I completely agree, he is very talented for his size. He is a great guy and a very good teammate. I actually love Yao and root for him too. My point was, just how the game is played, he doesn't fit in. He has too much of a negative effect on the game to be able to win the championship. We will keep him becasue the money.
it wasnt if yao was black it was if he was american. and that isnt a racist comment even tho the op may have thought it was. it's a nationalist comment. hello? america is a tossed salad/pseudo melting pot. and if yao was black he would be a 7'6 dwight howard with a skillset. yeah, i think most teams would want that.
What the hell? One trade and all of a sudden we won't make the playoffs? Please do us a favor and stop posting... Right now.
Good God, are you like 7 years old or something? My eight year old nephew knows more about basketball than you do. Since when did our offense become "pass it to Yao and hope he scores?" More now than before, Yao's almost become a decoy in our offensive scheme. I would venture to say that he passes out of the double team too much for the team's own good.
Most likely we can both agree that Artest will leave this offseason. Who on the trading block could we get with McGrady? I mean, how many teams are going to want to risk taking a guy with poor character (they will think that after all this bad PR), injury history, choking in the playoffs, and coming off microfracture surgery? I mean I hear all of yall say, oh we will get this player for T Mac, we will sign this guy easy, but the question is, is that what you want to happen, or do you actually see it happening? I am not necessarily being pessimistic, I am being realistic. What kind of return can we get off McGrady? Just asking your opinion, not meaning to insult you or anything
Ok, how often have you seen Yao drop a pass? now Duncan? How often have you seen Yao make a great pass? now Duncan? How often have you seen Yao turn the ball over and stare at the ref? Duncan? so maybe i should have said, "pass it to Yao and hope we at least get a shot off" Maybe you should ask your 8 year old nephew if he thinks Yao is better than Duncan like you apparently do.
Hmm, so if Yao was American and not our starting center, who would be? If tomorrow Yao becomes an American citizen you're saying we start Mutombo over him?
wtf dude? The only part of your post I agree with is Rafer having success in Orlando. But no need to step on our team like that. I AM VERY CONFIDENT that we can still pull it together for a playoff push. I don't know why, but this team still has the pieces to contend. We will see within the next few games. Without T-mac, we are 13-6. That will get even better as the players learn to play with a specific line up more. As said in another post, as valuable as Rafer was, we are 6-1 with Brooks as our starting PG. Plus, we have guys named Wafer, Scola, Landry and now Lowry. I don't know why everybody's panicking.
You have to consider the other side of the party. Other teams will want artest, and they might throw more money at him. Also lets look at what he's been through: -He didn't start half the year (that will be in the back of his mind, trust me he is a person not a machine, you have to consider these things) -He felt like he played with women with all the soap opera stuff going down -We underachieved -We don't look like a contender going into next season We may want him, but I don't think he will want us
Let's wait for Tmac to decide his situation, then let's wait to see what assets are available this offseason from cash strapped franchises. In the meantime, let's cheer for the Rockets and hope that all your opinions (not reality, just opinions) are wrong. DD
You want people to back up an argument with evidence yet you make all these arguments with absolutely no evidence. 1) What does Rafer having success in Orlando have to do with this team? Why would we kick ourselves if he does have success. According to you his game is better suited to the Magic so if he does have success there it doesnt change how he would have played here. It appears you claim that Rafer's skillset doesnt fit this team, so why should we keep him. If you honestly believe that, then it was the right move to ship him out regardless of how he does in Orlando. 2) Your next point is that we might or might not make the playoffs. You are simply stating the obvious. At least say one or the other, not somehow argue that either could happen, cuz either has to happen. Dont say the Suns are suddenly guaranteed a spot over us because they are running their old offense. In case you havent noticed, they just clobbered one of the worst teams in basketball twice. Its not like they have proven anything yet. We just clobbered the Twolves and Nets, does that mean the rest of the league is afraid. How have the Mavs been more consistent then us, they just came off a string where they blew a team out one night and got blown out the next. No team in the second tier in the West has shown they are ready to do anything to suddenly distance themselves from the pack. 4) You say we needed a healthy Mcgrady. I will not argue that this team would be better off with a healthy Mcgrady. But when you say he brought swagger to the offense, hit late clutch shots, hit big threes down the stretch, had a voice that carried weight, what exact situations where you talking about. Aside from the 13 in 35 seconds game, there were not a lot of game winners and late clutch shots. Plus, im not sure you should be saying with Tmac we had something no other NBA team could match (driving ability, hit big shots, not be a defensive liability, and pass the ball). I would think Laker fans, Cav fans, Heat fans among others would feel they have guys that might be able to match Tmac there. 5) You sit there and bash Artest for his decision making, gambling defense, yet you say the most important problem is he will be gone soon. If you feel he is so bad for the team, how is it a bad thing to let him walk away so we have 7-8 million in cap space. 