one thing yao is better than stoudamire in...

Just stating the obvious facts. If the truth about Yao hurts your feelings then to damn bad. I don't care that everyone in here has a love affair with Yao, that is so strong that they are blinded his faults. I'm a fan of the Rockets and if they have one player whose sole purpose is to sell tickets and merchandise then i'm gonna get upset. Stop trying to pass Yao off as an elite player in the league because it's only that more embarrassing when he falls flat on his face like he did in the playoffs.

 

Not sure where you got this from, the conventional wisdom, which I agree with, is that Duncan is excellent 1 on 1. He has a tougher time with bigger centers like Shaq & Yao, of course, but he absolutely stones opposing power forwards inside. (even though Amare had a huge series)

 

You could say the same about your "love affair" with Amare as well...
Don't forget your boy Amare has a 33% field goal percentage against Yao
I don't think Yao fell "flat on his face" during the playoffs--maybe it has something to do with the role players scoring a total of 16 pts, when Yao and T-Mac combine for sixty in Game 7.

It doesn't matter anyway, Amare's about to go fishing too...

 

Guys, stop bringing up that the suns lost to the spurs as if that's indicative of mediocrity. They're the freakin spurs!!! When the postseason was approaching, no one on this board wanted to be in 7th. Why? The spurs. I would've rather faced anyone but the spurs.

Besides, as I recall, we lost to the lowly mavericks. Who on there can defend Yao? What big man on that team is nba first defensive team? Yet yao lost with tmac at his side because he didn't fulfill his role in every game like tmac. Let's not make excuses people. Next year, yao can be something special. He'll bring the same amount of energy in the 4th that he brings in the first half. But this year there is no comparison.

 

If Amare is better than Yao in every category, how come Yao is still #1 effeciency rating in playoffs while getting double teammed a lot more?

Amare's defense is much worse than Yao's. He can block a few shots, but nothing else on D.


All Yao need is more stamina and more touches.

 

I have no "Love affair" with amare or any other player in the league. I'm just stating the obvious, that Amare is better than Yao. Amare, Duncan, KG ,Dirk, Shaq, Kobe, T-Mac, etc... are all better players than Yao and I have no " Love affair with either player.


But like you said aside from Duncan and Shaq everyone else is out fishing or on the tee box, so it doesn't matter.

 

At this point in time Amare has proven he's the better player down in the post but Yao is light years ahead of Amare in speaking Chinese...

 

I just find it funny that you disappear for months on end when the Rockets are doing well, and just appear out of nowhere to make a post about Yao.

Amed thought process: "Okay, the Rox are in the playoffs and they are in a great exciting series against the Mavs. Should I write something positive about the team? Naw that's okay. I'll wait another month and then I can talk about how much Yao sucks."

 

You know, Yao did score three 30+ point games against the Mavericks and I honestly think he learned more from this playoffs than Amare did. A playoff series is all about dealing with adjustments and the Rockets and Yao showed that they could adjust to different offensive and defensive schemes shown by the Mavericks. In Amare's case, the Spurs never changed their game plan against him. They rarely double-teamed nor did they provide much help defense (this isn't just my opinion but that of the most analysts of the series). But really, why did the Spurs have to change their gameplan, when they would have swept this series if not for an incredible Amare block.

Amare is better for a Suns team that runs and guns. Yao is better for a Rockets team that likes to go inside-out. As Rockets fans, we should be happy that the inside-out method just trounced the run&gun method.

The Spurs had a harder time against a depleted Seattle team than they did against the Suns. Also, many here felt the Rockets would have matched up better against the Spurs than the Mavericks.

 

I agree that Amare is better than Yao this year. We can argue all we want, and find reasonable explanation or spins or excuses to support our claims. However, I guess neither Yao or Amare will read this, so they don't need my excuses. I still remember one thing, as good as Amare is this year, he never faired well against Yao. You can say he's playing out of position, but it's a team game, the team needs you to play where it fits. While the Spurs made shutting down Marion and Nash a much higher priority, Amare rarely see double team in the series or regular season. If some of you think that Suns are at contender level, and the same people believe that the Rockets can fill in some holes in the lineup and Yao can improve, so that we can be at similar level as the Suns. I really look forward to that day, when Yao and Amare face each other in a 7-game series, I would put my money on Yao, just because of the short history. As much as Amare improved this year, he never did well against Yao. Of course, you could argue that Deke and Howard slowed down Amare, Yao did nothing.

