On the same note, I would like to see people stop blaming the lack of playoffs for the last 4 years on Francis then. Everybody blames him for it, not the piss poor team around him.
Actually Juugie and even Amed seemed to have started changing their opinions towards Yao and the team is winning. Nice to see. Very positive sign if you see props for yao coming from critics, that means Yao is truely maturing as well as the team.
I definitely stand by the fact that the team rushed Yao into being the focus last year and it quite possibly cost us the playoffs last year. I thought Steve was our best player and our star - but I never believed that Steve by himself was going to lead us to a ring. I thought that by putting the ball in Steve's hands, it gave us the best chance to make something happen and keep the offense rolling. And my stance all along has been that adding an established veteran small forward, an all star power foward, and another star level swing player would benefit the Rockets more than just having Yao Ming. I still do. But that's not where the team is so it does no good to keep harping on it. What I am saying is that before you trade an NBA All-Star guard for shooters and role players in the name of having one star player carry you to a championship, that you should make damned sure that one star is going to consistently perform at a consistently dominant level. This is the equivilant of the Rockets drafting a power forward next year that averages 14 and 8 while having a week or two of 30 point games then deciding that he's the future and trading Yao for traditional banger, rebounding center to compliment him. I'm sure some of you would think that before they trade away Yao, that the new forward should at least average 20 and 10 for a year and prove he's going to be consistently dominant. Yao has had some great moments this season, but he has also been inconsistent and this can't all be blamed on the guards. I don't think it's too much to ask of a player to be consistently great before building a team around him.
well i dare you, i double dog dare you... i defy you to name one instance of you giving Yao credit when he carries us. you may have a point, but it would be more credible if you gave credit sometimes instead of only dissing him when he has a bad game.
If you think that Yao sucked in the Phoenix game, well, I guess that basically 99% of the players suck 99% of the time because there are not a lot of performances this season by any player that can match 29-19-5 and 70% from the field. You just plain suck.
The thing is that if you decide to build the team around Yao until he plays consistently at his highest level, you might need to wait another 2 seasons, and then Yao's rookie contract is up, and we don't have any advantage in signing him for a max than other teams. You need to take some chance and risk, especially with a player the caliber of Yao. To sum it up, the best chance to win a championship for the Rockets is to build a team around Yao. Actually I think that Yao and Steve and coexist. Sign a deadly outside shooter like Berry and move SF to 2 on offense, and use SF against opposing 1 on defense. Let Cat come off the bench. Then sign a bruising PF in the mode of Rasheed and the Rockets are set.
Yes, but Juugie won't respond to reasonable arguments, reasonably. That's why he's a troll. He tries to find unreasoned opinions to argue against... and runs and hides when someone posts something that he doesn't have an answer to. But he pretends that nobody ever posted it, and comes back with the same drivel that's been slammed before. But don't you know... it doesn't matter what stats Yao had... Yao only had a good game if the team won . If Yao had scored 60... he still would have sucked, since the team lost. Juugie logic...
Uhh, if you scan up in this very thread I gave Yao props for leading the team to a win last night. Dare and double dog dare won...
arent you the one that is always praising lebron, and how he is the next best thing. he is having a team built around him, and he is as inconsistent as anyone.
Haven, If you would ever offer a reasonable argument instead of just throwing names around, maybe you would get a response. PS. One thing I think most people will agree with is that i don't hide from anyone. If someone rebuts what i say logically, I will always respond. And unlike you, I have no problem admitting when I was wrong.
PILE ON! Seriously, let's get to the point of your thread - why there appear to be different standards for criticizing Yao and Steve. I like both Francis and Yao but I can see why people give Yao a break and are critical of Francis. Seriously, can't you see them? Francis: pathetic play for the vast majority of this year, his honeymoon period is over, we want to see some maturity and development of skills, the superbowl incident, laying on the ground like he was decapitated or nutted after each foul, whining at refs, "dumb" plays, . . . all of these are serious factors as to why Francis is drawing a lot of criticism. Yao: 2nd year of western basketball, honeymoon period, marked improvement in all categories (moves, skills, defense, scoring, toughness, overall output), great demeanor, class, unselfish play, willingness to learn, class, class, class, class . . . there's every reason to cut this guy some slack. Seriously, if you can't see why there is a difference in the slack given to Yao and Steve, and the merits for it, then you are missing some really obvious points. As to some of the other points raised, let me ask everyone this - what is the difference between the team this year and last? It's Yao Ming and his improvement. Everything comes from that. JJ has been a huge signing (as well as JVG) but it's all about Yao's improvement. Cant you see that it is hard (and unfair) to criticize Yao when he is responsible for improving his game and thus the team's performance? Can't you see that it is easy (and fair) to criticize Steve when he has failed to improve his game in 5 years (or is it 4) and has really not helped improve the team much (except his horrible defense is now decent). Someone previously said that once Yao's initial learning curve/honeymoon period is over, he will be more open to criticism. I think that is exactly right. Yao must keep improving personally and keep taking the team to new heights. When the team flattens out in improvement, then we will start complaining about Yao not meeting expectations. Until then, let's be real. Steve's the one not pulling his weight (or the weight of his contract/percentage of the salary cap).
If Cleveland was trading a 3 time all-star starter so that LeBron could carry the load basically by himself, I would think that was premature as well.
Rileydog, very true except the Honeymoon thing. Yao got bashed a lot (maybe more than Steve) in December and January when he played timid. Even the media called him "player of the meek."
You are joking right There are folx in this VERY thread that HOVER over their keyboards waiting for SF to fail Like i stated a while back alot of these are the same folx that thought Hakeem was faking it Rocket River
the problem I have with you, juugie, is that I never, never, ever see you anywhere when yao has a good game and always, always, and always see you whenever he's having a subpar game. I agree some of your points are valid or at least debatable. but just the way you are raising them... you've lost your credibility and I don't see you are rebuilding them so far
Ty, As I've said before, whenever Yao has a good game there are 117,378 post declaring the game to the heavens. It just seems like overkill to post the 117,379th what agreat game by Yao post. Just like when Steve stinks it up, the will be 276,182 post saying Steve sux. Every possible angle on those two topics have been hashed out to death. The only real topics here that have actually gotten under exposure are weaknesses in Yao's game. And as I have seen, you post about those weaknesses at your own risk. I have been actually shocked at how upset and histrionic some people get if you are critical of Yao. They really, really take it personally. It's almost as if you were criticising their mother or something.
