No, because Wafer was not part of the equation as a starter, nor much of a reserve either. With Rafer starting, and without Tmac, they have barely lost to Atlanta, beaten Boston, and crushed New York. Tonight will be a real test...but I honestly expect the Rockets to win. DD
Agreed the Spurs won games with Manu and TP out but go back and look at who they played. They were beating some pretty bad teams in close games. Not saying a win isnt a win, but its not the same as facing the Lakers, Jazz and Nuggets. I will be happy with a 2-2 record the next four games.
now tmac quits. some people just get ready to bring Yao down. wow, that's awesome. lol. Yao, please do your thing. let the haters die. get behind the team.
kyakko- You're building an excuse for yao and this team. Also you're making it seem like the only way to help win a ballgame is to score. Adelman just like any coach want his players to take advantage when they have a advantage. When the game is tight and a team singles yao, I want him to be aggressive. If the game is tight and they double with fisher, he needs to take advantage. BTW, how did utah play without boozer and okur and milsap? How has denver fared without carmello? Sa without tp and manu? I think yao wants to be the man, I never thought tracy ever wanted to be the man. He signed in orlando to play with hill. He wanted to play with a good big man, that's why he forced a trade to houston. When goes down, he steps up big time.
Given a set of decent NBA players the playing time that McGrady, Artest, and Battier have had and you'll get your 40/12/8. What counts is offensive efficiency. Artest and McGrady have been horribly inefficient this year. They force up too many bad shots. Heck, if they only shot league average, they'd give you 45 to 50.
It ain't my pipedream. He is what he is, but twice a year we get threads devoted to telling everyone how "now" is Yao's time to become somehow different or better. It's funny.
Lots of that has to do with perceptions, depends on how you define "step up". I think most likely, Yao's stat line will improve, maybe a lot more. But, is the stat line we are looking for, or the wins? If we go for the extreme cases, when he's 13-8 (I don't think he will be, with the offensive focus on him), no matter how hard one tries to spin and find excuses for him. He's definitely not stepping up. Without TMac and Ron, I don't think there is any chance we can win games with Yao's 13-8. On the other hand, if Yao goes something like 30-15 (I don't think he can do that either, with the defense collapsing on him), even if we lost every single game in the next 2 weeks, you can't argue that he doesn't step up. It's more likely in the middle, he will be between 20-10 to 26-8. I guess it comes down to the wins, I don't think we'll be playing .750 ball, given the schedule. But, if we do .500, some fans might say that he makes his teammates better or he as a leader leads the team to fight etc etc. By the same token, some fans might say that w/o Yao, TMac did such and such in last year, he made his teammates better, and Yao is no leader playing .500 or sub-500 ball, without TMac and Ron. We are back to Square One - everyone has his/her own perception whether Yao is a franchise player/leader etc. If he dunks more during that period, he's perhaps going to get a pass by saying he's more aggressive and stepping up with that 25-8. However, if he gets those 25-8 within the flow of offense, and by soft layups (at the same time, gets blocked by a few scrubs here and there), he would still be called tofu or charmin or whatever names, given the same 500 ball. Unless something dramatic happens in the coming 2 weeks, nothing is going to change on this board. Let's expand the hypothetical game a little bit further. if Yao puts nice numbers like 26-10, but we lost all the games against playoff teams. Some posters will say that he steps up, but team without half payroll sucks. But those posters will be accused of only caring for Yao's stats, no true Rockets fans etc. I am pretty sure some other posters will go on with those "great players/leaders put their teams on their backs etc etc, therefore Yao is a loser", and they will probably be labeled as haters. The same circle goes on and on. Unless Yao becomes Dream or Shaq in their primes, or he turns into Curry or Kwame in their absolutely lows, nothing will change here. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the 2 weeks, coz nothing is gonna really change. I just want the team to be healthy and have fun out there, and win games.
18 or so wins seems about right. Tofu and Testy would give us about 22 wins. If TSlack plays, wipe about about 5 wins.
Very well put. Yao is more important to a premier perimeter player then a premier perimeter player would be to him. For example, say we somehow got Wade. I think Wade benefits more from having Yao down low then Yao benefits from having Wade outside. Not saying Wade isnt a better overall player, I just think because of the rules and the ability to double a big man so much easier now then back in the days of Hakeem, Yao is much easier to contain. Could you imagine the way that Wade would be able to drive all over the place if the opposing center was fearful of leaving Yao or the opposing PF was caught doubling down on him. Not the same impact as if Yao had the ball and Wade's man couldnt double down. There would still be three other defenders available to double down on Yao. If anything, good three point shooters are more important. Yao kicking it back out usually leads to an open shot or at least swinging the ball to get an open shot. As a result, if the three ball is falling we look great, when its not it gets ugly fast. That being said, I will agree with leebigeez and say Yao needs to get more aggressive. Anytime he has a reasonable shot, he has to take it. Not wait for the double and not back in slowly and lose the ball. Catch the ball and if he is within 6-8 feet, get a shot off. No reason he shouldnt take close to 20 shots a game for the next couple of weeks.
since everyone mentioned how tmac took the games when yao went down, i am going to list a few things that should be considered. 1) w/ or w/o tmac, rox always plays a half court offense. it doesn't matter. w/o yao, rox plays more or less run & gun style, a totally different style. it is huge difference. small players are more suitful to this type of plays so their production was improved as expected during the time of yao absence. that helps to make up what yao provided. 2) on defense end, they didn't miss any due to deke who stepped in and made the statement as he usually did. 3) when came to the playoff time, the half court offense dominates due to defense. it really expose the problem rox had w/o yao. no matter how tmac took over as a few of you claimed, tmac couldn't do anything but see rox exit earlier.
phil jackson is like all old schools. i doubt he will send a double team right at the start. but you're right, if it's a bynum/gasol double team, then scolandry should each score 20pts. and yao needs to be aggressive and force calls if it's anything else.
I don't care what his numbers are, just don't allow this team to lose ground. That's what "franchise" players do. They don't allow excuses. Its not how many u score, it when u score. You can watch a game a see a player put up good numbers, but when the game was on the line, he was a no show. Franchise type players know when to assert and when to flow. When the team need a basket, yao shouldn't trust a 24 ft shot from rafer unless he has no choice. I would rather yao force the play from 8ft vs a long shot from rafer.
You know who lead the team when yao was out at the end of reg season and playoffs? Well lets hope yao can do the for at least two weeks.
i assume you were refering to mcgrady. did he really "lead" the team after yao went down last year and in the playoffs? my answer is, not exactly.
So, you are saying it all depends on the wins, or just fourth quarter performance? Without a clear definition, unless he goes absolute nuts or disappears completely, we won't have any conclusion after the 2 weeks. To me, neither will happen. He will "step up" - more aggressive, taking more responsibilities, stat will improve, but win 60% of the tough games? No, I don't think so.
Yao#1- I disagree. If that were true and we're talking regular season, this team wouldn't win 65% of the games without him. If Yao was a shaq type of big, I would agree, but he's not. Wing players like playing with bigs, but I don't think they like playing with guys that has to be spoon fed and eat up the shot clock.
then they just have to adjust. that's what jvg did, wasn't it? and i don't think many like to play with a wussy, hold-on-to-the-ball and clank-a-heat-check-3-five-times-a-game superstar, either.
It seems Yao is already carrying his part of the load this season, with all the injuries. It's really time for the others to step up, particularly permeter players who are going to get Tmac and Artest's minutes and touches.
