I am arguing that the 0-8 happens with the old Yao, and 2-0 happens recently with a newly charged Yao that has been playing at the league MVP level. Although the results with a Macless Rockets are 2-8 with Yao, I am trying to subdivide the games into two different periods where some strong arguments can be made to defend Yao.
BTW, those trolls please name me a role player who averages 21/10, let alone 24/13 or better for a season.
If Yao can average ~23 and ~12 next season, he will be regarded as a top 10 player. But whether he can be a top 5, and as a MVP candidate will entirely depends on how the Rockets doing. Have you ever seen a MVP candidate in a non-playoff team? Just look at E. Brand.
The sample is not big enough to make an argument. One can argue that any players could have a hot streak during the season. Let's see if Yao could keep it up till the end of the season. I am willing to believe Yao is already close to his breakthrough. His stats is almost same as Amare's in his second year. Amare took off the next year, I believe Yao could do the same. One year late (Amare doesn't play this season), but it is finally happening. It will be very interesting to see how these guys will do in the next season. JVG and CD, now it is your responsibility to find some healthy guns!
Amare regularly played in games that both teams combined for 230 points and 90 rebounds. There are simply more points to score and rebounds to grab in the Suns games because of the style they play. It would be quite an achievement for Yao to average Amare's numbers when he regularly plays in games that both teams total less than 200 points and 70 rebounds. I always joke with my friends that the Suns fans would have free BigMacs every time they attend their home games if their team has the same promotion. That's the reason why I always think conclusions drawn from comparing two players based solely on statistics are flaw.
when yao start to average 30 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks per game, i will be happy. and i think it's a pretty fair and realistic expectation of him. afterall, he's 7"6!!!
I'm assuming you are being sarcastic, please tell me you're being sarcastic. I believe Yao is doing something like 25ppg 13rpg since ASG, if he could do this all next season, he would no doubt be the MVP (assuming the Rockets are good). Those are KG-like numbers when he won MVP. For a guy who was just doing 18ppg 8rpg 2 years before, those are ridiculous numbers.
I share everyones support and excitement for Yao's recent surge but are we not overshooting when we are talking about League MVP only after 8 games? Could we not wait until after a FULL season? Or at the very least until we beat a contending teams and not lotto teams? I don't know. I just don't want people to get bitter and mad if he doesn't live up to OTHER people's extremely high expectations of him.
Yeah, and the biggest troll is the one who has the guts to put "role player" as an option! Which ahole did it?
I voted 1st team All-NBA. You don't have to be a Rox fan or a YOF to see that Yao is the best center in the NBA right now. If he powers us to the playoffs with games like last night's, he should be in the MVP conversation at the end of the year, but you guys are deluded if you think he will get it- Nash has that **** locked up already, and deservedly so.
Who gives a f*ck which one wins the MVP. As long as one of them gets it and Houston gets the title, it's all good. I guarantee you T-Mac would get the MVP award first, but definitely Yao would get it the second season around if Houston played the same way. You're all forgetting that T-Mac holds the reigns to this team, not Yao, not yet. You can argue against me all you want, but T-Mac holds the reigns of this team. It's him they go to in the clutch. It's him who they trust with the big shots. IMO he does a great job of decision making. He knows when to take his shot or get it to a team mate, and he trusts his team mates.
If he keeps his play up, they'd have to give him All NBA First-Team because he'd clearly be the best center in the league. Although, I still wouldn't say he'd be one of the top 5 players in the NBA. I love Yao, don't get me wrong, but he still hasn't displayed the ability to be a superstar who can take over the game in the crucial minutes. I mean the ability to just take over in the end because of their dominant superstar ability. Yao still hasn't shown us he can really dominate the final minutes on a consistent basis. T-Mac when he's at his best (like in the playoffs last year), Kobe, KG, LeBron, and Iverson all have the ability to do this. Maybe by the end of next season he'll be one of those dominant superstars; he just hasn't done it for long enough yet and at the right moments (final minutes) for a long enough amount of time yet. I definitely think he will, though, at some point sooner rather than later. He will average a double double next year, and man it'd be so sick if it's around the 24/13 range.
Well, Tmac played a good half, just like his old self. But in that half Yao played even better. So I'm not sure if Tmac is still the man anymore. It appears Yao has taken over and Tmac is quite happy to see Yao dominate. At this pace, it's Yao who will have a better chance to win a MVP.
According to your criteria, Shaq was never a top 5 player in the league simply because he was never able to dominate the game in the closing minutes because he was a liability at the FT line.
