There's no point in reading this guy's stuff. Not only is he clearly a Rocket hater, but he doesn't know much about basketball. He should receive the "Bill the Rocket guy" treatment around here, and all posts involving this guy should be locked.
I though there was something missing! It just doesn't feel like Rosen without the obligatory kick-in-the-balls to JVG. Speaking of skeptics, here's Sean Deveney of Sportingnews talking about the Rockets on Nov. 29, a day before the Phoenix Suns game. C'mon Rockets, prove these guys wrong on our upcoming road trip! http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=154068
It's actually pretty funny to read Rosen's articles. Sometimes his analysis is fairly in-depth. Other times you just get the feeling that he was rushed for time and threw in 20 minutes of intelligent-sounding BS just to have something to show to get paid. For example, his part about Yao's high dribble allowing high TOs. He's obviously not watched any Rockets game so far, in that about half of Yao's turnovers are from offensive fouls or 3-second violations, half of which aren't good calls in the first place, and the other half he's getting stripped on terrible no-calls on hack-a-Yao in the paint. Yao doesn't usually get stripped off the dribble, it's usually when he's going up to take a shot or someone swipes him after he gets a pass. Me: If Yao's high dribble causes so many TO's, why didn't he have as big a problem in previous years? Rosen: ... Shut up. Yao is slow. He'll never be a great center because this era is filled with mediocre centers.
Did someone put a gun to his head to rank them at 5? It's like he ranked the Rox up there to complain how they're overrated. Sounds like Yao's critics.
He did face up a lot more than Yao ever does. He had crossover moves, and he could shoot jumpers off the dribble. I'm sure a much higher percentage of his shots were jumpers than the typical center.
More than Yao, but still not that much. Hakeem was primarily a back to the basket center. A majority of his shots were from post up moves. Rosen is pulling stuff out of his arse.
Too bad that Yao is not competitive and has no desire to win. Yes, he's slow, thanks to his size, but if we gave up on Yao for being such a poor player, we'd be getting calls from 29 teams, and, since I wrote "29", I am including the Heat.
I can't stand Rosen. Thanks for telling me Yao is slow, Dream is better than Yao, Bouncy Whale is fat, Captain Obvious.
I gotta say some are reasonable ,especially about yao and his slow motion .sorry it's bitter but true !
Well DD I think that when all is done you will change your mind as Yao Ming is only stepping on the first rung of his ladder to greatness. Hakeem was a great player. playing the Center Position under a different set of rules. Under to-days refs. Hakeem would have many travels , moving picks . over the back calls and many defensive and offensive fouls which were not called so frequently in his day. Lets us be happy with our Hakeem in his period without pulling down either him or Yao. Let us be happy with the great wall which will become an even greater wall and be the best player he can be in his era. Very different players- different eras and different game rules. I love each one for what they are and the contributions of each to our sport.
Agreed this is one of his best. I agree with the fact that Yao doesn't have much comptetition at the center position. But he lost me when he said Yao is "slow in every aspect of the game ... competitive fire...1:2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio...and cannot adequately defend any opponent who can face-up-and-go." Horrible...I can't believe he even said assist to turnover ratio. Again, he's dead on with Bonzi.
I'm not so sure about this. 2004/05 T-Mac 2 years ago, T-Mac played 77 games (officially 78 games, but I'm not counting the game where he played 3 minutes and got injured). He scored 30 or more points in 25 of those games and the Rockets were 22-3 in those games (88.8 winning %) . In games where T-Mac played and scored less than 30, the Rockets were 26-26 (50.0 winning %). It was quite evident that it was T-Mac's team that year. He was an offensive monster that year going for 26pts, 6 rebs, and 6 ast on a nightly basis. In the playoff that year, in the 3 wins, T-Mac averaged 33 pts on 51.4% shooting (52.6% on treys). In the 4 losses, T-Mac averaged 29 pts on 41.2% shooting (25.9% on treys). Besides the defensive problems with backcourt quickness, the Rockets just didn't have anyone on that team that could help out in scoring. When Dallas stopped leaving wide open 3pt shooters, and TMac was having an off night, the Rockets were still forced to go to T-Mac all the time because no one else could score. 2004/05 Yao Yao averaged 24.5 pts in the 4 losses and 17.3 pts in the 3 wins. It was obvious that while Yao could score and carry his own, he was not ready enough to carry the Rockets. Yao played 80 regular season games that year and scored 30+ 4 times, with the Rockets going 2-2 in those games. 2006/07 This year so far Yao has already scored 30+ points 4 times in 16 games, with the Rockets going 3-1. T-Mac has scored 30+ points only once (32 points in the win at Milwaukee). This is obviously Yao's team now, but does that mean the Rockets are good enough to beat the Mavs in the playoffs? The defense is better in terms of matchup athletes (with the additions of Battier, Hayes, Snyder and V-Span), but is that going to be enough? If Yao plays like T-Mac did in the playoffs 2 years ago, that would be great. But if T-Mac can only offensively contribute at Yao's level 2 years ago then the Rockets are stuck in the same rut. So I'm just hoping that T-Mac's shooting comes around for the Rockets will need Yao AND T-Mac's scoring in the playoffs. If the opposing teams don't rotate off our 3pt shooters, then our role players aren't going to score. Yao will have monster nights, but T-Mac will need to have them too if the Rockets want to win. Maybe this is where Bonzi can help the Rockets?
I'm not too worried about T-Mac, actually, assuming he can stay reletively healthy. Before the Minnesota game, he was playing solid for a good stretch of games. I thought he finally snapped out of his funk. He got injured (hip) in the Minnesota game, and clearly there were lingering effects the following day against Phoenix. Against Cleveland, he looked healthy and was playing great in the first quarter before he got knocked out. He'll bounce back. I'm confident about that.
define competitive fire? i think yao's is as strong as anyone in the game. rosen may or may not be an idiot but he's a jackass who is totally biased and should know better.
what? the 80s and Olajuwon's era (which included the 90s) was the golden age of centers. besides Hakeem, Kareem, Shaq, Robinson, Ewing, and Mourning, you had Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, Bill Walton, Sabonis (played in Russia, but if you brought him in his prime...), Robert Parish, Brad Daugherty, Bob McAdoo, Dan Issel, Bob Lanier, Dave Cowens, Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Jack Sikma, Mark Eaton, Mutombo, Bill Laimbeer, Bill Cartwright and Rik Smits. i guess you could also throw in Ralph Sampson and Duncan who were centers quick and athletic enough to excel as power forwards. at least 11 of those centers are members of the 50 Greatest Ever club, everyone except Sabonis played in an All-Star game and ALL of those centers (well maybe not Smits, Cartwright and Laimbeer) in their primes were better than anyone playing today not named Yao, Dwight Howard or Ben Wallace (in his prime) and maybe Jermaine O'Neal, Gasol and Amare if you consider them centers.
To be fair, although Shaq did not dominate them, he did play against the Hakeem, D-Rob, Pat Ewing while they were at their best. Playing against great players like that helped him dominate the lesser talented centers of this era.
"[Hakeem] ....... and was essentially a face-up center" What the @#$^. Since when Hakeem was essentally a face -up center? his bread and butter move was the dream shake which was a back to the basket. if any Hakeem was a complete all around player with face up jumpers, isolate drive, hook shots, and dream shake. What an Idiot.