Give credit to Amare, he played great this year and especially the last series. But since Yao is on our team, and I was born in China, I still like Yao, and stay with him. I want to see him and the Rockets prosper in the near future, and I firmly believe so. I wouldn't claim if I could re-draft now, who or who I would rather have. Loyalty doesn't mean much nowadays, but I still try.

I would suggest people to hold on those comments about "best ever". We already had too many "next coming Jordan", and we heard everytime that this time was for real. Well, we all know the result. Does anyone know that stupid analyst who predicted Commerce One a $1000 stock? I don't think he works in Wall Street anymore. My suggestion, don't make bold claim unless you can back it up.

 

Yao got us T-Mac... Amare got them Nash.

They may be ahead now, but in 10 years time, I'm likeing our side of the deal much better.

Plus, stats don't mean anything... winning means everything. If Amare wins a title but only averages 20 points a game to Yao's 40, Amare gets all the love he deserves.

I think Amare is a great individual talent... but I think you can build a better TEAM around Yao's game, his passing, and his ability to space the floor with his shooting ability.

 

"I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"

Seriously, Yao didn't LOSE jack squat. The team collectively lost game 7. What more can you want from a duo that scores 60 points? Fulfill his role...what are we on...a time limit? It's just his 2nd time in the playoffs. He avg'd 21/8 and 3 blocks on 66% FG shooting against the Mavs.

Why is it hard for people to get it through their thick head that no team will win anything if 2 players score 60 points total while the rest of the team scores 16.

 

I just think people here have seen enough basketball to not get wrapped up in the flavor of the month... especially when he just lost his series (and convincingly... honestly, the Spurs defense was daring Amare to beat them, but not allowing Marion, Nash, or anybody else).

Also, I personally know that there was once a time where Dominique Wilkins was considered the best small forward in the game, and people were saying that he'd eventually supplant Bird and revolutionize the position... we all saw how that turned out (and Wilkins was putting up numbers even crazier than Amare's).

 

Well said. Amare is a great player, but to place him in the same category as Duncan, KG, and and especially Dream is just premature.

 

What has Garnett done in his career to say Amare shouldn't be mentioned as a comparison. Gotten out of the first round of the playoffs once. LOL I love Garnett's game but I would take Amare now. Garnett's problem isn't his teamates before you come with that. His problem is he is a tweener that doesn't have the strength to match up with stronger big men. Amare has him beat every which way in athleticism and he is only going to get better.

 

I rarely saw Amare create his own shots. I NEVER saw him do it while being double teamed. I did see him dribble into a double team for a fierce dunk though.

 

Nowhere in my recent posts have I said that Yao sucks, that he is worthless, that Mutumbo outplayed him in the playoffs until now.
When someone is trying to say that Yao is better than a guy putting up 41 and 16 against the best defensive team in the NBA and averaged 35+pts in a Western Conference Playoff series, thats when I get pissed off and have to set these people straight. Just cause this guy plays on your favorite team doesn't make him the best player in the Nba. How would people react if I started saying the Padgett was a better player than Marion? Would the people arguing against that be called Rocket haters, or Padgett haters?

 

I understand why people see it differently, but I do not think Yao was reliable in the late game. I suspect his energy just dropped off, as he's looked tired in late-game throughout the season. In almost every game in the series Yao wasn't a go to guy in the 4th. If he played in the fourth the way he played 1-3, then this series wouldn't have even gone to game seven. And lets face it, we lost a lot of those games in the fourth quarter. We really needed him.

I'm not questioning his talent. You can't teach talent. He's got the talent of a superstar. I'm questioning his endurance. Stamina he can work on. When he gets to the point where he plays 36mpg comfortably instead of 30mpg and sagging late, then we're on our road to the finals.

 

The Spurs geared their defense to prevent Steve Nash from creating plays for his teammates. If Amare rarely created his own shot, than who created his shots for him? Because it wasn't Nash. A player does not average 37 points a game without being able to create his own shot.