Yo: Check out Yao's statistical surge What wall? Yao Ming, if anything, is gaining momentum in his Rookie of the Year push as he gradually gets more touches. December was Yao's best month (17.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game) but February wasn't far off and he's off to a strong March start, too. Yao averaged 16.5 points and 8.8 rebounds last month and is up to 16.8 points and 9.0 rebounds this month through four games. February was actually Amare Stoudemire's best month in Phoenix (15.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per game) but Yao seems to be edging ahead in the ROY race. Unless your tiebreaker is making the playoffs, where Stoudemire and the Suns have the edge. http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/stein_marc/1521168.html
As well as Chad Ford of ESPN, put Yao ahead of ROY race. Jt (toms river): With the way Gooden is playing do you think he can with the Rookie of the Year Award or is Amare and Yoa to far to catch? Chad Ford: No. I think Yao has it <B>locked up </B>. He's getting better every game. Stoudemire has slipped just a bit, but he's still been pretty consistent all season. Gooden is playing great basketball right now, however. Had he been on the Magic all season, he would've had a good shot at the award. http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=3217
ESPN TV mentioned the same thing last Saturday evening. But I would more like to see Yao Ming leads Houston to play-off.
Yep....but before. They were all sayin Amare. And before that.....they were all saying JAY WILLIAMS. I hope Yao will continue playing great bball and win the ROY.
Yao gets the award with consistency.. but there is a possibility of having another dual-award winners.. Just on the improvement of Gooden.. wasn't he getting his butt whipped during the off-season by Griffin?...
In an earlier thread I said the analysts were jumping on the Amare bandwagon for ROY because he had string of great games and Yao's numbers were down at the same time. Similiarly for a while it seemed that all the analysts were saying the Suns would beat out the Rockets for the final seed. Those analysts have been more quiet lately. If we move ahead of Phoenix, those same analysts will be saying that'll we'll grab the last spot. At this point the last spot in the playoffs and the ROY are yet to be determined. If we make it to the playoffs Yao, might win ROY too!
Stein makes a great point that who makes the playoffs will play a big part of who wins ROY. Whether Amare or Yao has the edge depends on which team makes the playoffs. If Phoenix makes the playoffs, people will say that Amare played a huge part. If Houston makes it, people will say the same about Yao. That's the edge Stein is talking about. The dual ROY is always possible.
The notion is not completely true. A substancially large number of votes for the Rookie of the Year award is usually sent in by the voters prior to the end of the season. This means that probably up half of the voters will vote without the benefit of knowing who will snatched the Western Conference's last playoff spot. This is of course assuming that the race will be close untill the end. This is why I think it will be wise for Telemundo or ABC to pick up this Sundays game. We know a big part of the voting is based on exposure and what better exposure to help voters decide who to vote for after an EPIC game like the one we expect this Sunday's to be. Yao has the inside track but Amare is too talented to be ruled. It will definitely interesting to watch how the last month of this NBA season will unfold. More power to Yao and Amare.
In the recent power rookie ranking, Amare has dropped to 6. And last week he was 5. It is really hard to believe he is still in the race for ROY.
