how in hell did you start this thread (as a "rookie")? or you got downgraded after it? i'm a bit surprised yao has a slight upper hand so far.
Rockets without Tmac have 23% winning percentage, while with him were soaring over 62%. McGrady can carry the team alone, hes shown it, but Yao really can't, but thats not his fault. McGrady offers so much more then Yao does in terms of play making.
this is not the right way of thinking. when yao went down, mcgrady got big time support from deke defensively and even juwan stepped up. when mcgrady went down, what did yao get? luther head starting? yes, mcgrady offers more in play-making, but that's dictated by the position he plays compared to yao. and the way the rules are today makes more difficult for big men. sounds like excuses for yao, but they are true. usually you can't do a with-and-without analysis. gotta look at individual situations. otherwise, mcgrady = sf3 because the ending results are the same (1st round exit). and no one can carry a team alone. for a game or two maybe. but not to a sustainable degree. see kobe not passing the 1st round or not even making it to the playoffs.
I don't agree with you, damn look like you wanna say that Deke is a way better than Luther right? Yeah, deke stepped up but damn only defensivly. I'd rather play with Luther than with Deke. I love him but he is (now) offense's killer Without Yao we pretty much did not have inside game, ok Juwan played pretty well, but damn YOU CAN'T SAY that McGrady was not alone (without Yao) because he had Juwan Deke... Yao had Luther, Shane, Bonzi, Rafer, etc. I just hate the way you think.
you just answer the question to the poll dude. it's not yao's fault. he has his limitations. KG carried the team alone to the playoffs alone even before cassell and spree (just never out of the first round). duncan carried the team even when he had a declining david and avery johnson. hakeem def. carried our team back then. big men CAN carry teams, but yao just can't. if teams shut him in the post, he can go out and get the ball and try to score in other ways. he has his limitations. he can't really pass out of double teams that effectively... again, this comes with the 7'6 frame, again not yao's fault. if this was tmac v. hakeem even before we know hakeem won a title, it would be hakeem. it's not that tmac > yao in any way, tmac is just more important to this team than yao. we can't afford to lose tmac b/c we have depth at the big men position so we can sustain yao's loss for games.
As a matter of general principle I'd disagree. The most important positions on the roster are the PG and the C. Having an elite big man on the squad is a huge benefit to any team. What's more when it comes to the inside/out offense Yao in the inside part. There shouldn't be any question that when it comes down to individual components Yao is the most important piece of the Rockets' offense. As for passing, Yao is probably above average for an NBA player and he's pretty good/excellent for a center.
true, but mobile big men though, esp. for today's game. guys that can go out and hit a mid-range jumper if they double/deny him in the post. if we have a KG or duncan on this team, he would fit our team perfectly. did you see how landry played after yao got injured? he was dunking via pick and rolls yes, but he made his mid-range jumpers that made our offense incredibly efficient. yao is easier to stop with quick double teams. tmac is only easy to stop if he's not aggressive.
I've seen your posts here and this is probably the first time I've completely agreed with one of them. The part that troubles me is that we're even asking this questions when Yao plays the most important position on the court. This team is weird to me. Tmac and Yao are probably the two most unselfish stars in the league but they don't seem to compliment each other as well as they should.
very true. it's very weird. i remember both played well with each other in the 04-05 playoff series v. dallas when they used the pick and roll together very well. since teams have not only trapped tmac but rotated towards yao, there's not a play that you can put tmac and yao together and it's a "money" play. b/c that pick and roll in 04-05 was our "money" play.
The critical issue with the double team is exploiting it. When the other team decides to double Yao that should be a net advantage to the Rockets right there. There is zero need for Yao to try to put the ball on the ground and dribble out of the post looking for a jump shot. Instead it makes a lot more sense for him to pass the ball out so that somebody else on the team can get an open shot. When Scola wrote about how "Yao makes everything easier" in his blog that's what he was talking about. With Yao it should be pick your poison: either the other team double teams him and the other Rockets tear their guts out or they play him in single coverage and Yao tears their guts out. That's why he's the most important player on the team--because he demands an instant double team. T-Mac doesn't. I've said this over and over, but making highlight reels are a lousy way to win a game. The team that gets lots of easy, open looks at the basket is probably going to end up winning. That's the whole point of bringing Adelman in. If the team doesn't buy into that then ship Adelman out and bring Van Gundy back--there's no point in having him in Houston. As for Landry, there was some speculation on this board that his drop off after Yao got injured came because Yao wasn't out there drawing lots of attention. In fact there are still a lot of unanswered questions about Landry's ability to create his own shot. He's looked awfully good finishing around the basket after the defense collapses on Yao or Brooks. He hasn't looked as good when he's got the ball and he's trying to beat his defender man to man.
right now the teams know what to do against it. Remember Boozer and Williams? Last year we had a lot of problems defending that pnr and year after that we defended it pretty well. It is called 'taking adventage' but pnr is still sometimes the only way to get yao the ball especially when he is fronted (look Golden State)
Thanks. I really, really think the Rockets just need to move the ball and that problem will take care of itself. If they don't get an open look early in the shot clock then they need to settle down and start passing and moving without the ball. I like JvG a lot but in Yao and T-Mac you've got two of the most potent offensive weapons in the league and his game plan seemed to squander that trying to pull off games where the final score is 86-82. I have to wonder if playing T-Mac in the high/mid post might not be useful as well, maybe on the weak side across from Yao.
Teams play them differently now. Tmac has lost some atheleticism and Yao never had any. Before they were scrambling to guard them both but now they bring a "weak" double to both players during their PnR. It sounds completely ridiculous to devote 4 players to two but that is how despicable our role players have been on offense. Its sad but the best defense on the rockets for the past few years has been to double them both when Tmac puts the ball on the floor. Being an unselfish player he gets it to the open man and they (for some crazy reason) feel as if they are obligated to take a 3 or wait for the defense to come to them and pass it back to Tmac. Why don't they just go to the rim? Its not even an atheleticism thing I see Bowen and other unatheletic guys do it on the Spurs all the time.
i'm a big fan of yao. mcgrady not so much. but i'll try to put my preference aside. i think we just have to disagree on how to define "carry a team". i still believe no one can carry a team alone. not for an entire season. i don't think no one ever did. a great center is always more important than a great wing man. no exceptions. and iirc, you said earlier in this thread that yao never got a real chance to lead the team, but you're saying "yao just can't"?
hate my way of thinking all yo want. but when yao went down, deke's overall impact on the game is much greater than that of luther's when mcgrady went down. everything else being approx. equal. and this year once again - the help from scola and landry are much greater than luther's.
Well but reading your post it looks like McGrady got plenty of help when Yao went down, and Yao got NOTHING when McGrady went down. And it is not the truth
if i didn't make what i meant clear, i apologize. but if you think about it really, when yao went down, our interior was at least functioning decently thanks to deke, juwan, scola, landry, etc. whereas yao didn't got much help from the wing players since we did have decent backup wing players/shooters. that caused the whole team to malfunction to a degree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTDCEVtrmtc This is a clip of Yao that makes me laugh every time. That's Battier taking a charge...
