[Sporting News] Shanoff: Who needs Yao?

yes, because they won 2 games in the playoffs without him (and had their ass mopped a few times as well) they don't need him. they won those 2 games, so it MUST work over 82.

insanity.

they may not need yao to win as long as the team makeup is different...as long as there other guys to go to...but yao is the closest thing this team has to a superstar...and stars win rings.

 

I'm a huge Yao fan, but I don't see him as the main key to on-court success.

Remember the streak? We won more than 10 games without Yao and with worse overall players than last year.

Yao could potentially be dominant, but he doesn't really have the "Take it at them" mentality. How often have you seen Yao demand the ball so that he could school some scrub?

Does Yao ever call out mismatch?

I hate Kobe Bryant, but you saw him tell Ron "You can't guard me", and Ron's a former Defensive Player of the Year.

I don't think Yao's soft; I think he's too nice. He doesn't take offense to defenders cheating against him, holding him, etc. It's never going to get called, so he needs to take the law into his own hands, but he just takes it and takes it. In the NBA, that leaves an opening for the other team to exploit. He's bigger, he should be beating-up the fronters. They should come out of the game bruised and battered.

I hope Yao comes back strong. He's a great professional and face of the franchise. But, some have a point when they say he might not be the key to a championship.

 

we've played well without yao EVERY YEAR. obviously we love to have him, but it's not like we become the thunder without him

if yao doesn't play at all next yr, we'll still make the playoffs

 

We'll still make the playoffs and then get booted out again. Might as well stack up high on draft picks and whoop some ass for the upcoming future.

 

We play well with Yao out sometimes because of the team other doesn't expect it. In the NBA, its all about scouting. A perfect example would be Von Wafer. When he first started taking off, no one had an answer to him. As he got more minutes, teams started to figure him out more. He had around 30 points against the Lakers in the regular season but couldn't even get off the bench in the playoffs.

Based on this, after maybe 20 games without Yao, teams will figure us out and it will be MUCH harder to win.

 

i agree. but that's not the point. the point is to say we're fine without yao. we were getting whupped out of the first round with yao anyways for years.

but i do agree that morey has to start assembling a team that can win eventually the whole thing. we can still trick a team into getting yao on their team and trade mcgrady. or something like that.

 

Bingo!! Right on the spot

 

Well if not Yao we'll need at least one steady scorer. Please don't make Artest our go to guy.

 

yao has been injured for 4-5 years now. and we play well without him EVERY year. you would be correct if it happens just once during the 22 game winning streak and it surprised the heck out of teams on how to play us. but we did it in 05-06, 06-07, 07-08, and this year.

i think teams have known we are the hardest working team in the L for a while now with great chemistry, hustle, passion... it's not that the lakers were surprised. our defense was just that good. and we have learned how to play without yao over the years.

if you ask the players now how they feel, they'll say we'll hold down the fort just fine till yao returns.

 

really?? you've been thrilled with the last 4-5 years?? they've been competitive, for sure....but we were throwing a victory party for winning a first round matchup. i'm not sure that's what the rockets management has in mind when they dream up success.

 

i said i wasn't. that's why i can only dream we trade both yao and tracy NOW and get some durable stars who can help us win. we have the best supporting cast in the L. we just need the healthy stars to go with it.

but to the OP's point, we're not a lottery team without yao.

 

getting durable is easy, getting stars is the hard part. Just cause a guy can score 20 points a game on a bad team means he will be the cornerstone of a franchise, yet everyone want to trae yao for whomever will take him.
And we are not a lotto team without Yao? tru, we are a 42 win team AT BEST without yao.

 

what a dumb article

 

Les needs Yao to make more money, so he can use the money to buy more picks or sign other players. As being discussed here and other media for many times, Yao is more important for the money making than the game performing.

 

How do you plan on doing that? Dm managed to create a hell of a team, even without Yao and Tmac I still see us making the playoffs if DM can get a nice player via the midlevel. Do you suggest trading Landry, Scola and co. for duds like Randolph?

 

We're a completely different team without Yao. When your defensive playbook against a team is to to use 3 guys to guard one, you don't adjust easily to a smaller quicker jump shooting Rockets.

The Rockets may/may not make the playoffs without Yao, but without a player of Yao's caliber, theres no way of advancing far in the playoffs anyways.

 

i don't agree with his claim that we were fine without yao, because...yeah, we played well still undermanned, but with him, we would have possibly won the series. which means we needed him.

 

All we need is a somewhat mobile C, with a decent offensive game and be a good rebounder (McDyess). Our offense slowed up to try and get Yao the ball alot of times. As we all know, sometimes it took him a minute to get position and all teams had to do is front him and he was completely taken out of the game. We just added another high octane scorer in J Taylor. Put him and brooks on the floor together and have the bigs set screens and pop that could be trouble for teams to match up with. We could have Scola and MyDyess setting screens then popping open for the midrange. Both are very good midrange shooters.

 

I don't get why everyone's so happy about pushing the Lakers to 7 games. It doesn't mean anything because they didn't win.
News flash: the Rockets lost game 7 and did not advance in the playoffs, and from what I saw in game 7, they needed size and some scoring to compete in that game.