Say what? His best offensive season was last season, when he averaged 25 ppg on 0.516 shooting. That represents the most ppg of his entire career. You seriously need to check your facts before you post here.
dang, why are you so offended? if you see yao played, his best offensive stretch was to end the 05-06 season where he avg 27-28 (scoring 30-32 pts quite often) ppg during tmac's absence on high efficiency. he was truly dominant offensively. that carried over a little bit to the next season in 06-07, but he got injured. he has never been the same since.
The last three years: 05-06 22.3 ppg 51.9% on 15.8 shots per game 06-07 25.0 ppg 51.6% on 17.1 shots per game 07-08 22.0 ppg 50.7% on 15.5 shots per game Where's the drop off? His numbers the last three years have been remarkably consistent. He might have enjoyed a good streak in the 05-06 season but even this year there were months where he averaged over 25 ppg for the entire month on 16 shots per game, which is pretty damn good efficiency. Even in the last month he played where presumably his foot was giving him problems he still averaged over 20 ppg. The only conclusion I can draw is that he should probably be shooting the ball more, which has been an ongoing problem for years now.
Neither one. TMac is passed his prime already and Yao doesn't have a killer instinct to lead the team.
The answer is NEITHER! They are superstars in their prime although,but they will never be the super leaders,we need another one take over the team.
stats are fine. yao put up 25 and 11 in the playoffs v. utah 2 years ago. those are dominant STATS no doubt. but did yao dominate that series? boozer also put up 25 and 11 in that series. who was more dominant? yao is not as dominant offensively as he was to end 05-06. double teams can easily negate him nowadays whereas you couldn't then. he was routinely getting great position deep in the post whereas now he settles for more fallaways. that's why he gets less shots attempts. it isn't b/c the team isn't looking for him. it's b/c he can't get shots off b/c of quick double teams and his inability to establish dominant position from 8-10 ft every time down the floor. yao's per is 27-28 last yr, which is VERY high for a post player like yao who's not a versatile perimeter player ala KG or dirk. so he DOES get a lot of touches. now you see the 15.5 field goal attempts per game. why do you think so? for a guy that gets a lot of touches and only shoot 15.5 shots a game? think about it.
We don't have the 2 superstars we need to win a championship, on top of that they don't compliment each other. Yao is supposed to be the #1 option, and with great sadness i have to admit he never lived up to that role or took any criticism for the loss of the team. T-MAC can carry us, but can carry us only so far due to the damn mediocre talent we get every year (excluding this yr) . Its really starting to piss me off, i don't know whether I'm in a bad mood but I am sick and tired of waiting every year in anticipation when the last time we smelt a championship was over a decade ago...And stop bringing in midget players! We need size!
I'd say you probably need to go back and check for fg% rates for that series. Here's a hint: Yao only shot above 50% for two games of that series. How many games do you think Boozer had over 50%? Seriously dude, do you seriously think that cherry picking stats is going to get you anywhere? It's obvious why you don't like stats. You don't actually have any hard evidance to back up your arguments. Here's a subjective impression on my part: this year Yao, and the rest of the team, were busy learning a new offensive system to go along with their new coach. What's more under the Adelman system the correct response to a double team is to pass the ball out and get it to the open guy for an easy layup. Yao is completely unselfish when it comes to giving up the ball in a double team and in passing the ball back out he is doing the right thing and playing within the system. What the team as a whole has to do a lot better, (and what they were showing promise at), is getting the ball back to Yao after he reposts in deeper position. What's more who cares if Yao can't beat people off the dribble from the perimeter? He never plays out there anyway so your argument makes zero sense. And the bottom line is that he converts at better than .500, which is far better than any of the guards. You're still arguing that Yao's best stretch was in 05-06 when he averaged 22 ppg when just a year later he averaged 25 ppg for the entire season. My guess is that pretty much everybody on this board would prefer 25 ppg for the whole season compared to 22 ppg for a season, regardless of whether or not there's an above average month in there. And do I really need to point out that 25 ppg on 17 shot attempts is pretty damn impressive? Or that THIS YEAR Yao had a month in which he averaged 25 ppg on 16 shot attempts?
ask anybody, the stretch where tmac was injured for the rest of the season and yao was the main guy, he was doubled/tripled and dude put up 27-28ppg on 53-55% shooting with EASE. he had several games of 35-15 or 30-10. the double/triple teams couldn't disrupt him then b/c he usually establishes ridiculous positions down low. when yao gets it 8-10 ft deep, double teams don't matter to him b/c all he has to do is shoot, no need for any dribble. that's the yao to end the 05-06 season. i'm not even talking about the yao that played on the perimeter to start the year. the yao i'm seeing now takes more and more fallaways than ever. he doesn't establish position as easily anymore (trust me, there were tons of threads during this season and the jazz series wondering why yao takes a ton of shots from 12-15 ft rather than 8-10 ft or dunking on people). that's why double teams are so easy to take him out of games nowadays. and yao RARELY gets deeper position when he passes out. he usually is in the same damn spot. you don't think they would repost if yao now is right near the basket getting ready for a layup? the usage rating i'm talking about means that yao is mostly a post player. his usage ratings are on par with garnett/dirk and guys and that says a lot. yao GETS A LOT OF TOUCHES. that's not something anyone can question. it's on him to take the shots. if he gets better position, there would be no need to pass out b/c double teams can't disrupt him from within 10ft. they would disrupt him easily if he's out further b/c he then would have to take 2-3 dribbles to get closer position.
