Let give Yao some credit... He played in the Olympics with a bad foot and even played every game this season so far and hasnt let the fans down. The guy is doing his part.
Who did they play in those games? The Rockets are 7 wins and 4 losses without Tmac this season. They are 1-0 since both tmac and Ron been ruled out for 2 weeks. What's your point? Does it mean Duncan is a scrub because the Bucks beat them without Manu and Parker or the Heat beat them when Parker left the game?
Yao is not a consistent NBA player by any meaning, depending on the match up, he could be great or bad at some nights, but the Boston game suggested Yao could be a leader, the team has to build around him, he will never sit down as the suggest by his hater.
What? Now there's going to be Yao hate? Is there any reason at all to doubt that he's been giving his all? We're missing 3 of our core rotation guys: McGrady, Artest, Battier*. That's nearly our entire swingman rotation, and at least 40 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists gone. Not to mention our only two stoppers. Secondly, just like we need to come to terms with McGrady's dedication and drive, we need to come to terms with Yao's ceiling. He's not going down as one of the top 5 centers of all time. He may not go down as one of the top 10, either. After all of his leg injuries, he has mobility issues that aren't likely to go away - and he wasn't an uberathlete to begin with. He's a good workhorse, but he does not dominate opponents at will. I for one do NOT want to see Yao overextend himself trying to average 30 a game. As it is, we routinely see him out of gas in the 4th. Instead, I fully believe our focus should be TEAM. Run high post P&Rs between Scola and Brooks. Work Landry on dives from the weakside. Employ the motion offense a little. We went on a 22-game win streak last year NOT because McGrady went bonkers for a long stretch and doubled his offensive burden. He actually was fairly pedestrian (scoring). The TEAM rose up - Rafer scored with efficiency (shot over 42% in 16 of the games), Scola and Landry emerged as double-figure scoring threats, etc. Besides...time for Yao to sit down? Are you high? Or are you secretly Dorsey? Evan * at least, he's nowhere near 100% and missed 7 of our last 8.
It’s got to be a collective effort like last year. Alston has to make shots … Brooks has to make shots … Wafer has to make shots … Scola has to make shots … Battier has to be aggressive and so on. Otherwise defenses will collapse on him. All I want Yao to do is continue to play within the offense but be aggressive against one-on-one coverage and weak double-teams, concentrate on limiting his turnovers and step up in rebounding. Some of those games are with playoff teams and it will not be easy but if they do it together they can repeat more wins like Boston’s.
A lot of his inconsistency this season is because of the brutal early schedule. They played in something like 13 back to backs already. Tons of players have taken games off because of injuries caused by this schedule like Mcgrady, Ron, Barry, Battier, etc. Yao played through this brutal strech of games so he played dead tired in many. I've noticed we played 5 more games than the Hornetts and it's not even the all star break yet.
This is EXACTLY the time that Yao proves to be a franchise player or just a supporting player. Step it up Yao, this is YOUR TIME !!! DD
I didn't know I was dealing with some people that can't understand analogies. Stand up, means yao becomes more demanding and elevates and inspires himself and teammates. Sit down means he just does his routine and the team continues to be avg. BTW, some scrub says the truth hurts. Hurt about what? I make mid 6 figures, debt free, at home with a beautiful family and haven't had to punch a clock in 4 yrs. My life is great and its not about that. We can have civil conversations about the rox without people getting their panties twisted. IBM and disagree on things as well as durvasa, but we stay civil and stay manly about things. What's so hard about that? That's what this forum used to be about.
the biggest problem with your post is what "Step up" means? please tell me what yao should do in following cases. 1) yao gets the ball and he is surrounded by 2 or 3 defenders. should he force the issue or just kick out to open man? 2) if he forces the issue and refs call offense foul on him, should he continue to force the issue to get fouled out in first 5 mins of games? 3) if teams decide to deny the ball to him by throwing in 2 defenders on him, one front and one back, before he even gets the ball, should he kick defenders butt out of his way or ignore TOs and ask rox players to throw the ball to him? 4) if you believe bball is team work, when should yao stop kicking out the ball if rox players miss 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or whatever you think is right #? 5) everyone knows yao gets tired easily. should yao not play until 2nd half so he can have energy to score 20+ pts in 2nd half? of course, it won't mean a win but at least you can see yao enforce his will down the stretch. 6) ...
I actually dont have a problem with this thread. The last 2 years, TMAC stepped up big time with Yao out, our records w/o Yao were <b>terrific </b>. Is it not fair that Yao be asked to step up w/o Tracy, considering they're both considered leaders of this team, and both make the max? I wouldnt go as far as to say step up or sit down, but I'd like to see him raise his game play in the coming homestand. Yao's inconsistencies recently have gotten overlooked with the TMAC distractions.
The difference is that Yao can not create for himself, and when the support players around Yao suck, he is really easy to guard. However, this year.....Yao has enough talent around him.....to compete without Tmac....and Artest. Brooks and Wafer are HUGE additions to a Yao centric team. I expect the team to compete hard, and to win some games with Yao as the center piece. It is HIS time. DD
Without Tmac and Artest plus Shane is still kind of injured, this team is not as talented as you think. They can compete though.
lee, You know how I feel about Yao based on what I wrote in your Shaq thread. I think he is full of major flaws, most of which are related to the fundamentals of his position, so I wasn't defending him with my previous post. I just feel that now more than ever, it is hard for big men to dominate in this league. The rule changes have made it a perimeter-oriented league. The best big men in the league aren't as important to their teams as the best perimeter players. For that reason, I think it is unreasonable to expect Yao or Duncan or Howard, etc... to lead their teams to above .500 records over extended time without their best perimeter players in the lineup. That Miami team had a better supporting cast and was playing in the East. Those may have been bigger factors than Shaq. Or maybe Shaq really put it into overdrive and dominated in ways Yao can't. I didn't watch enough of those games to know. Do the stats support that the .600 record was due to Shaq? And wasn't there still handchecking on the perimeter that year, lessening the impact of perimeter players? As far as Duncan without TP and MG, didn't they have a sub-.500 record during that time? And yes, I don't think we have an exceptional supporting cast like some think. Outside of our Big 3, I'd say we have an average supporting cast, especially considering our lack of frontcourt length and the fact that Rafer Alston and Shane Battier are very poor offensive players. The secondary depth is pretty good though.
in this era's NBA, a center (Howard, Yao, Oden, whoever) can not dominate the game. Thanks to Mr. all mighty O'neal, NBA changed the rule.
