Wafer has been setting up his teamates more and more, if you think you know all that Wafer will ever be when he is basically a 23 year old rookie than you are the one that is puffing away my friend. DD
unless that one guy is hakeem? or dikembe? come on, he's not quick enough and doesn't establish position well enough to outscore hakeem under those rules or any other. he is this team's most efficient scorer for sure....but he's not being double-teamed all the time the way he was in portland the other night...sometimes it's just the front (a la brandon bass), and that's enough to neutralize him.
ok, so centres cannot dominate in this era like Hakeem and all those old school legendary centres once did..but... Dwight Howard for MVP...legit convo no? What his about Yao's MVP numbers under van Gundy??? When your the only offensive beast of a Centre in the whole NBA...and you happen to be under the plays of Rick Adelman's team oriented balanced offense...... ---the Rockets run a team oriented balanced offense...ironic given how we have no star offensive players other than Yao on this team...all the attention is paid to Yao and Yao only...come on, Adelman did best when he had a whole squad of star scorers...Bibby Stojakovic Webber Divac..........who do we have to fit the same system??? Battier? Brooks? Scola??? ---Hence Yao's offense is the only legit offensive option in the whole team...we used to have Tmac carrying the team on his shoulders but obv hes gone off on holiday......and we practise an absurd "team offense" with no one than Yao who can create his own shot other than Artest...and Yao's meant to pass half of the time...can we ever get a dominant Centre this way?????? ---So you expect Yao to dominate when he can't even get the ball??? Shaq had freckin Kobe Bryant and Dywane Wade...who doesn't Yao have??? Aaron Brooks who refuses to pass????? uh ah....he really can dominate that way I'm sure...
more? correct to an extent...I've witnessed it as well... rookie??? drafted in 2005??? so rookie for the 3rd time in 3 years??? uh........ put away the pipe buddy...wafer is not gonna be tmac....no way.....I guarantee you on that...just like no one sane is saying Brooks will be the next Iverson... yeah put down the pipe man...
It's more to do with the illegal contact defending. It's just like the 90s hockey with the grabbing and holding. I think the illegal defense are much smarter. I think fronting should be illegal since I think it's interfering. It's should be like football where you are not allow to interfere with the receivers. There are too many contacts allowed with fronting. Fronting should not be allow contacts. Defending behind a person with legal contact is fine. Fronting is like an illegal moving screen not allowing a person to pass through.
DD, Tmac is one of the top talents to ever pick up a bball.......Wafer has improved a lot this season, but he's completely out of old school Tmac's league for all eternity of reincarnation till kingdom come
These are just a bunch of excuses. Great players will always be great players, regardless when and where they play. Let's just look at Shaq, who was called the "biggest victim" of Zone defense since he didn't have any offensive game 12 ft away from the basket, someone even suggested this rule was specifically targeted him. The rule was officially introduced before the 2001-2002 season, but if you look at Shaq's performance around those years, there wasn't much difference. Although, he was just past his peak, but still was dominating as pre-zone era. So to use Zone-defense as an excuse doesn't hold much water. Teams tried fronting, double/triple team Shaq, but none of them worked well, that's why they had to use "Hack a Shaq". Yao is just too slow, not strong enough to hold the defenders back.
Dwight Howard just won DPOY and avg. 22 and 15. Tim Duncan is 100% HOF and has won 4 rings. Thread closed.
The key right there. Fronting existed even in the 80s. If Yao cant handle fronting today, he would not have beeen able to handle fronting back then. He would still have the same balance and quickness issues which makes fronting so effective against him today. Is this a joke?
No he's right, Eric Dampier would of been the best center in the league instead of the second best which he currently is now under all these rule changes.
It would be funny to see a game called with the old rules and see the opposing team get called with illegal defense every other play because they aren't an "arm length" away from the person they are guarding.
a prime dikembe mutombo would OWN this league right now at the center position. let alone dream, shaq, david robinson, ewing... hell, a prime alonzo might be the one getting all the love.
Im going to leave it like ibm said till the summer. DD, I have love for you, but yao would never be dreams equal offensively or defensively. Yao is very efficient when he gets the ball in the right position. Dream didn't have tobe in perfect position to be a threat. Imagine Dream,ewing,robinson,dikembe,zo or guys like that fronting yao. Unless the backside man is at the 3pt line which even then they didn't have to be, he would never get the ball. Now flip it and imagine dream,dave,ewing, and those guys facing yao up from the free tbrow line. If we think he has trouble with boozer,jefferson,brand types, what about 7 ft guys doing it to him. I do think the rules hurt yao because of his lack of quicknes, but the physicality of the 90's were totally different. Yao can still be effective like he did game one by attrfacting attention and allowing his teammates to get easy hoops. In game 2, they paid a lot of attention and again his teammates responded offensively. Sooner or later its going to be pick your poison. Courtney Lee is leading the magic in scoring and no one cares. Who should care if brooks is leading the squad as long as the team wins?
Rules allowing guards to go untouched to the basket just puts bigs in more foul trouble for having to take up the slack.
I don't think Wafer will be more than a solid role player. He doesn't have much offensive moves except driving in the lane with his head down and doing the same baseline craddle dunk. He's not that good of a passer and he doesn't have much handles.
Why can't you keep Yao and get other good players? Yao isn't a selfish teammate and wouldn't have any problems turning the spotlight and the shots over to a superstar guard. Besides, the guy more than pays his own salary. I do agree that if a team wants, they can completely take a center out of the game. Teams can make sure Yao never even touches the ball on a post up if they want. However, that strategy comes with a price and another teammate is bound to be open. We see what happens when the open guy hits his shots.
The game of cat and mouse has started. They're letting yao catch the ball, now he has to make good decision like the one to shane. Guys also need to move and give him a good target.