You can make up as many excuses as you want but the cold hard numbers don't lie. Yao's best season offensively was 06-07 where he scored 25 ppg. He may have had a good month or two in 05-06 but there's no question that his best sustained effort over the course of an entire year came in 06-07. What's more if you examine the numbers a little more closely you'll see that he scored more in 06-07 simply because he shot more. As a matter of fact if you compare the numbers for 05-06 and 07-08 you'll see that the numbers are almost identical in terms of how many times Yao shot the ball and how many times he scored. One more time: 05-06 22.3 ppg 51.9% on 15.8 shots per game 06-07 25.0 ppg 51.6% on 17.1 shots per game 07-08 22.0 ppg 50.7% on 15.5 shots per game Again, where's the drop off? You can try to weasel out of the question as much as you want but the truth is that you can't answer it because there hasn't been any drop off. And again, the correct thing to do 90% of the time when hit with the double team is for Yao to pass the ball out so that another Rocket can get an open look at the basket. In an inside-out game where Yao is basically the inside component he is going to get a lot of touches. In an Adelman system where ideally every Rocket on the floor gets to touch the ball once per possession he is going to get a lot of touches. There is no question though that Yao should be averaging better than 15 shots per game.
it's fine people want to vote yao, but throughout his career, he has never done it. this poll asks if yao can carry a team BY HIMSELF IN HIS PRIME compared to tmac IN HIS PRIME. if yao never did it, it's impossible to argue for him.
Analysis relies on stats. Just like in the real world science relies on measurements. If you can't quantify something all you're left with are subjective impressions and all the accompanying pitfalls--bias for example.
While I don't agree that Yao is past his prime, the question here is which player can carry the team in his prime. If you want to use statistics, it is quite obvious that the Rockets just don't perform as well w/o T-Mac (w/ Yao) as opposed to having T-Mac and being w/o Yao by simply looking at the win-loss records. For the last two years, Tracy has had to don the "Batman's cape" and lead this team, while Yao is out due to injury. In both season, the Rockets have managed to play themselves into the playoffs. While many will argue that Tracy McGrady is past his "prime", I believe that he has matured as a player and is a different type of player from the pre-Houston era. His 11 seasons in the NBA have certainly taken a toll on his body and he may not be in his "physical prime" per se, but he is still a very capable player in the "twilight years" of his prime (IMO). People will always point to statistics (i.e his scoring and FG%) to show that Tracy McGrady "isn't the player he once was"; and he isn't. On the Rockets, he is a player asked to do more than simply score points. If you look at statistics, his assist numbers are higher which indicates that he isn't simply "looking for his own" as he did in the Orlando days, but he is also getting others involved. That IS his main duty on the team. If you look at high-fliers like Jordan, Drexler, etc., they tend to lose there "hops" as they get older, which is only natural. As with the two I mentioned, they each had to adjust their games as they aged in order to succeed in the league. Today not only do we remember Jordan for his ability to "fly" or Drexler for his ability to "glide", but we also remember Jordan's follow-through motion on his J to end the Jazz's hopes and for Rockets fans, Drexler's unorthodox "frog kick" motion on his J which helped propel Houston to its 2nd title. At 28, and having already been in the league for 11 seasons, it is understandable that a player that has played as much as McGrady has is showing signs of wear and tear. While Tracy may not be the scorer he once was, his court vision and ability to make those around him better is truly his greatest asset. Also, why would Tracy need to score as much as he did in his Orlando days when you have an option like Yao Ming? Yao Ming is also here to help carry the scoring load so Tracy doesn't have to do it by himself. Yao Ming at 27 is currently in his prime. What worries me is that if you look back in history, players of HIS size tend to have shorter careers which are decimated by injuries. All you have to look at are cases like Manute Bol, Ralph Sampson, George Mureshan, and Shawn Bradley (and he just got tired of getting dunked on), and it certainly doesn't paint the brightest of futures for a player of his size who is already showing signs of wear and tear. However, since we have both of these guys, lets give both these guys another shot and bringing back "Clutch City"! Cheers to the Houston Rockets and may your season be prosperous and injury-free! Champs 09, fo sho.
The depends on the season, the coach, the teammates, the offense, etc. I'd say that this year, with a new system and a new coach, the Rockets have looked a lot more comfortable with T-Mac than in years past and the W/L record supports that. Also, it's commonly accepted that the team only gelled when T-Mac was sitting out due to injury.
that's a common perception sure b/c when injuries happen, others are forced to step up. but i would say it's the emergence of scola and landry, whom we didn't have last yr. so yes, we did look more comfortable without tmac this year. but again, we looked like an above average team without tmac, beating up on mostly the knicks and wolves, so really you can't really gauge how good we can be without tmac. but you can gauge how ridiculously good we were without yao. had alston been healthy, you can easily argue we could have beaten the jazz without yao. since the tmac-yao duo came about, tmac has been the most indispensable player of this team.
