Looking back at last year's pre-Yao Rockets, Have fun

hey eddiewassnubbed when wil we win our first championship, and will you go with me to a horserace

 

Yes, EddieWasSnubbed does seem to have the ability to see the future, but did he know that I would beat him not once, but twice at small ball? I think not!

 

I'm more than happy to admit I was wrong to want to trade the pick. But common, VERY few people thought he'd be this good. He's not doing what the pro-Ming posters predicted, he's doing much much more. Did you think he'd bust out Dream's moves? Force he Celtics to shoot a record number of 3's? Make Barkley kiss an ass? Open that can of freshly sealed "Ass-Whoop!" on Shawn Bradley?

For the unknown entity that was Yao Ming, Jamaal Magloire and PJ Brown sounded pretty damn good, don't you think? We wouldn't be as good, but we'd still be damn good.

Of course, we came out winners, and being locks for the playoffs makes this crow much tastier than it actually is.

 

I admit it. I was in favor of trading the pick ... if we could get an all-star caliber player for the #1 pick in the draft.

Good thing my sights were high. We got an all star with that #1 pick, even without trading it!

You go, Yao.

 

But Yao will more than likely end up with better numbers. So EddieWasSnubbed was only partially right (at least he got the numbers right up to this point of the season). Oh btw, Yao Ming is not a raw talent.

 

Yao should have 16 ppg, 10 rpg at the end of this season.

 

Not counting the few games before Yao's 9-9, 20pt breakout game against the Lakers in November I think his averages come out to around 15 and 10. That is a better indication of where he is today.

Chris

 

I'd like to chime in here. Before seeing the 4/11 video, and before we even knew our lottery spot and Chicago had the most balls, TheFreak, Achebe and I were calling for a Francis for Yao and Jamal Crawford trade, anything to get to the #1 spot.

Guess who we wanted the moment Francis won the lottery?

 

Yep,

HP is right, a lot of us wanted Yao....WOOOT !!!!!

DD

 

Interestingly this is the Yao Ming I know today. The one that steps up in big games. This is an invaluable quality of Yao - it is what you need your potential best player to have. Yao has been huge in every big game he has played this season except his first (check it out for ya-self). This is why I have a good feeling about what he will do Wednesday and Friday against The Suns and Lakers respectively. No doubt about it - Yao will play big in these upcoming games. I just hope Steve and Cutino play complementary well enough (and smart enough) to let Yao shine like a million stars.

 

Good to see windandsea's first post. Maybe we should set 5-20-2002 as the official beginning of the Yao era on CC.net.

 

Thanks for putting this together. It's great.

 

thanks jamalccc. you can see i'm kind of new here but your post really gave me a good review. enjoy reading every piece of it.

 

You know, given that both Doc Rocket and Popeye were saying the same thing... and that some people did tend to think TroyBaros (although terribly annoying) did actually know Steve Francis... and Steve was pretty hesitant about Yao. He did hype Dunleavy in public, and laughed at the idea of feeding the post to one ESPN columnist.

...is it possible that we only have Yao because nobody else would pay our price? It would be kind of weird if we only have Yao because the rest of the league was even more timid than us...

Sane: The question was never "is Yao worth PJ and Magloire," but "how much can you get for a #1? I have trouble believing PJ and Magloire could ever be traded for a top 7 pick, much less the #1.

 

I think the red tape issues surrounding Yao scared GMs more than anything. Unlike the fans (I have to confess I had serious doubt too), players and the media people who either hadn't seen much of Yao or didn't understand basketball talent much, the real scouts generally gave Yao high marks.

So the GMs knew Yao was good (maybe not that good that fast). But only those who are gutsy enough would try their hands on all the hassles in cutting the Chinese red tapes. We should give prop to CD for sticking to the gun.