Last night's game disgusted me. I felt sick to my stomach watching that loss. But Yao's performance in the 4th quarter was the lone bright spot; it was downright inspiring. He's not quite there yet, but eventually the Rockets will be his team, in a completely unquestioned manner, and he'll have teammates that get him the ball every possession down the stretch. When this is the case, say, in 2 years time, he may very well be the best player in the NBA (Hyperbole? I honestly don't think so). Anyhow, I began wondering about this: if the game is tied halfway through the 4th quarter, and you can have your choice of any player in basketball, who do you want on the team? These are the 6 I think worthy of consideration. The idea is that, assuming the other teammates are serviceable and solid NBA players, you have ONE guy you can look to, possession after possession, repeatedly going back to the same well for scores. Who do you want? Who's gonna bring it home for you and win you the game? Personally, I'd have to go with Duncan at this point, but Yao is gaining ground fast right before our eyes.
I trust duncan with the ball. He's seven foot with smart leadership mentality and the shooting that's just as good as gold
Umm...Anyone have that stat that was on here a couple weeks ago...Something about Yao's shooting percentage during the last 5 minutes of a game was something like 80%? If that isn't somewhat clutch, I sure as hell don't know what it is There have been a lot of games this year where Yao takes over in the 4th quarter, yet as the time dies down and the score is close, the guards decide to be the "heros" and try to win the game. They always fail to realize that Yao is the biggest reason they are still in the game to come out with a W. Yao's only weakness in the clutch categories is getting foul calls. Granted, he has no control over that...The Refs just need to start giving the guy calls because he gets hacked almost every shot and pushed around in the post. But once the refs start calling the right calls, then the ball needs to be in Yao's hands most of the time.
Kobe, Duncan, Yao. Shaq is a liability with his FTs although he has made them when they counted. Just not lately Garnett and T-Mac are a toss up. They've each had situations where if they were clutch they might have actually advanced passed the 1st round for once.
I would like to go with Tim Duncan but with his terrible free throw shooting late in games makes me lean towards Kobe Bryant. Kobe in the 4th quarter is utterly ruthless.
Nick Van Exel, Latrell Sprewell.. These guys aren't as good as Kobe, but much better than Shaq. Reggie Miller should be in there too.
Kobe. I hate the guy, but he's nails when the game's on the line. Duncan's great, but put him on the free throw line and you don't know what you're gonna get.
Nobody can take over a game at crunch time like Kobe. ............and he doesn't have to depend on teammates to get him the ball D R
I voted for Kobe and while I know this won't make me any friends here I don't think Yao even belongs on that list yet. He is way too soft in the post and for his size he is pretty weak still defensively. I am constantly amazed at how some of the smaller players in the league take it right at the big fella with good overall success.
What does any of that have to do with "clutchness"? Shaq is hardly a defensive force. Neither is Kobe. T-Mac has no defense. If anything, Yao plays better defense than most of the names on the list? Unless the other players are somehow superman defensively during the clutch, I don't see the argument. Oh, and Yao shoots over 80% at the end of close games. Yeah, that's just so mediocre.
