Finally, a voice of reason. This is really unbelievable to me. Last year it took a lot longer into the season for the "Mad-Yao disease" to take effect, but this year it apparently has set in after only a few short games. People, please- Steve had a bad game. "A" being the singular as in 1 bad game. He had been playing well all year long. All NBA'ers have bad games- even the superstars. Look at box scores from Vince, T-Mac, Pierce, Dirk. They've all had their fair share of bad games. I wish all you Yao fans would finally take your blinders off and realize that Yao is not as good as you may think he is. While I, as a ROCKETS fan, am thoroughly delighted that we have an umbelievable amount of potential in him, he is just not at that stage yet to be the man on this team or any team for that matter. Give him Marbury, Kidd, Nash, whoever. IT JUST WON'T MATTER. He's not ready to take over a game and dominate yet like Hakeem did 10 years ago, or Shaq did 4 years ago. He just can't do it. He's tall and coordinated. That's it. He should easily be able to shoot hooks shots over guys 7 inches shorter than him, but he can't. He should easily be able to establish position on the block so that he can receive an entry pass, but he can't. He's just not strong enough, not quick enough and not athletic enough to dominate NBA competition yet. If any of you think otherwise, I would love to hear your rationale for believing so, and please give examples. But if all you have to say is that Yao is the man and the Rockets suck, than your not a fan of this team and don't belong here. So feel free to start your own Yao Ming Forum.
It should be obvious that Steve and Cat do not play like Yao is the #1 offensive option. One side of the issue is that Yao is at this time our best offensive option. He creates the best mismatch on the offensive end. He has the best ability to get his own shot. He is a better passer out of the double team out of the 3 of them. On the other side of the issue Yao still makes some mistakes on how to take his man to the hoop. He sometimes turns the ball over when he brings the ball down. He is relying a little too much on the turn around fadeaway jump shot. To complicate the issue both Steve and Cat in reality are no better than Yao with regards to turnovers, ill advised shots and well below him in passing and shooting percentage. But they both have experience over Yao which makes them more established weapons on the team. And they handle the ball so Yao is at their mercy. (alot depends on what JVG does) To this end I had hoped to see Van Gundy push Yao more and force the ball more through him. This may come. But right now I think we are in a little limbo. When Steve and Cat shoot lights out they carry the team and all is well. But they are so inconsistant. I don't htink we will improve dramatically until Yao gets more shots than Steve or Cat on a consistant basis. If Yao can't handle it we may be in trouble. Steve is not consistant enough to carry us to the top eschelon of teams. We have to improve to be considered in the LA, Dallas, Sac, SA class.
