Rockets Players need to realize Yao Ming is their best player

We lost this game due to SMALL BALL. Rudy kept Moochie in the game to long. I couldn't believe how many times I saw Moochie, Steve and Mobes guarding Fin and Wit.

Rudy lets get to work, the secret is out on Yao, no more BS.

 

Please be very careful when you want to make Yao the 1st option.

I love Yao, but he can't win alone. You need a team with good chemistry to win. If Francis hate being the second option, then the team is not going anyway. You might even have to trade one of them just to keep the team together.

As a rookie, I think it's definitely not the time for Yao to be the first option, he still have a lot to learn. Francis does need to give Yao the ball more, but 1st option? Maybe 1-2 years later. We'll see if Francis could handle Yao's dominance with maturity by then.

 

One game does not make him the rockets best player. (and citing Kenny Smith does not help your assertion) That title still belongs to Francis.

If he can continue this performance consistantly, then hell yeah, I think he should be the number one option.

 

C'mon, I love Yao, but Francis is the Rocket's best player and leader. Without Francis, Rockets will not be anywhere this year. I'm just happy to see Francis trust Yao more and more. Yao and Francis will be very hard to beat in the future.

 

Maybe if we qualify "best player" by the particular defense the Rockets are facing each night, then you can make a case that when the Rockets face a well played zone (which in my opinion is hurting the game--that could be a whole other thread), a player that presents a real presence and scoring threat down low will be the "best player" in that situation. The Mavericks just seem to have the best "zone defense" we've seen so far this year. Best because they seem to all be on the same page and well coordinated with it.

A genuine low post threat draws the already somewhat packed in defense further in, which should create more space around the perimeter for open shots. Looking at the box scores for this game shows that 3 Rockets scored well below their averages -- Mobley, Thomas, and Taylor. I kept trying to tell myself that we aren't such bad shooters and that the Dallas defense is just THAT good. They were able to recover quickly enough to bother almost all of our perimeter shots after they had collapsed toward our post players. What I couldn't convince myself is that we have GREAT shooters. I don't know how you practice making more shots with a guy in your face. I think it definitely hurt our shot-making. They also did a good job of keeping Taylor out of position. They basically sealed off almost any penetration to the rim from the perimeter. With Francis and Mobley generally being good at breaking down defenses this way I was at a loss to understand why they weren't more successful this way.

Looking at the box score also shows 16 turnovers vs. 10 for the Mavs. Couple these deficiencies together -- if we improve 3 players averages tonight and lessen the turnovers we maybe win the game.

Oh, I almost forgot. Thanks to the terrible call at the end of the first half we spotted them 3 points going into the second half.

I agree with others here -- at least on this night, without Yao, it's over for the Rox way earlier -- maybe even by halftime.

 

SF is the best, no doubt! But can KB bring Lakers 12-0? No way!!! Stop talking about who is the best for this team, now!!!! We all know that we need a great centre to make the current Rockets go for the NBA finals, and that is Yao Ming, while we need to be patient to see all these chemistry with Yao and the rest teammates, think about Yao's assist to SF in the 3rd quarter!

Mobley sucks tonight, but I bet he will come back in the next game against Wizards. So Rudy needs to know when to put his 0-X man on the bench!!!!

For those people who complaining about not passing the ball to Yao Ming in the 4th quarter, I think Nelson simply adjusted well without Bradley (to his surprise too), and Yao didn't get a lot of good positions, and our Rockets lost the rhythm which made them feel good in the past 3 quarters, at least the 1st half.

Guys, cheer up! Jordan will never achieve that high without Pippen, that is my theory!

 

If Yao's our best player, how come he let Najera push him around like a shopping cart? Yao had a good game when Bradley was on him, but they put in 6-8 235 Najera and suddenly Yao couldn't get into the lane for more than 1 second.


It's about time somebody said it, how come we can never lose a game because the other team was just better? Maybe it's just me, but the fact that they were 11-0 before we played them makes them the best team in league IMHO. I mean come on, Finley was hitting 3's like crazy, Dirk was dropping turnaround J's like he was Jordan, and Najera took Ming to school in the 4th quarter. You guys can keep b****ing all you want, but I think the fact that the Mavs have improved over the last 4 years, making the Playoffs in the last 2 and being unbeaten now makes them the better team and better teams usually win.

If you guys want to listen to some reason, check this out. The Mavs started to get better as Dirk began to take his game to another level. That happened during his 2nd and 3rd seasons. At the same time a guy who had been a very good player, Finley, and a guy who steadily improved, Nash, were on the same team with him. You put those 3 together and you have the great team that they are now. So my question is, who else sees the similarities? Hmmm, tall and talented young player, could that be Ming? Hmmm, guard who is already a star, hmmm, could that be Steve? Hmmm, a player who continues to improve every year that he's been in the league, could that be Mobley? Show some patience, this team will make the playoffs this year and next year, they will have a shot at making the finals, truuuust me

 

LAME

first everyone wanted to say Yao is the next bradley. Now everyone wants to say he is the next dream.

