Injury prone Soft. mentaly. physicaly. To slow. Turnover prone. Kills us against smaller teams. Chokes in pressure situations Bad leader.
Yep, because 2 games when he was virtually by himself (and injured) in the playoffs erases an entire career's worth of clutch moments - including one of the greatest 4th quarters of all time.
I know this wasn't directed at me, but... Yao is highly TO prone, questionable passer, very limited in terms of who he can defend and how far he can stretch the defense, hasn't played more than 57 games since 2004-2005, led the Rockets to a 15-36 record the last 3 seasons without T-Mac, etc... And I love Yao, but just because his body limits his ability doesn't mean that he should be put on a pedistal and given a pass for his shortcomings over a guy like T-Mac who hasn't made all of his abilities but still is considered the better of the two players by many people and has been "the man" of a team that has won 50+ games 3 of the last 4 years.
And how much of that is regular season? It's playoff performances that will define his career and I'm not talking about glitzy stats, either. I'm talking about imposing his will on the outcome of a playoff series; to absolutely refuse to lose. Now, some of the Tracy criticism is unfair but he's done absolutely nothing to answer his skeptics. There is no grand conspiracy to label Tracey soft. The reputation he has is partially deserved. It's also partially undeserved. How far the Rockets advance next Summer will hopefully settle the matter one way or the other.
All Tracy has to do it win one ring and all that talk about him will go away just like it did for Payton Manning.
Except it's a little too late for him to get the credit, now that we've got Artest. A McGrady championship ring will have about as much credibility as the one Karl Malone and Gary Payton tried to get gravy-training the Lakers, maybe less.
It will have as much credibility as KG's ring. KG was also 0-7 in the playoffs at one point until he got Cassell/Sprewell who helped him get to the WCF, and then last year (after 3 straight seasons of being on a lottery team) he piggy-backed Pierce in the Finals to finally get his ring. And you are a moron if you think it has as much credibility as Malon/Payton with the Lakers because T-Mac will still be one of our top 2 performers, likely be our top playoff performer, and will once again be near or at the top of regular season MVP candidates. Malone and Payton were old by 2004 and by and large were simply role players.
I love your choke job comparisons. You listed 4 of them and in my mind only the Orlando one against the Pistons was his fault. If we look at the great one against the Mavs I believe Yao did exactly nothing to step up his game and win the playoffs there too. And against the Jazz you can say all you like about Mcgrady but Yao choked just as good. I just don't get why Yao gets the pedestal treatment time and time again and McGrady doesn't. Actually I don't even want the pedestal treatment, I just want us fans to treat our two stars EQUALLY. They both have sucked in the play offs and as a result both of them are first round losers as Rockets. Both of our stars have proven to be first class choke jobs in the playoffs. Period.
Tracy Mcgrady credibility: 0 Yao Ming credibility: 0 Crap man I'm spinning out, should we trade both of them?
Believe me, if Yao had done this seven times, I'd be on his case too. At some point the "bad team" excuse just doesn't cut it.
They brought Artest to town because the ROCKETS haven't made it out of the first round in over a decade. That includes Yao, McGrady, Battier, Scola, Alston, etc... Artest isn't a savior...he has proven nothing as a #1 option, and his post season play for his career has been pitiful (offensively anyway). We brought him to give a team that was a fringe title contender to a full-blown title contender. He will compliment Yao and McGrady, but he won't be our leader or guy to carry the team. That burden is still on our All-Star duo. And same things can be said about other star players. Kobe hadn't been out of the first round in 4 years before the Lakers got Gasol. KG hadn't even made the playoffs in 3 years before he was paired with Pierce/Allen. No matter how good you are, you need help to do damage in the playoffs, especially in the Western Conference where a team like the Jazz would probably be the 2nd best team in the East.
yao hasn't even dominated ONE playoff series yet. hell, he hasn't been the best player in any playoff series he has participated in.
Oh come on, let's not go overboard here... The West is tough, but there's no way the Jazz would be second, or even third best in the East.
they brought in artest for several reasons: 1) our stars are ALWAYS injured so the addition of artest will allow the team to be stabilize during tmac's or yao's absence -> fielding at least 2 stars even if one is injured. 2) if yao is injured again and miss the playoffs, like i said, we still have 2 stars with a deeper frontline 3) they need a tougher defensive presence (battier is just not it--he has struggled v. the jazz defensively in both series). 4) they need another playmaker on the perimeter, and even another post presence in the post. basically, he provides additional individual offense.
I can possibly see you saying the Pistons are better (although I'd strongly disagree), but there is no way the Cavs, Sixers, Raptors, Wizards or whoever else are a better team than the Jazz.
um, they would be the 2nd best team in the east after boston (3rd at worst). they are better than orlando, toronto, cavs, sixers... trust me on that. i remember they whup the celtics on the road in boston fairly convincingly and they aren't even that great of a road team.
We're getting off topic, but Celtics and Pistons are head and shoulders better. I'd put them just behind the Magic and Cavs. Lebron could teach Tracy a few things about "imposing his will."
Lebron doesn't have to share the ball. The only thing I'm hoping from McGrady and Yao is to make an Artest transformation similar to the Celtics. I expect everyone's key numbers to drop but with our winning margins to increase. I think Utah could give any of the East's teams a run for their money. If your saying choke job there is no bigger choke job then the Pistons year after year.
