This post owes its origin to forenzi who had a very good, but long post. This basic thought was buried in it. He cites Magic as a rookie who was ready to be the man and says Yao is. He also quotes from the Minn Tribune Article which says among other things that Flip Saunders says perhaps Yao is lucky that Mobley and Francis gun so much (though in appropriately)as it takes the pressure off of Yao . Such a Yao lover as Bill Walton (at least in the past) has argued that Yao needs to be brought along slowly. I think we can cite Sanders, Rudy and Walton for the proposition that Yao needs to be brought along slowly, at least from a psychological point of view to avoid putting too much pressure on him? I see his father as arguing the same. I frankly don't know from a psychological point of view. From a skills and physical point of view he is not yet quite ready to be THE MAN, but it wouldn't hurt and would provide valuable experience to give him the chance. The psychological aspect is the key in my opinion. It is just hard to get a read if Yao is psychologically ready to be THE MAN. He was in China, but the NBA?
Yao Ming is an outstanding player but I think that he would not do well in that role. For one I think that he does very well when he passes, so if you meant, "the man", as in the ball should go through him often I think that he is ready. As far as dominating the way that he did in China, it's not fair to ask that of anyone. Besides we didn't just give Steve the max to be a secondary player, the team would be much better served to exploit the match-up opportunities. For instance against a team like the Magic who are guard oriented and have no true big man, I think that Yao Ming is a nightmare. On the other hand you take a team like the Hornets with a myriad of big-men and you absolutely have to give Ming guard support. He is no doubt great but I like the way that he chooses his spots, and let's not forget how he looks like he's about to hurl at the end of games the man is 300lbs.
Three threads on the same topic is a bit much... Use this thread : http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48402
