Seriously man. After reading my replies, you should re-read them at least twice more. I'm getting tired of repeating myself. Like I said before, Tmac has shown glimpses of his Orlando days. In the first half against the Jazz in game 6, he was almost unstoppable. So the potential is still there. Yes, Yao has great potential. But its not within his potential to outrun power forwards to loose balls. Which is why Tmac has more potential. Which is what I said before. Which you disagreed with. Which is now what you're agreeing with. Sorry, no. Yao doesn't have potential? He's in the midst of his prime, and he can still improve aspects of his game (passing, fewer turnovers). Theres still potential.
I totally disagree on this last point. While I agree that McGrady has already peaked, I really think that Yao can still get better, though he will always have his physical limitations, the biggest one being his lack of explosiveness when jumping
wekko, please be realistic. you already look bad when saying shaq is not one of the most dominant forces of all time . and second, i said TWO OF THE REBOUNDS yao lost to boozer is due to not boxing out properly IN THE PAINT and getting out-tipped/hustled. he never had to run to a rebound except for one, which i'm not criticizing him for. and tmac can only do it in spurts now. he no longer can dominate a game for 48 minutes offensively. when was the last time he put together 4 quarters of double digit scoring? he needs help around him now more than ever. that's why we all want yao to take over the team. tmac wants yao to take over the team for the past 3 years (he has said this is yao's team adamantly for the past 2 years). and yet when the season ends, it always is tmac's team and on his shoulders. that's the thing people need to realize. everybody wants this to be yao's team. yao doesn't want it.
I never said shaq wasnt one of the most dominant forces of all time. I said tmac wasnt. i guess i misunderstood you in that respect. And I remember your earlier posts regarding Yao's rebounding. You were very critical of one rebound in particular where he was trying to get it while running backwards and Boozer got it instead. Like I said, you expect too much from Yao's rebounding ability. When Tmac is out there telling the world "its on me", its impossible for anyone to be the leader execpt tmac. Understand? This is the 3rd time i've refuted your argument with the exact rebuttal. Even if you think you understand, read it again. And again. And again. Read it until you realize that it cant be Yao's team unless Tmac is willing to defer to Yao WHENEVER Yao wants...not when Tmac wants.
The offense looked okay for about ten or so games against weaker/injured opponents. Then it rapidly became clear that the Rockets have huge problems with size in the paint when Yao isn't playing, problems which teams like the Hawks, Celtics and Suns were able to exploit. T-Mac is easily the more expendable of the two--again, because he doesn't draw the consistent double team. Opposing teams are forced to double up on Yao in the low post. By contrast T-Mac can be neutralized in single coverage--note the way that Harping, Kirilenko and even Korver handled him in the series with Utah.
T-Mac has got to put his head down and play within the system. No more stopping the ball, no more holding it while he tries to stare down whoever's covering it, no more heat checks. It would be nice if he could cut hard without the ball for once in his life.
I normally agree with you on stuff, but T-MAC can do that stuff. I've seen it too many times. Whenever we need a basket bad or its an important game such as a playoff game he throws his body at it. He knows how much his body can take and he is smart to pace himself and not get major injuries during the regular season. He knows he's made of glass and he knows when he needs to give it all he's got, the game 6 was a perfect example. This time his knees were so badly hurt he couldn't jump at all, i don't think he dunked once that game. Yet, he found other ways to be effective and put up 40, and trust me it was hurting. I've heard you say it many times too, Tracy was in the best shape he's been since he's been in houston the start of 07-08 season.
Then you are in a circle of r****ded friends. Don't even tell which college you are in because the other posters here would be terribly ashamed if he goes/went to that college too. I know now you will probably say you/your friends were just joking when you made that r****ded claim. But you didn't seem to be joking at all when you said that. Actually you sounded very bitter. Just man up to admit that you have said something r****ded.
T-Mac doesn't get neutralized in single coverage, stop sipping the haterade. The Jazz themselves said that they had to focus as a team to stop him, that it wasn't a one-man job. T-Mac's more expendable? Yeah, ok, why don't you tell the Rockets that, so that they don't lose 90% of the time when he's down. Besides, what's all this about the 'net advantage' of Yao's double teams? Like his double team is any different from T-Mac's? If Yao was a good passer out of the double team, then yes, this would be true because the spacing is better when a post player is doubled. Sadly for us, Yao is not a good passer out of the double team, which is why T-Mac still has to handle the ball all the time and create for everyone. You think JVG didn't want to let Yao have the ball and create all the opportunities? Of course he did, but Yao isn't good enough at making quick decisions yet. I believe he'll get it eventually, I just hope he isn't 35 when it happens.
