Your thoughts are spot on as far as where we find ourselves. But I think you under estimate how much difference a healthy Yao would have made, especially since some of the player moves your criticizing were made with the idea of having Yao in the fold. I can make a list of teams that were transformed by one player. Where without that player they were trash, and with him, they were not only relevant, but contenders. Now, if you want (in hind sight) to say that we shouldnt have continued making player acquisitions based on Yao being healthy this year, then I may even agree.
Jim, I think Yao makes a huge difference defensively to this team as constructed,but the bigger problem is everything else. He clogs the paint both good and bad. Offensively, the team has to do so much just to get him the ball in his comfort zone that it really bogs down the offense. Defensively, he clogs the paint and allows the defenders to play tighter. He struggles big time in space which is to be expected. So with Yao and scola together defensively, you have 2 players who cant defend in space. Throw martin and the way lowry has defended, now you still have a average defense and a bogged down offense. To me, thats good enough for a 5-8 seed and a first rd exit.
If you take Yao and add him to what we have and assume that nothing else changes much, yes, a first round exit would be my prediction also. But sometimes, the whole character of a team can be changed by one player. We didnt see enough of Yao this year to know whether a nice chemistry would have developed, in time, around his play. It may not have. Certainly possible. Sadly, we didnt get to see. Now we have a team designed around the player who isnt playing. At least we havent sunk to the level of Cleveland who also have/had a team designed around a player who no longer plays for them.
Jim, that just shows how great James is in comparison to Yao. Yao has an impact, but not nearly as big as one would think. Look at the games he missed and was replaced by Deke. The team played well,moved on, and was probably better defensively. We see the effect no lebron is having on cleveland and it should squash the notion that was a championship caliber roster. If kobe never played a game this season, La would be at least .500. Lbj leaves and they are one of the worse teams in the league.
I can't believe you people are theorycrafting about Yao's effect (with Scola) in the middle when we've seen what he can do with subpar perimeter defenders in the past. Trust me, Rafer Alston didn't lead this team to the 2nd best defensive rating in the league back in the day.
Actually it shows that the Rockets just have twice as much talent as Cleaveland. Even if you put Lebron on this team with a decent center, they aren't gonna get any more wins than he did in Cleveland.
