Eventually, Yao will get injured again. In the past, it was Mutombo, now we got hayes. I see a pattern here, but with a midget replacing the 7'2 guy.
The consensus seems to be as a "rebound and kick out" player, much like shaq on the Suns. I don't know if it will work out well, but i Adleman seemed to be able to effectively use big stiffs like divac and miller
So are you saying we should have someone better in the 3rd slot? To back up hayes when yao goes down or that Hayes should be in the 3rd spot?
Hayes is a huge liability on offense. There is nothing wrong if Rockets can find someone who can play both defense and offense.
It is becoming impossible to find a center who can play both sides of the floor these days, especially not in a backup role or for cheap. Hayes is a starter and team captain this season, I don't think there is a better backup out there. That is unless there someone in the draft.
hayes seems to be doing just fine. but back then, the problem was that Yao was just so dominant and because he was so tall as a 7'6 guy, it just seemed like a HUGE loss when he was off the court. his presence was clearly a noticeable difference that it just made our team look weaker in a sense.
he is a starter on an above 500 team with no stars. Please, do me a favor, name an acquirable backup center.
Don't forget Andersen looks like he's "ok" for situational minutes - he can stretch the defense if required. Hayes/ Andersen is acceptable as a backup option to Yao Ming. As others have said, the real problem is when Ming gets injured, it severely affects our defense not having a 'genuine shot blocker' in the lineup at all. But I would be happy with Hayes/ Andersen as the backup - Hayes can play the Boozer types, Andersen the Bargnani types.
We don't have a starting center right now. We just have a basketball player that can defend people much larger then he is.
You mean one of three players in NBA history to score 13,000 points, pull down 9,000 rebounds, dish out 3,000 assists, and block 1,500 shots? If Shaq manages to rack up another 50 assists he'll join the club too (currently it's Hakeem, Kareem and Divac) Clearly Divac was a bit more versatile than you realize - not flashy enough for ya?
Rafer was a starter for Rockets and Magic too but it did not stop the fact that he was pure garbage. Define "acquirable"? or answer these questions: Is Oden acquirable? no? what if Portland insist on trading Oden for Cook? Is DHoward acquirable? no? what if Magic love to trade Howard for TMAC? Everyone in NBA is acquirable. A lot of them are better than Hayes. If you have the chance to upgrade, you take it. In that sense, we need a starting center too.
Or that his best years were actually in LA. Heck he was good enough that Kobe was traded for him. Nobody knew Kobe would be this great, but he was still a lotto pick.