 

Since when did we listen to Kenny Smith???

 

If I was a point guard i.e. Steve Francis, and my Center is shoting over 70% from the field...believe me I'd milk it and pass it to him big-time!

For Ming to receive the ball so little in the 3rd and 4th as hot as he was made anti-sense!!!

 

Best player, most potential.........whatever. He had a great game. Enjoy it. I have watched a young, potential superstar learn on the fly this week. Bottom line is we have real, full blown potential inside now.........THIS SEASON.

Great game Yao.

 

Yao didn't get pushed around the game, I watched it, it only seemed that way cuz he was denied te ball. How many time we see Yao able to sets huge picks right under the basket for the guard, he was able to push off like 2 players under the basket, while guards on the Lakers or Spurs as I stated in another post would reward the big man after they penetrated, they ignored Yao and a lot of times missed a tough lay up that forces Yao to jump over 2 players to get the board. Also, Yao wasn't even getting a chance to postition himself, how many times tonight in the fourth, the play was ran on the opposite side of the court where Yao was posting, meaning no chance of entry pass to the post, if I was Yao, I wouldn't try to post up either since I know I can't get the ball in the post anyways.

That being said, SF is still the best player on this team period. Yao however showed the potential of being the best player in the league.

 

Yeah, right! Ming is the Rockets best player? C'mon, man! I know you're punch-drunk in love w/Yao's last two games, but get real. Francis is and will be 'til he's retired the Rox best player. Now, Ming, he'll be the Rockets most important player in terms of going deep in the playoffs -- but even that is a year or two (or three) away.


Ming and Wink need each other; I think they will form one of the best 1-2 punches in the game, too. They will find that their games both benefit greatly w/each other, but this nonsense about Ming being the Rockets best player is a joke -- period!

 

C'mon, stop w/this. Ming has two great games and he's already the Rox best player? No! Take Francis off the ROckets right now and keep Ming, I bet you this HOU team sucks. W/Stevie the Rockets can already battle in the West (like two years ago); w/o him they lose something like 14 straight games and win the lottery (like last year).

Bottom Line: if the Rockets win last night in DAL this whole "Ming is the best player," "Rockets need to give Ming the ball @ all times" is not even an issue!

 

What are you talking about? Wink and Ming sat out the beginning of the fourth quarter, first of all. And secondly, Moochie was brought in w/Francis and Ming, so it was Mooch running the point. Rudy T did this b/c Cat played like crap.


Stop overreacting, EVERYONE. Whethere you were a Ming-supporter or Ming-doubter, you HAD to have been suprised by this output. Well, news flash -- TWO GAMES DOESN'T A GREAT pLAYER MAKE! It won't be this easy for the big fella, as well, so stop putting even MORE pressure on him than he already has by proclaiming him Rocket's best player. Francis has earned that title and will continue to.

But really, wo cares? Call Ming the Rockets best player. Just as ling as he knows and Rudy T knows (which he does) that without Steve, the Rockets are crap -- period.

 

Yao can't get any good position in the 2nd half. THAT'S THE TRUTH!!! he is being pushed around by Najera and couldn't find a way to move around. Just look at how hard he tried but just couldn't. Yao still need to learn how to play when a player push him like what Najera did in this game. If not, it will be real hard for the players to feed him the ball!!

 

Yao supporters will say he is the best player.
Rockets supporters will say Francis is the best player, Yao has potential.

1 great game does not make a star.
A couple of games, each improving on the previous merely means he has GREAT potential.

Anyway, this being a Rockets bbs, we have to make room for the opinions of Rockets fans as well as Yao fans...

#1 Francis
#2 Yao
#3 Up in the air... prob Cat

 

I think, Panda, an argument can be made for Finley being the best player in last night's game. He scored 28 points and utterly destroyed Cuttino.

Ming is a very talented center, but he has no more than 15-25 minutes of game these days.

You could see signs of exhaustion by the end of the second quarter. He basically was not the same from the middle of the third period on.

If you don't believe me, just watch the tape and look at all the uncontested shots directed at Ming in the 4th quarter. If Ming wasn't exhausted, he takes that little alley-oop jumper of Nash's in the 4th and makes Nash eat basketball leather. As it was, Ming just watched him and never raised his hands. And Najera doesn't outrun him to post a ridiculously easy reverse layup.

Ming is astoundingly quick, but he has conditioning issues. It may take a few games before he can play a 33 minute NBA game and be as fresh at the end as he is at the beginning.

 

No doubt SF is our best now. But he sucked last night. How many times did he turn the ball over? A franchise will not turn the balls like he did.

 

3. Strikes me as an acceptable figure for a primary ball handler.