The problems with Yao are well noted. WE KNOW! So, the question is not whether Yao will have another bad game or not. He will! WE KNOW HE WILL! The question should be....Are your expectations TOO HIGH? To me, Yao is a 18PPG/8.5 RPG player as of now....not Shaq, not Hakeem. He's improved by lessing his TO, by kicking out the entry pass a lot better, and learning how to get proper spacing in the post. He's just playing a much smarter game than before. Does he foul a lot? Yes. Does he make silly passes? Yes, sometimes. Has he improved? Yes! Does anybody remember when Yao used to make A LOT OF MISTAKES? FOUL OUT? He's not doing that as much. He's made little improvements, here and there...too small to see now. But they will be more obvious in the next 2-3 years compared to now. And NO, that doesn't mean that he's going to be Shaq in 3 years. But he will be a better Yao than he is now. I think what we need to do is stop expecting that Yao is going to be some type of 24PPG/10RPG player in the next few WEEKS. HE's NOT! He's just going to get a little bit better OVER TIME. Over the rest of the season. Over the next year. And so on... Yao is a long time project. So we need to just live with Yao's performances. It's not like he can turn himself Hakeem or Shaq just because we *want* him to. Just let him make *small* improvements over time.
I think most of the fans here understand that Yao is not going to meet our crazy expectation now. But knowing doesn't mean we will not get too emotioanl about his performance. I guess somehow everyone wants him to succeed now (a 24/11 guy or better). We expect the team to have a winning streak when the season starts, we expect Yao will be either Shaq or Hakeem, we expect after the trades for the role players all the problems are fixed and we will go unbeaten for the rest of the games and cruise into a championship. No, not this season (well, of course it would be nice if it happens this season). Actually fans are the people with the biggest patience and the lowest tolerance. Some fans can support their team for their whole life even though their team never win anything some fans will ask for trades when a star player plays a really bad game. It's just the way fans are. Of course, it's good that the management don't think in a fans view, otherwise the team is screwed. Just my thought.
This is off topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread over it. I have a question: is there some kind of deadline that passes at a certain point after the All-Star break that basically says "unless so-so is on the roster before a set deadline, they cannot be included on the playoff roster?" I was mentioning possibly bringing in Big Dawg for depth, just an idea for fun and a friend of mine mentioned a certain deadline had passed saying even if we brought him in he wouldn't be included on our playoff roster. Could anybody elaborate? Thanks.....
Ya, there is deadline for the rosters that you can have in the playoffs. Not sure when it is, but there is one.
Thanks for the response. That kind of sucks though, but I do understand the thinking behind it. Just kind of puzzling since Payton, Henderson, etc all recently signed after being waived. The deadline must have just passed.
Oh, really? Kinda like Tim Duncan who gets 16 shots per game? And KG, who gets 17? Both of which get between 34-38 minutes per game. Yao should NOT get 20 shots per game even if he could play 34 minutes.
It was strange, my electricity was off, so I laid in the bed listening to the game with a freakin candle lit. Wow..gene peterson was a complete trip, and I felt like I was listening to him discribe the heart of a champion. The roar of the crowd in the dark is a sound I haven't heard with a rockets game in a little while. HOW SWEET IT IS ! It's Gundy vs Gundy in the Finals. If not his year, next. Props to the people who have put this together, and to Les for his vision.
One thing that could aid his development is that he now had all summer to work on his game instead of playing with the Chinese NT. I predict huge improvements on his stamina and quality of play.
Man, when Peterson retires, the Rockets should make a jersey and retire him as an announcer. The man is classic Rockets. He belongs up in the rafters at Toyota Center one day.
