I'm putting in consideration of how much he would improve by looking at his jump from 02-03 to 03-04 stats and the affect of Tracy McGrady in the game. YEAR 02-03: PPG-13.5, RPG-8.20, APG-1.7, FG%-.498, FT%-.811 03-04: PPG-17.5, RPG-9.0, APG-1.5, FG%-.522, FT%-.809 Next Season 04-05: PPG-19.8, RPG-10.0, APG-2.0, FG%-.545, FT%-.822
How many minutes does he average? If we don't get a back up center he'll average more minutes and his stats will go up. But more likely to get injured since he'lll be tired and push himslef out there.
30.9 min for the first two season and 37.0 min for the playofff. I'm assuming we will get a back-up center since Yao need some rest b/c of his stamina problem.
Just to be different, I'm going to guess 18.5 ppg, 11 rpg, and 2.5 bpg. Adding Mcgrady and Howard are going to limit the amount of points he's going to score, and losing Cato and Steve are going to increase the number of rebounds and blocks he gets.
C'mon, where's the optimism... that's rounding down. I think Yao will gain a couple ppg from a natural progression + a couple ppg just catching and shooting off the Pick and Roll with TMac. No one can argue Yao received the ball muh less than he should have off of the PNR the last 2 seasons.
To me TMac is our first option......more like 1a because at this point I don't know if Yao is totally ready to be the undisputed numero uno. I expect Tmac to contribute at least 25ppg, 5.7rpg and 5apg. Yao's stat will look more like 20ppg, 10.5rpg, 2.7apg and 2.5bpg. (you can take that to your nearest bank). Finally............drum roll Our X-Factor the the Boki-man himself. He will shine this year like no other. He will slash, slam, slide and sink jumpers like no-mans-business. He will excite the Toyota center crowd. He will have the biggest following among rox players. He will be our starting 3 in the 2004/2005 playoff. He will finish the season with a stat line that mirrors 8.7ppg, 1.7apg, 4rpg and 0.7bpg. Go Boki!!!
....And if we add all the points together we get 101.4 PPG! Wow, we actually gonna have some offense next season compared to the previous years. Is this too much pts or just about right? Starter: Yao-19.8 Tracy-24.7 Howard-12.2 JJ-11.5 Lue-8.2 Back-Up: Taylor-8.0 Gaines-3 Spoon-4 center?-4 nachbar-6
20 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks. Averaging 35 mpg. I'm a little pessimistic about Yao ever improving on his rebounding. He just doesn't look like a natural rebounder. One extra bucket per game seems like a reasonable improvement on the offensive end.
I think he will get better naturally, but with TMac by his side he will get even better. 04-05: PPG-24.2, RPG-11, APG-3.3, FG%-.552, FT%-.842
