Yao said we would lose to the Spurs Yao talked with two famous Chinese NBA commentators When being asked about his opinion on the Rockets' performances in the PO.... Yao pointed out that even if the Rockets pass over the Blazers, they would still lose to the Spurs in the 2nd rd. "Look at the roster and starting line-up..." Yao said, "...Harden, Howard, Parsons are 3 primary scorers. Beverley and Jeremy Lin is one way or the other. One is more of a defensive player and the other is more of a facilitator. Among the starters, you just can't find anybody who can get everybody involved. Harden is still a work-in-progress. He can score, but he can't help his teammate that much." When being asked how he feel about the controversial figure, Coach McHale... Yao said "I am not feeling convenient to reveal it." He then added "I have never been working as a coach. But I think, as a coach, your determination is very important. Not all of your decisions would have always been right. But even some of them might be wrong, you must execute it without self-doubts. Just like what Fei Wang(former Chinese national team HC) said 'Even If five guys are running towards the same wrong direction, they may still reach the goal.' " Hakeem said we would have won So who do you agree with? Was Hakeem right and we could have beat the Spurs? Or was Yao on the money?
If a million guys are running the wrong directions the goal won't be achieved. They are going the wrong way! I guess being Chinese automatically makes you a Buddha.
We would beat Spurs.... if they had a major injury... The way those guys are playing, you have to say they are playing like champions. That system makes scrubs look like stars, very little drop off from starter lineups to the bench lineups in performance. Pop is the man.
Also, I can see that Yao doesn't have the Houstonian mindset. He is talking more through the eyes of an arrogant commentator rather than an ex Houston player. Hakeem still has the Heart. I really appreciate that.
Hakeem is wrong on many levels, especially the similarities between us and 92-93 rockets. Yao not liking McHale, hope he really said that. Too bad Morey is not realistic
I trust Hakeem a lot more. Yao is so far removed from his days as a Rocket he is looking to buy the Clippers. Hakeem, unlike Yao is speaking from actual knowledge and not based on the 10 or so games he watched on television this season. Yao also never won an NBA championship nor made it past the second round. Hakeem was in several conference finals, three NBA finals and even won two of them. Hakeem is invested in this team and in this city. Yao is just an ambassador for the sport in general.
Hakeem is right that we might have potentially beaten the Spurs, but only because their Achilles heel is defending the SG position. But Yao is right about everything else. Too many 1 way players, not enough depth, and he was diplomatic about the awful coaching. Dwight's performance plus a fortunate matchup against the 2nd worst defense in the WC playoffs saved us from total embarrassment. The only big man in the Western Conference playoffs as bad as Lopez at defending post-ups was Dalembert of the Mavs. Any of the other playoff teams would've made Dwight struggle, and with Harden MIA, the beatdown would've been epic.
Nothing too crazy but Harden being a work in progress and needs to learn how to make his teammates better, he average 6 assists a game this season. That we don't have two way players when actually that's not the case. Howard is a scorer and defensive beast. Beverley can defend and does a pretty good job at running the offense.
Sorry, but I don't think anything you said qualifies him as being arrogant! Misinformed, misguided, or perhaps ignorant, but arrogant? Not even close! ....... ....... .......
unpopular opinion : the rockets are the only team besides the heat that can beat the spurs this season. but i still don't think we would have beaten them.
Are you even watching the Spurs right now? The Spurs are on a whole new level during the playoffs while we didn't step it up on notch.