True or False: Yao has durability issues and we have lost in the playoffs the past two years due to our inability to consistently score in the post once Yao got hurt. If you answered "true" like I did, then how is acquiring another 4/5 scorer (or Yao insurance) not PRIORITY #1 this summer? This is a point I have stressed multiple times yet nobody ever seems to agree with me. I don't get it. Please help me realize the error of my ways then. This isn't meant to be some "I'm right, you're wrong" or anti-Yao thread -- I love the guy, I just think we're being naive in HOPING he stays healthy. I see posts like "we'll just hope Yao stays healthy" and it makes me want to smash my keyboard. The onus is on us to safeguard ourselves from having yet another "Yao gets hurt, we can't score" type meltdown. With the NBA landscape changing and teams dumping players for $0.50 on the $1, the time to make a move is now. I'm not suggesting we just pull some All-Star level player out of a hat. That's not a requirement. Nor is it a requirement that this player is technically even a center. The idea is to replace not just Yao's actual point total but to have a post presence that can command doubles and draw focus away from our perimeter players. We don't have this without Yao. Without Yao we're playing right into the opponent's hands with our unbalanced, perimeter heavy offense. For these reasons, you can imagine how relieved/excited I was when the Amare rumors started surfacing. Amare is exactly what we need and probably the best case scenario using this line of thinking. Others like Bosh will get dealt to somebody before February. Boozer is a definite possibility although whichever team he ends up on will have to risk him walking for nothing. Others like David West, Brand, Nene, Bynum, Okafor, Jamison, Zach Randolph, Al Harrington and Josh Smith are all either clearly available or attainable in the right deal. Shaq was another example. Boston might be looking to turn the page on their "Big Three". Bogut is another player I bet could be had in a salary dump. Not necessarily saying I want all those guys but it just goes to demonstrate how frontcourt scorers might be more readily available than you might realize. Another is Jermaine O'Neal. In fact, I am slowly starting to convince myself that a McGrady-for-JO swap (same contracts) might be in our best interest. We keep this 50+ win team that took the Lakers to seven games 100% intact, only we add a wildcard like JO into the mix to come off the bench. If you think about it he could be our version of Lamar Odom. The talented, x-factor type player that comes off the bench and shows up whenever he wants to. The starters and rest of the team are good enough to win without him, however when he does show up that team is nearly unbeatable. And I know there are those that think Scola is good enough to satisfy this role i'm suggesting. He's not and I say this as one of Scola's biggest fans. Scola is a scrappy, energy and consistency type player. It's not fair to ask him to change his role and become a go-to-guy in the event of yet another Yao injury. Furthermore, we saw how ineffective this strategy was -- he killed the Lakers in Game 6 then disappeared in Game 7 whenever they keyed in on him and sent doubles his way. What does everybody think? I'm really curious to see your responses as I strongly feel this is an area of need most posters on the BBS have been neglecting.
If TURE, then you have to trade YAo to get back another Yao-level all star. You can't sign an expensive Yao's insurance. Rockets could not afford this. You have to believe yao can hold on and build around him like what DM and Les did now. Otherwise, rebuild the team. Backup center is not a priority.
Seriously if a player can't stay healthy forget a capable backup, trade the oft injured player for someone else. If we sign Yao to a max deal after this year we are gonna really regret it.
Well, this player would be acquired via trade and the idea would be to keep Yao thereby having these two players coexist. As for backup center not being priority, there may be a few thousand people on here that disagree with you.
I understand your point but, again, this isn't meant to be some "TRADE YAO!!" thread. We're too close to being legitimate to start from scratch and I don't want this thread to head into that direction.
I'd spend $6M to get some good doctors to get Yao healthy rather than getting another center trying to replace NBA's best center. Or trade the $17M center for someone can play.
You are not crazy. I'm in the "it's right there in our face, Yao can not stay healthy throughout an entire season and playoffs" crowd, but they seemingly can not get one of these great post players without trading Yao or giving up the core that we would need to compete if we did acquire such a player. So, what do you do? We are in a really uncomfortable and all-around frustrating position. However, as I've said before and will continue to say, I trust in Morey.
Don't get me wrong, I still think Kieth Jones is the best in business, but after the reemergence of the youthful Shaq I have to wonder what Phoenix puts in their water. I'd be intrigued to acquire a trainer from either Denver of Phoenix...
