How sweet is it going to be when Yao and company beat the Heat for a ring?

First, achilles foot is recovered, and secondly, a really good PF...Melo

 

the reason the big 3 of garnett, allen and pierce won the championship in the first year was because garnett was DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR and they had arguably the most underrated post defender in Kendrick Perkins. and a good player in rajon rondo.

Bosh has never been tested in the playoffs and in crucial situations and has never been in consideration for any defensive awards. He may choke under pressure for all we know.

Garnett though seems to be only a shadow of his former self these days and Perkins is still tough but saddled with injury.

 

LeBron and Wade are two of the best defensive players in the league.

 

We had Ariza and Shane and our defense still was horrible because we had a poor interior defense.

Wake me up when they have a defending big who can man the middle. Shaq or Miller isn't the answer.

 

The answer is Yao. The big guy can alter his fair share of shots.

 

The Heat have always been a good defensive team with Pat Riley there, I doubt that will change too much. Plus, what team are going to outscore them that often anway.
Bosh is no slouch on D btw, Joel Anthony and Haslam are not either

 

I hope that means that Aaron Brooks will control the tempo and make good decisions, not to mention getting the ball to Yao Ming every now and again...

The Rockets' chances for championship success rest on Yao. Not Brooks, DD.

You don't like that idea. I understand why. But until Yao is gone, or proves he can't recover to his pre-broken foot form, that's the truth. Nothing about the way last season transpired for the Rockets changes that. There would have been no reason for the Rockets to keep Yao around if the plan was to give the team to Aaron Brooks and build around him.

Brooks is coming into his own. He will have his moments. And quite a few of them if Yao comes back healthy. Kind of like he did against Portland in the playoffs in 2009.

Yao's been expected to set the table for the Rockets for a while. There are finally some guys on the team who could actually feast at it.

That's the plan. That's the goal.

All of that "whose team it is" stuff is as media-driven and as perception-driven as anything else. If you were to ask the San Antonio Spurs whose team it is, more than a few of them would look at you like you were and idiot. They trust and rely on each other to do their jobs. That way, they're hard to beat, no matter the opponent.

Tim Duncan is going to the Hall of Fame. Tony Parker is a perennial All-Star point guard. Manu Ginobili is as competitive and relentless as our own Luis Scola. On several different occasions, by any number of fans and observers, any one of those players has been cited as the reason why the Spurs are going to win. Because each one of them have gotten their jobs done, in what ways their team needed. As time has gone on, those players' responsibilities have change and evolved. But they all need to play well in order for the team to win.

You, of all people here, who've likened Brooks' development to Tony Parker's (like I have), should understand this, DD.

You have been watching the Boston Celtics the past three seasons from time to time, I assume? They've got two or three Hall of Fame players there, and still found room for a point guard who can't shoot and a big man whose more oak tree than basketball player.....

And what Miami's done is just downright not nice. Fair. Marginally legal, perhaps. Indicative of how it's never a bad idea to have too many good players, and to trash the idea of an "alpha-male" in the usual sense.

But still fair.

My hope is that both Brooks and Yao make the game easier for each other. And that a few other Rockets feel so inclined to join the party, DD.

I don't think, if the Rockets meet with any success, that either Brooks or Yao would be overly concerned with "whose team it is". Everybody else can hash that out if they want.

They'll have the rings. And that's what will matter.