I forgot to set the TIVO to hear what the others said about the Rockets.. Can anyone fill me in with what eveyone in the studio (TNT) said about the Rockets??
Good point. I think Reggie's comparison was shortsighted because it was just based on the respective numbers at this point, which favor Yao only slightly. I think it was Bullard who mentioned that even Hakeem would have been impacted by today's rules.
Definitely think Millers comparison of Yao and Smits was biased by his being a teammate of the "Flying Dutchman". Smits best scoring year in a 12 year career was 18.5ppg, his best rebounding year was 7.7 rpg and his best year minute wise was 30.5 MPG. Sorry Reggie, Yao is more than slightly better than Smits. Interesting that it took Smits 8 years before he reached his peak scoring production and that the difference between his second year 15.5 ppg and his best year was only 3 points. If Yao follows Smits progress curve, perhaps his best year will be 22ppg.
Tracy will never be MJ. And I don't think that Reggie was comparing Tracy's skills to those of Drexler but comparing their level of "superstarness." It's a pretty fair comparison. Drexler was an all-time great. Tracy should be happy if at the end of the career he was as accomplished as Drexler (although hopefully with a few more championship rings). And Smits was a damn fine player. Yao is never going to be Shaq. And he's never going to be Hakeem. He doesn't put the ball on the floor well. And he isn't particularly aggressive. So the comparison to Smits also is fair.
Are you kidding me??? The Blazers had a lineup very similar to the Pistons of today in that they had skilled, consistent players at all positions (Terry Porter, Buck Williams, Kevin Duckworth, and Jerome Kersey). Plus, Cliff Robinson was a very good player off the bench.
well, Smits was one of very good centers in the game back then, but never considered a great one, which is exactly where Yao belongs to now. Unitll Yao raises his level of play up a notch to establish himself as a top-tier elite center in the game, which I doubt will ever happen, he is not going to be considered much better than Smits.
Reggie Miller was a good friend of Smits when they used to play together, it doesn't surprise me when he said that.
I think T-Mac could be MJ material. These idiots always say this and T-Mac is the only person that can prove them wrong.
McGrady is Magic Johnson with less imaginative and artful passing skills but with a jumper he can rain down on everybody. Magic didn't have that jumper. He had to be wide open with the set shot. But Magic was a better creator with the ball than McGrady is. Hey, he had to, he couldn't raise up and fire that bomb. And Magic was the man for all times running the break. If he got the basketball at midcourt with a man advantage, it was over. McGrady just doesn't have that in his game. He is more liable to pull up at the 3 point line and nail it. His game is becoming more and more effective though. The Showtime Lakers became beatable when Magic wasn't in the lineup. But they could still eek through a game or two without Kareem because Magic was big enough to fill that gap. McGrady and Yao are similiar to that. For a few games, we could play without Yao because McGrady is that good. But in the long run, just like in Kareem's case, if we didn't have Yao, we would start winding down. On the defensive side, McGrady can guard anyone from Dirk down to Luke Ridnour. Did you see him taking Ridnour at the top in last night's game. Luke got off that one prayer shot while McGrady was guarding him, but that's it. McGrady spent major minutes on him and Rashard Lewis. I'm sorry but Magic couldn't play defense like that. McGrady is closer to Jordan defensively but I don't think Jordan could handle the bigger players like Dirk. McGrady played Dirk straight up one on one in the post and shut him down. I don't think Jordan could do that. I don't think Drexler could do that. Who else is there to compare him to? TMac is a unique talent. His career will eclipse Drexler's at some point in the future. Remember, Drexler only won one championship and that was with Hakeem. Drexler was a great player but he didn't have the effect on his team that McGrady has on his. Van Gundy is going to bring out the greatness in McGrady.
When I say no help, I mean no other all stars at his side. He had a solid team, but really are you going to compare any of those players next to Drexler alongside other great duos in the NBA that made it to the Finals? I'm not going to argue that McGrady had a solid team during his tenure with the Magic because he didn't, but the whole argument made was that McGrady thus far in his career is better than Drexler, which is absolutely untrue.
Barkley said Rockets don't have a 'verbal' leader, and he said McGrady is the kind of leader who doesn't speak but acts.
Maybe he changed his tune to that last night, but he certainly was not meaning that when he said it last week. He said the rockets didn't have a leader. period. I think it might have been Magic that said that, but my question is, how do they know? These guys probably don't watch more than 3 games a week. They're not even close to being in that locker room. Charles just repeats the same analysis every week. He says the rockets don't have a leader, and then Tmac leads them to another win, and then he says that they will only go as far as Yao takes them. If Yao plays poorly, he gets criticized. If he gets 26 and 10, they don't even mention him unless its to whine about his allstar votes. Yao has been great these last two games and the only thing they say about him is that he is inconsistent. They never give him any credit or say anything positive about him at all.
Barkley must have missed the Dallas series and the end of last season. McGrady was very much the vocal leader of this team, on the floor and off.
Terry Porter = all-star 1991, 1993 Buck Williams = all-star 1982, 1983, 1986, all-nba defensive first team 1990 and 1991 Kevin Duckworth = all-star 1989, 1991 Cliff Robinson = 6th man of year 1993, all-star 1994
