Could Shaq at his prime take this same team to the Finals?

weslinder · May 5, 2007

Kyrodis said:

I have to agree.

Since day one, people (fans, media, etc.) have had an unreal expectation of what Yao would become. Perhaps Rockets fans were spoiled by the likes of Moses and Hakeem, and were expecting Yao to be the next big man to terrorize the league for years to come. Perhaps the media was too preoccupied with the fact there was a noticeable dearth in great, fundamental, low-post big men and needed to tout him as the second coming of Wilt.

With these ridiculous expectations, we were asking for disappointment. Yao is physically limited. He doesn't have freakish strength. He's not particularly athletic. He's slow, and he doesn't have good leaping ability. Moreover, his sheer size reduces his stamina a great deal. He just doesn't have the physical tools to be the type of player where every coach in the league says to himself, "Alright, there's no way I can possibly stop this guy...on ANY night."

Yao is what he is. A hard-working, fundamentally sound, offensively gifted center with a great shooting touch, but an average finisher in traffic. He clogs the paint on defense and changes plenty of shots, but isn't exactly known for being an intimidating defensive stalwart. That's all. I have a hard time seeing him being much more considering the fact that he has obvious physical limitations.

Some of you need to stop putting this ridiculous onus on him just because you think he has the potential to be more. It's been 5 years already; I think he's more or less peaked. And frankly, I'll gladly take 25/9 production from our center position any day.

...Or if you think he should be doing more because he's our "franchise player." Well, out of all the "franchise players" in the league today, just how many of them are team-changing, once-in-a-lifetime, championship-caliber type players? I'm counting uh...two-ish. Hell...even the front-runner for this year's MVP award isn't one of those guys.
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Quoted for truth. Great post!

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Could Shaq at his prime take this same team to the Finals?

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