Btw I cited JVG as an example because I think that Adelman was experimenting and mixing and matching throughout the course of the season (due to various injuries, learning curves, etc), thus making it difficult to base his coaching philosophy regarding the use of Yao on last season.
i think he'll use him like JVG used him. in the earlier part, he tried to make yao into an all-around player by playing him a lot at the high post, encouraging him to shoot mid-range Js if he's open... basically a chris webber type of role. yao really struggled and he even said it. so you go back and just tell him to go in the post every time. and he did that. yao went back to the JVG-style offense. when yao is in the game, we try to play JVG style (post up, pick and roll...) when yao is out, we play more of an adelman offense (tmac/scola/landry at the high post to trigger the offense, lesser pick and rolls, tmac curling off screens... as you saw in the playoffs when alston did play). i just hope yao can develop ( or get back) his mid-range J b/c it's so lethal if he can makes a few of those a game.
um, last yr, ask jerry sloan who he wanted to stop more my friend. ask jerry sloan who was the catalyst for the rocket train. the past 2 years, everything sloan has done was to stop tmac. he basically told okur to just go at yao 1-on-1 with little help. sloan would only single cover tmac with ak47 b/c of his length. but then he would rotate a bajillion of defenders at tmac to give him diferent looks and double him quite often. he even said it himself this yr he will go out of his way to double/triple team him and he did. tmac faced tougher defense v. the jazz than when kobe faced them this yr. teams that have size don't double yao (lakers, pistons, celtics when KG is on him...). so it's funny for you to say single coverage can neutralize tmac very easily
tmac gets the team better shots (and a variety of shots) from his double teams b/c he gets doubled all over the place. yao can only get the team open 3pt shots, which tmac can get them any time with his pick and roll. what yao needs to do is to start posting up deep around 8-10 feet like he used to regularly and dominate. if he does that, i don't care if he takes a bajillion shots. no double team can stop yao from 8-10 feet. the problem: he posts up from 12-15 ft, has to dribble 2-3 times before he can get his shot -> double teams can disrupt that.
tmac said that to relieve the pressure. it's a way of him being a leader. that doesn't necessarily translate to the court. shaq talked a lot of stuff off the court when he was with the heat, but who was the man on the court? dwayne wade. our offense under JVG was predicated around yao. his PER in the playoffs last yr was around 30 -> guards-like #s. it's funny yao has been a "superstar" the past 2.5 years and yet all the blame still boils down to tmac (and JVG). it's very funny to me. i love yao and i'm sure he criticizes himself more than people on here does and that's what makes yao so great. he even criticized himself on the rebounds and lack of offensive dominance last yr, which people on here don't.
The Jazz sent one guy at a time at T-Mac, but it wasn't the same guy every quarter. They changed up who was covering T-Mac to try and prevent him from becoming comfortable but it was still one guy. You have got to give kudos to guys like Harpring and Kirilenko who did an excellent job of locking down T-Mac one on one. As for expendable I didn't say that McGrady was expendable. The Rockets can more easily afford to lose him than Yao though. As for Yao passing out of the double teams he's good enough. He's tall enough that he can hit the player cutting to the basket and most of his TO's are when he's stripped rather than when he makes a bad pass. I don't know if Yao is an exceptional passer but there's no way that he's a bad one.
It's very funny that you're in denial of reality when it comes to T-Mac. What it boils down to is that the Jazz played him in single coverage for most of the series and it worked. Their strategy was not to double him consistently but to send different players at him in single coverage and that by and large worked. Regardless no double team on T-Mac meant no open Rockets anywhere else and the offense stagnated. That's not to say that the Jazz don't play Yao well in single coverage. Historically they have done so. But if you look at all the games across the entire league there's no question that Yao gets double teamed on a far more consistent basis than T-Mac and that the Rockets have prospered when they are able to exploit that double team.
You have got to be joking. You never saw Yao hit a cutting Bonzi for the easy dunk/layup? One more time: Yao doesn't need to make an assist every time he passes out of the double team. This is a team game, remember? If the other Rockets can swing it around to the open man quickly enough they'll get that open look at the basket.
When you tell the world "its on me" and you're running the offense, that means you're taking the leadership role. And yes, it did translate to the court. Why do you think people say that Yao needs to be the leader? Its b/c Tmac has taken the leadership role and has led us nowhere. Seriously man, re-read my posts. I've repeated this many times. Yes, wade was the leader in the finals. He ran the offense and controlled the ball. Does that sound like anyone on the rockets? I'll say it again. If tmac wants yao to step up, he needs to give yao the ball consistently THROUGHOUT the game. Not just in the final minutes. Do you realize how many times I see Yao posting up and then having Tmac wave him away? What was tmac's per? Back the the bulls had jordan & pippen and they lost games, the blame was normally placed on jordan. Even though pippen was a superstar, jordan played a greater role and controlled the offense.
