Which player is most likely to have a breakout season in 2004-05? Al Harrington, Atlanta 36.8% Yao Ming, Houston 10.5% Dwyane Wade 10.5% Which international player is most likely to have a breakout season in 2004-05? Mehmet Okur, Detroit 14.3% Mickael Pietrus, Golden State 14.3% Primoz Brezec, Charlotte 9.5% Pau Gasol, Memphis 9.5% Nene, Denver 9.5% Andres Nocioni, Chicago 9.5% Manu Ginobili, San Antonio 7.1% Yao Ming, Houston 7.1% Okay...so Yao Ming gets 10% votes in the ALL PLAYERS pool, yet only 7% in the International Pool? Do you know what this means? ... Those GM's don't consider International players, other than Yao, real players ! ! ! ! Please think about this a bit before you post replies, I know the logic can be a bit confusing.
I think 'breakout' is referring to a huge jump in stats...there is no way Yao is going to have one of those. Yao's the kind of player that'll steadily improve, he should be 20/10 this year, but a breakout season for him would have to be something like 25/12, and that's not happening. I wish it would, but realistically, nope.
If I were to give the GMs as much credit as possible and think of some way to rationalize it, it'd go like this. In the first question, they're thinking of big breakouts, like the one Harrington is now poised to have. Some just silly humongous breakout. They think Yao is more likely to have one of those than the other internationals, but overall not very likely. But, when they think of international player breakouts, their thinking of a much more modest improvement -- something that wouldn't even qualify as a whole-league sort of breakout. And, in that mode of thought, they think a lot of guys are more likely to have that modest increase than Yao. In other words, they think Yao likely will not improve as much as other internationals, but, if one of them is really going to blow-up, it'd be Yao. Or, they might be stupid.
I remember once not long before he left, that one of the NBA.com GM polls had Rudy T as the top strategist among coaches... I don't know about these polls... as much as I love Rudy and all...
