Bill Walton on Ming's Greatness and the type of team he needs--Rockets?

Wow. That was the best story Walton has done, at least that I have read. The Rockets are a perfect fit except for one thing: will Steve and his posse accept Ming as a teammate?

I know the board must think I am a Stevie hater. I am not. I was and still am very pleased the Rockets traded for him. However, I also believe in reality and truth. This "posse" thing will be Steve's downfall, and consequently, the Rockets undoing, unless he can mature to the point that glory-sharing is acceptable and winning is more important than having his running buds on the court with him.

 

From the story, this worries me: "For Yao Ming’s sake I hope he gets drafted by a club that has a real team approach and mentality and not some absolutely disjointed, dysfunctional squad that’s going to gobble him up."

Selfish is a word that gets bandied about here a lot.

 

If Walton likes him, then that scares me a lot.

His knowledge is so great...

 

I don't like the way he dismisses Wang and Mengke. For him to say that Yao is different is fine. But you know people are going to compare them, and you should at least try to explain why Yao will succeed when Wang and Mengke have not made an impact as of yet. He just says that Wang and Mengke aren't ready and dismisses them as marginal role players without really saying why. What about Yao? Walton says he also needs to be taken slowly. What makes Wang and Mengke different from Yao?

I thought the article was okay. I'm excited about Yao, but I didn't consider Walton's article particularly informative.

 

TB claims that Steve wants to trade this guy for who? Great article by Walton. You can just see it in Yao's eyes. He is a competitor, a winner. Good post, thumbs. I'm sure that, like Cuttino, Steve realizes that Yao Ming is the key to the Rockets future and will lift Stevie's own game to new heights. With Yao at the post, Steve Francis will become the best point guard in the NBA, no doubt about it.

Ming/Cato/(Willis?)/(Collier?)
Griffin/Taylor/KT
Thomas/Rice/(PICK?)/(Morris?)/(Williams?)
Mobley/(Torres?)
Francis/Norris/(Brown?)

It's possible the (PICK?) could turn into Odom, Butler, Lewis or other.

 

Think about it this way --- at least 60% of the time when Francis passes Ming the ball, it is going to become an assist for Francis. I would say that with Ming on the team, Francis' assist average will increase by 3 per game.

 

And with the way Ming can pass, he should put up some good assist numbers, too, while being surrounded by Francis, Mobes, Griffin, etc. I can even see Ming and Cato on the floor together!!!

 

Well, Steve has to realize something. We have the majority of his 'posse' on our team with long-term contracts. If he decides he's going to be a pain in the a$$ to help out his 'posse' then he'll find himself dealt to some team where he has absolutely NO posse.

 

What is this "POSSE" that Steve has on our team? If you're trying to say that Steve has friends on this team, then I say that's a good thing. If you're talking about the Maryland contingent, well I say I haven't seen TMorris or Walt get any preferential treatment on the court from Francis. If you're talking about his friend Mobley, I don't think you can overlook the fact that maybe Steve passes more to him, not just because he's a buddy, but also because he's the second best player on the team.

That said, Steve was very good at assisting to the post when Cato was in the game, and I don't think Ming would get treated any differently, especially because Ming has a more developed offensive game.

 

Steve tried to say that Cato is fine at center and we should look somewhere else. He's not our GM and he tries too hard to make changes based on what he wants. This was a horrible team last year and changes need to be made. If he doesn't like Ming then fine, but he needs to lay off trying to be mini-GM or he can deal with being on a team where he doesn't have his good buddies Mobley, T-Mo, Mooch, and whoever else is his best bud.

 

Yep, he was all over Bradley's jock when he was drafted.

Uh, too easy. Fastball down the middle.

Uh, too easy. Fastball down the middle.