As you can guess I am new here. I am a huge Rockets fan dating back to the days Hakeem wore those huge oversized 70's shades look alike goggles. I know it not far but hey.... anyways I have been reading alot of posts and i really hate to burst your bubble but do you really expect Ming to start from day one. From the way it looks like, he wont be here for training camp because of the Chinese National team. So realisticly, the first half of his rookie season will be his training camp, a chance to get used to life in the NBA if you will call it. He will become overpowering in the future, but dont put too much stock into him right now. Let's face it crappy a$$ kato is going to be our center ro right now at least.
Welcome. I think most people agree with you. I really don't care who starts at the beginning of the year. But I believe Ming will be starting in the playoffs.
Well, while it will take a while for Ming to get used to the NBA game, training camp wasn't going to do that for him anyway. The only way to get used to the NBA style of play is to actually play NBA games. Training camp is more for getting the players' conditioning up and getting them in shape, while perhaps working on some individual facet of their game that could use some help. I don't think Ming being here for the entire training camp would help him adjust that much more than just being thrown in the fire...and with him playing competitively up until he reports, I am confident he will be in great shape to play.
I think that a jet-lagged Ming playing in his first NBA game is still better than Cato. Even if Cato goes thru all of camp (w/o being hurt), he still won't be in as good of shape as Ming. Cato usually isn't in shape till the all-star break anyway... I agree with the previous post..Throw Ming into the fire and let him learn on the fly. I think we will all be pleasantly surprised by how good Ming really is. For everyone saying his level of competition is so bad, I think it is believe it is better than we think. Cato is OK, and will be a good, good backup. But that is where he needs to be, the BACKUP!
Hey he does need experience and he will get it. It's Ming time. after all the bashing to Cato, now that i think about it. he is not that bad of a center, especially for a backup center. I mean i screamed my @ss off everytime cato dropped a pass but over all, compared to other centers out there, he is not that bad. I will neve forget the la houston game i saw when it was a close game late, and they kept feeding the ball to shaq, and with a few min left, like 1 or 2, shaq took it hard to cato, but was blocked in his face, seeming frustrated shaq went at cato again, and was again blocked, he went one for time, and was called for the offensive foul, elbows i think. anyways, my point is, out of all the things cato has done, over all he is a player worth keeping.. too bad about his contract though (salary that it)
That was the ONLY TIME he played like a NBA Player!I often wonder what ever happened to his Shot Blocking? Where did it go to ?
I know we are mincing words and dates, but technically speaking....Yao Ming will be in camp on or within a couple days of the 20th...so he will get about 10 days of camp...missing about 15 days....
I'm pretty sure that we all realize that Cato is our starting center. Hell, I think MING realizes that. But he'll get better. And so will Eddie. Boo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!
