Once again, the constant is between those who want to see the rockets do well and those who want to see yao do well. He's bears no blame in playoff failures. Its every guard fault from francis to john lucas when he cant get the ball. Its the coach fault for playing him so many minutes that he has missed 2 full seasons worth of games in the last 5. Its stern fault howard and amare have been voted by coaches and gms on all nba 1st team. Its brooks fault he has kept the team above .500.
Francis was selfish, imo. Not that he couldn't pass. AB had some issues last year with passing to Yao, but I'm sure he'd pass to Yao decently as he is now. Only problem is, Yao is not durable, and AB doesn't know when to slow it down, and gets burned by longer, stronger, PG's. That does not make for a good combination.
Once again you brought Yao into the topic. Once again you failed to remember how much blame Yao got after the Utah series loss. 10 times more than AB, I'll have to say. And it's justified. He was the leader together with Tmac and they failed. This year AB is the leader, his criticisms are mostly justified as well.
Basketball isn't like other sports, you don't win titles by just adding more good players. You need a foundation guy, and the right guys around him (a la Kobe and the pips). Yao can be the best player on a championship team, and Brooks cannot, i'm not a Brooks hater, i'm happy with him as our starting point guard, but if he is your best player, your a lottery team, with Yao as our best player we were challenging the lakers in the 2nd Rd. Having said all that, this team still needs to be upgraded to win a title, i'd love to add Bosh, but if were trading Yao to get him, it doesn't get us closer to a title. We just have to keep rolling the dice on Yao ( i don't like it any more than you guys).
He seems to have been making adjustments lately against bigger point guards because he crushed Rondo and D-Will after getting burned by them previously. I think we will also see him put on ten pounds or so in off-season IMO just to get a little stronger. He has enough speed that he can lose a little and still beat most anybody off the dribble.
Dude are you freaking kidding me? Rockets 06' season bring back any memories? Oh and btw, AB was the reason we challenged the lakers and took them to 7 games, good god. The Yao-Gasol matchup was a nightmare for us anyways.
Yea, and I never ONCE said AB was a franchise player. He is not the CP3, dwill cat. He is a REALLY good player that is a legit all star and key piece to a championship team. That piece is DEFF. not Yao though. The guy on top of me keeps saying we should roll the dice on Yao. What about when our turns are over. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO REBUILD EITHER WAY. You can sit there in denial and come to the same conclusion now, or accept it later.
At some point we will have to let go of Yao, no question. Guy is damaged goods, doubtful to return to all-star status, likely to get injured again. Unless Yao signs a new contract for the cheap, then there'd be no reason not to keep him. But that possibility is unlikely. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but an AB + Yao trade for Curry + pick would be primo, best long-term for the rox, imo. Too bad its unfeasible.
AB fits Adelman's system well. Mike Bibby is not a great playmaker but he looked like a superstar under the RA system. You only trade AB if you can get a star-quality talent and GS is not trading Curry.
Thank you! That is literally all I have been saying. Curry is good, but not completely sold on him. Westbrook is legit and will be a great player. Would deff trade for him.
Pretty much. We'll have to settle for more years of falling short of the mark, unless DM pulls an off-season miracle or two.
Yea curry is a great shooter and player, westbrook has that extra athletic factor to go along with a great instinct for the game.
We all agree our only goal is to compete for a title. Trading Yao very well might be safer, with more regular season wins but, give me situation in which trading Yao gets us closer to a championship. Curry might be and upgrade over Brooks (i emphasize might), but at what cost. I can't guarantee Bosh,Yao,Martin, and Brooks wins us a title, but it gets us closer than any other ideas i've heard. I'm not married to Yao, but give me a viable trade for him.
Brooks will always have trouble getting Yao the ball, and Yao always has trouble catching the ball because he can't seal his defender. But that doesn't mean brooks and yao can't play together. Robert Horry was the primary guy to throw the ball into Hakeem many times - why? Because he was taller and could get the ball to him the way Hakeem liked it. By the same token, I think Adelman will have to work in the ways to post Yao. But Yao is going to have a lot of post looks, it's just stupid not to use him that way.