Denver, I don't think so, they stayed healthy this year and that was PURE LUCK. Every other season Nene or Martin went out with a long term injury. Now I would trade a 1st round pick and cash considerations for Phoenix's medical team in heartbeat if it were possible.
I hate to say it, but it seems like this may indeed turn into a "TRADE YAO!!" thread. You wrote post very admirably with the intention of steering clear of that and I applaud you, but it's like the elephant in the room I suppose. I truly don't want to trade Yao, but I don't want to go through another season where no matter how well we are doing, in the back of my mind I'm thinking that it doesn't really matter because Yao may go down at any moment.
I don't know, their dietitian (yeah, I know, crazy that I'm talking about this) seems to know his stuff. I saw him make custom meals and crap like that. That could be welcomed here because we have a tendency of picking up fat players (SF3, Bonzi, Weatherspoon, even Glen Rice was a tubby).
The priority should be getting better offensively. Is the best way to do that to acquire a 4/5 scorer, or a guard/wing who can create offense for himself and others more easily with the ball in his hands? I don't think the problem was just our inability to score in the post. It was our inability to score overall. It's easier to find perimeter players that are impactful on offense rather than bigs.
we once had the foundation (yao and mcgrady) and lacked quality role players. now it's reversed. we have quality role players and lack the foundation. currently we haven't any franchise players on our roster. yao would count but he played his last playoffs at 100 % in 2005. t-mac would count but he was last healthy in 2007. ron artest doesn't count because he's got no franchise player talent to begin with. that's the brutal truth. i know there are guys like dadakota who are in love with adelman's way and preach that the rockets have to share the offensive load as much as possible. while i think adelman's a good coach i think with his system we're ultimately on our way to become the new sacramento kings. a good team that plays exciting basketball but still lacks an elite player to be able to get some rings. at the end of the day star players win in the playoffs.
I agree with your post, but I hope Daryl Morey doesn't let us devolve into that. One more point though, if it weren't for a couple of calls here and fortunate shots there, the Sacramento Kings would have had a superb chance of getting past the Lakers and winning a championship. But, alas, they didn't.
The thing is that there is no Yao-level all star out there. Put in the same position (being the focal point of the offense) as Yao, few outside of maybe Shaq or maybe a healthy Al Jefferson could put up those numbers. I'd mention Dwight Howard as well but truthfully, his offensive game isn't that good. His numbers are padded because aside from playing in the eastern conference, the guy gets sent to the line nearly twice as much as any other center in the league. Back to the point, scoring centers on Yao's caliber are a rarity. You might get a power forward masking as a center that can do some damage but few that don't ultimately suffer from injuries when they are asked to be the main man for 4+ years. I do agree we should be looking for a good backup center, but its not really a good market for them. The best guys that are available outside of the weak draft class we've seen are David Lee (Restricted), Mehmet Okur (Boo), Marcin Gortat (Restricted) and Rasheed Wallace (Crying Man). And sadly only Wallace seems to be the least hassle to obtain. We could trade to get another one, but that will just weaken the overall team for one position. I am thinking the draft picks we bought were mainly insurance just in case we have trouble with resigning a SG as outside of McGrady and White, they both could easily leave for greener pastures.
Yea agreed 100% if we could somehow put out the best players we had since 2005 we would have won multiple rings by now. Sura '05 McGrady '05 Battier Scola Yao '05 (healthy then) Brooks Wafer Artest Landry Mutombo '05 Mike James '05 Juwan Howard '05 Jon Barry '05 A guy can dream can't he?
JO = ready to play on Day 1 T-Mac = ready to play ____ They have the same contract which means we could play the trial-and-error game to see if this works. If it doesn't, his contract is still an attractive piece at February's deadline. Plus, I watched JO in the playoffs last year. He was dominant at times. The idea is to put a flaky player like that in a pressure-less situation where the team doesn't need to rely on him hence the Lamar Odom comparison.
Completely agree. I competely agree with the logic here, but I seriously doubt it will happen. I think we (as fans) will really "regret" it, but I just don't see Les trading or not signing his biggest cash cow. Period. I do think back-up center should be important and high on the list to address, but just not one of the top couple of issues. I have to agree with durvasa on this one: Our offense seriously stagnated many times this past year. And part the problem is not having a pure scorer on the floor or someone who can create their own shot. Another major problem is the lack of passing ability on the team. On a side note, I had really high hopes of Adelman developing Yao's passing abilities (similar to what he showed in China and his first couple of years in the league), but so far that hasn't really happened. I think doing so could really add another powerful slant to our offensive game.
