As someone has said, if we had Rafer, we would have been in second round. Without Rafer, but with Yao, we may have got into the second round and might even upset the Lakers then if the ref are reasonably impartial.
To the western conference finals. And it would have been the next step to establishing order in the west. The good news is, that next year, the team will be even more comfortable with the system. Have faith in the system, the system has faith in you!
1st round and out. Whether T-Mac or Yao, with Rafer out we were still gonna be a 1st round exit. With rafer back and healthy whether T-Mac or Yao it would have been a 2nd round at least. Sad to say so much hinged on our mercurial PG, but it did.
I think you didn't finish your sentence. Should've been "remember last year's power forward?". Scola and Landry are hundred times better than Hayes. We would have beaten the Jazz with them instead of Hayes.
Has anyone thought about the fact Boozer destroyed yao last yr. For all the couldve,wouldve, or shouldve, the Jazz still give the rox fits with this current team even with scola. Until that consistent 3rd guy is there, its 1 and done.
I am not sure, as we didn't get to see Yao and the team develop with him in the last third of the season. I agree that we were two games of a fully healthy Rafer from getting to the second round.
I agree. But i hate what ifs. I still think IF T-Mac had Jordan's track record of injuries he would be the best player in the league.
Im convinced if we had Rafer the whole series we would have won it in 6 games. Im convinced if we had Yao we would have beaten them in 4 Look guys, last series we took them to 7 games with a non scoring power forward position. This year we took them to 5 without Yao and without Rafer with the PF being out most consistent scoring outside of Tracy Mcgrady. OH and someone named Carlos Boozer was a near non factor. Its pretty simple if you ask me. If you believe otherwise then your deluded
Proof is in the pudding as they say. That same non offensive player in Hayes and deke is the main reason why Boozer was a non factor. U insert yao and that means Scola guards Okur and guess who's on Boozer? That same guy that this thread is enomored with Yao who i don believe would have made a difference, but now Boozer is going off. Now we're back to the same game as last yr when they couldn't get a rebound, Battier and rafer whodini'ed and the rox are on vacation. No my friend, ur delusional.
If we would have had Yao, we would likely have gotten a different seed (assuming #1), and played the Nuggets in the first round, which then we would have beaten. Then it would be the San Antonio - Utah winner, which we would have won, and then MAYBE we would have beaten the lakers.
What you say is all true. But I don't think Boozer will ever dominate us the way he did last year. Take this year, Dikembe guarded him the same way as Yao did last year. He let him shoot jumpers and kept his distance. Except for one game, he was on a roll last year. This year he wasn't all that hot and missed all those wide open shots. As long as Utah has Boozer and Okur and we have Yao, they will always be a matchup problem for us. The series would have probably gone 7 again. Fullcourt's post is another thing to take into account.
Utah would have been tough with or without Yao. They beat us last year and even with Scola, probably would have beaten us this year. Williams is the big key and we don't have an answer for the guy.
We would have easily won the Super Bowl.... Man would it have been nice to see Yao hoist the Stanley Cup.
It's a different team when Yao is on the floor. We might have made it to the second round but it doesn't matter. We are still one and done and we still always have injury to the players that we need healthy. It's the same every year.
