think they mis judged how good he would become. Once you recognize how good a player is, then you surround him with players that compliment him. After yr 3, you could see yao was a good player not great. So now you need to surround him with really good players, not rafer types.
Yao was the best player in the draft, the only one near his level is Stoudemire and then Butler. Too bad we couldn't have won the lottery in 2003 instead of 2002 but I'm still pleased.
and that isn't going to win us a championship imo, he's not a top notch C, he might be one now that we don't have the talent at that position as we did in the past when dream was playing. he's underachieved because he hasn't won a playoff series nor has he dominated one enough to win one. really. i understand his effort and whatnot, but the fact is that he hasn't done cr*p since he's been here except tower over everyone.
we drafted the right guy. he's just not playing like a #1 pick with the size and the skill set that he has now. i mean, he needs to be putting up shaq (lakers) like numbers and completely dominating EVERY game. i know his size gets in the way but still, i'm beginning to doubt whether we can win the whole thing with him as our guy.
Draft is a crapshoot. The good, not great players are the norm. For every MVP drafted at #1, there are 2-3 good, not players, drafted at that spot. Then, there are the real busts like Kwame and Olowokandi(sp?).
Yeah, I stop thinking he was the next great awhile ago. From Moses to Dream to Yao. That's pretty good center lineage, but what about Mikan to Jabbar to Vlade to Shaq to Bynum. Vlade broke the chain and the young fella has pressure on him.
He can definitely improve on scoring, but only if he gets more shot attempts (falls on teammates). He gets quality shots, but is too willing to pass the ball right back out. He needs to demand the ball. As far as rebounding, his numbers will slowly go down as he gets older and slower. I can understand that because when you have a 7'5'' guy who is unathletic, immobile, and moves in slow-mo compared to the other players, he is going to have low rebounding averages. Think about it this way let's say you have a 6'11'' athletic, fast, jumping bean-like center who can dunk on a 12 foot goal with ease (DH) and another guy who can barely dunk on a 10 foot goal, but is only taller (YM). Who do you think will get the rebound? Of course, Howard. You are overestimating height, and underestimating athleticism and mobility.
We need a legit second superstar who's willing to defer shots to Yao. We would be unstoppable... I dont think there are any superstars out there willing to make that kind of sacrifice though
If you stop and think for a minute, you'd realize that there are more #1 picks in the NBA than there are multiple All-NBA players. In fact, even if every team has the magical ability to look into the future when drafting, the #1 pick would STILL unlikely be able to meet your requirement. So yes, in the face of impossible standard, Yao is a failure.
I never said he was a failure. In fact he's been a good player in this league. I only stated when you draft #1, you think you're drafting a guy that might be 10-15 in his position of all time. That's not a unrealistic expectation. You think cleveland drafted him because they thought he would be like walter davis,ricky pierce, or even chris mullin? No , he was the best player and a guy that can be multipl all nba and in the mvp talk. Like I said, I thought we were getting a shaq-like force and we get Daughtery. That's not bad, in fact that's good, its just not great, but that's cool.
Yao has short arm for his size his knuckles should dragging the floor. He should be able to block shots and slam duck from any where on the court.
If you had read my post, you'd realize that is IS an unrealistic expectation for a #1 pick. Unless the year that you had the #1 pick also had Lebron James or Tim Duncan in it. You think All-NBA players grow on trees can come in bunches. When in fact they show up only once in a while, and sometimes they "develop" into the player(Kobe, KG, T-Mac) rather than starting off as one. i.e. be a #1 pick. So yes, I say your expectations are crap and unreasonable and absolutely stupid.
Ban this idiot Yao averages 11rebs per game in 36 minutes, that is a great rate for the most unathletic,slow,immobile guy in the league. Yao is remarkable to watch when you realize that people his size have a difficult time walking properly let alone playing with the best athletes in the world and performing well.
yao is an awesome player.that's why we can argue that he is underachieving with 20/10. he can easily average 25, 13 rebs and 3blks a game if he's really working at it. i think he should average that much for at least 1 season in his entire career. he is that good. 20/10 is good already when compared to the rest of the centers around the league. especially coming off a surgery last year and a slight injury this year. hopefully he picks up his averages in the next 2-3 yrs.
