Yao did make me change my mind about him against LA. After he began walking into the locker room after the knee collision with Kobe and then came back out and played I was extremely surprised. That would be a good first step in overcoming is soft style of play but he has a long ways to go. I'm surprised he could never learn from Mutombo.
We can't lay a speck of dirt on his character/motivation/ dedication. But in terms o f making this team better, I'm not afraid to cut loose if it makes us better.
i voted no they should keep yao for his whole career, there are no good center out there to trade yao, D Howard can't shoot like Yao can, Amare' is kinda short to consider a center NEVER TRADE YAO
They weren't even on the damn team back then. However, Landry made a huge defensive play against Utah (the second series) and Scola, Brooks and the bench were huge factors in beating Portland and going to the seventh game with LA.
While we are going crazy with this thread anyway, why not trade Yao and Morey too. Oh to sweeten the deal how about including Les Alexander in that trade too. This thread and the yeah sayers remind me of Jerry Krause wanting to trade Pippen and several other players after the fourth Bulls championship. Pippen then had some back issues so Krause got trade crazy just like some posters in this thread. At least Reinsdorf, the Bulls owner, was more lucid at that time and over ruled Krause. The rest is history. The lesson here is keep your fingers off the trade trigger, except for a proven loser like McGrady.
The Rox traded Hakeem when he was 38. At that time Hakeem still felt like he could play. Yao at 29 has room for improvement if he can get past the injuries. After the last surgery I believe he will.
I apologize for the personal attacks, this thread was just the straw that broke the camel's back for insufficiently thought out threads. It's not enough to say that expiring contracts and a possibility that Yao will stay healthy are attractive to other teams. Hell, those are reasons to keep him a Rocket also. There are only 30 teams in this league, and 30 team salary/financial situations, and there are only so many players that would help this team more than Yao does on the court, even with his injury risk. It's simply not thought out enough to simply state your imagined fantasy (of trading Yao to another team and getting an improvement in return). If you're going to say Yao sucks, that's fine (up to a certain frequency) but if you're going to say trade him to another team, then point to this other team and analyze why and how the other team would do the trade. What teams? What pieces? That's how real NBA trades works and if you want a trade to happen in the real NBA then you'll have to analyze the real NBA, not some oversimplified, easy model of how it operates.
I love Yao. He's our franchise player and we go the way he dictates. But we do have great difficulty getting him the ball. It's been the same story for years: we're rolling all game long, then they start fronting and we go to hell. Don't blame anyone, it's just hard to get him the ball when he's sandwiched. Adelman's greatest challenge next year will be to consolidate the fast-paced offense we have now with the slow, difficult routine of getting Yao the ball in the post. Movement must be maintained.
although i 'm from shanghai as yao, frankly speaking, a team want to go further in the playoff or even got the champion, a tough and stable double-double(20+10 is better) post is pretty necessary, the games in playoff are totally different from the those in regular season, the current strategy like run-and-shoot is less effective, if you want to win a series, you must have a powerful center, on the contary, if rox unfortunately play with spurs, lakers, nuggets, yao can play a enormorous role in defense, let alone yao can limit almost all of the centers in the league now, although he constantly mired in the foul-trouble(nba refrees are unfair to yao, i never saw a super-star-treatment in yao). and yao is a very hard-working guy, as all of you know in the past 5 odd seasons, so it is no doubt that yao must come back with a heathy knee. tell the truth, unlike many chinese fans, i'm a bit rational, i don't think yao should require a maximum salary contract, to some extent, a 10-15 million dollar a year is not bad, of course, considering yao's commercial effect, if alexandar prefer to give yao a big contract, as a chinese fans, i don't mind it. and i hope all of role players like scola, ariza, landry, lory can improve their confidence and skills in this season, by 2010 rox must sweep the west. p.s(as a chinese, i'm not a native speaker of english, if my poor expression confuse you, please forgive me, lol)
And don't even bring up money, even if he generates $$$ we will not get anything more than a few expirers for him.
tracyooo, Let me say right off the bat that you have nothing to apologize for. Au contraire,,I like many here can't speak ANY Chinese.You did a good job of expressing yourself. I agree with most of what you said. Without a doubt, in the playoffs it becomes a halfcourt game and execution/pace is at a premium. When I talk about dealing Yao and Tracy it is with the understanding that we pick up some quality size coming back.....along with another go to guy. (for starters) Now, I want you to know that I admire Yao, his hard work on and off the court......He's a unique human being to shoulder all that he has. That said, I just don't think we can risk another injury when we should have all the other pieces in place. My advocation of Yao being dealt has more to do with insuring our team as much as one can whilst our window is open.Also, we might be able to not only get healthier, but younger in the process too.
True Beaner, you're right. trade yao and we will have a championship team. Yao is the only thing keeping the Rox from getting over that hump. Yao had was only great because he was matched up with Bynum in game 1 of the lakers/rox series and Gasol is waaay better than Yao even though Yao was playing injured in game 2. which is your point right? Yao is always injured so we should trade him? but you're right again! barring injuries Yao is nothing but a mediocre center in todays nba. you're right beaner. you're right. yao sucks. trade his a$$. the fans are tired of his injuries and want him gone. in fact let's fire DM and make you GM because you're the most smarterest person and you don't seem to make rash decisions. now stop making threads and posting your insightful comments. i'm learning too much from you and my puny brain can't take it anymore.