6) Now here is your worst argument. You say Yao is a huge defensive liability and he is a bad shot blocker. Right now only 12 guys in the NBA average more blocks per game then him, and only 23 average more blocks per 48 min. And dont give me crap about him being 7'6 so he should average more. Stats are what stats are, and he blocks that many shots whether he is 7'6 or 5'6. Plus if you somehow could chart altered shots, Yao would be near the top in that category. Watch the games, the Rox defense usually gets much worse when yao comes out of the game. You say guys can blow right by him and get him in foul trouble yet you fail to mention that 18 guys average more fouls then Yao per game. Over 60 guys average more fouls per 48 min then Yao. Factor in that a ton of Yao's fouls are on the offensive end, and you will see he is hardly getting in foul trouble due to his defensive play. You say if Yao was not Chinese he would not start for the Rockets. Who would be the center then, Deke, Hayes or Landry? Yao is clearly the best center on this team and clearly one of the best centers in the league. I guarantee if Yao was a white guy with the same skill set and size, at least 27 teams would want him as their center. The only guys you could argue for would be Dwight Howard, and maybe Shaq or Al Jefferson. You also say everytime Yao misses a shot it ends up being a fast break and two points for the other team? Do you not watch the games. The rockets are not terrible at giving up fast break points. Watch the next five Rox games and keep track of how many times Yao misses a shot and the other team scores on an immediate fast break. You also say yao can not play against fast paced teams. And you show the all star game as a comparison? That game is a joke and has no relevance to real basketball. Should every team just try to pass between Dwight Howard's legs since it worked in that game? Yao has done fine against fast paced teams. He has had monster games against the Warriors, Suns, Nuggets, and Lakers this year and in the past. And honestly there really arent even many fast paced run and gun teams anymore. Does he bring revenue to Les, absolutely. But has Yao proven despite his race or background that he is clearly one of the best centers in the league, absolutely. You actually failed to state the one true reason that building around Yao could be a mistake and that is injuries. All the rest are stereotypes (too slow, defensive liability, foul prone) that you throw out there, yet somehow Yao is an established 20 and 10 player and there are not that many out there.
First, lowry barely played on MEMPHIS, quit thinking just becuase we traded for him he will get a lot of playing time and be effective. Second, I agree we are better without McGrady than a hurt McGrady. Third, Brooks won't have much of a true backup, he will be playing a whole lot of time, and every game for that matter. Does he have the mental and physical endurance to play out the season with that much responsibility? I hope so, but its asking a lot of a second year player.
1. What do we care how well Orlando does, unless we meet them in the Finals? 2. I think YOU will be surprised how easily we not only make the playoffs but take home court advantage. The rest of the West is basically in turmoil at this point, and we just lost our anchor for the year. Who knows how New Orleans will react to not being able to deal Chandler--he failed his physical, and they were sucking in the past ten games even when they had him. Phoenix just blew the Clippers out twice; what does that say? Dallas, San Antonio, and Utah are all clearly inferior to what they were last year. So no, I don't think we will miss the playoffs at all. 3. He may not have been the ideal coach for our personnel last year, but we are getting to the point where EVERY player on team is becoming a threat to score or create for others an easier shot. The defense will improve greatly with Battier back to 100% as it appeared he was on Tuesday and T-Mac shutting it down for the year. It's a work in progress, but this team is being molded in the long haul into an Adelman machine, just like Portland and Sacramento, and contraindicated to JVG's teams where you have offensive black holes and a stagnating offense that gets picked apart in the playoffs. 4. I agree that we needed a healthy McGrady to win it all this year, but let's face it: that McGrady is gone, has been gone since the playoffs last year and perhaps even a significant time before that too. What Tracy has turned into is, like the corpus luteum, a mass of decaying cells secreting progesterone in an oscillatory fashion to induce thickening of the wall of the uterus. It's time to move on, and while that ultimate hurts our chances to the win the championship, it in no way precludes us from making noise in the playoffs this year. 5. It's tough to call Artest overrated when he scores 20+ in the absence of T-Mac all the while making ~8million with an expiring contract this year. Add that to a surprising 39.6% on threes this year and I think you have a great fit to the team. Also, have the national media been jumping on his jock lately? In my mind he's still rather underrated, and we're going to see just what that means in the next few weeks. Watch his defense too--I agree it's not been what I expected in the beginning, but let's see the entire body of work without T-Mac. 6. I have said in the past that Yao Ming cannot be the max player at the core of a championship team, and to that extent I agree. The point to which you took it however makes this your most ridiculous point of them all. He's in the top 10 in PER and the only Rocket in the top 50. His defense has been improving. He's been the healthiest starter so far this year. I don't know where you get that he would not be starting for us at center if he was not Chinese. Maybe you would not hate him so much if he were not Chinese too? If you think that claim is ludicrous, then you have a good reference point for how ludicrous your comment was. Ming is a fantastic asset. I don't know if I would give him a max contract, but he DEFINITELY has the heart to win a championship if we can restructure our core in the near future. 7. I think the goal of a franchise is to contend while constantly rebuilding. No team unless it has a Lebron, Kobe, Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade or Dwight Howard should be of the mindset that it can get by giving huge-ass contracts to its "stars". And even then, the teams that are constantly deep in the playoffs always have to re-tool, which is a polite term for rebuild. San Antonio would be nowhere if they could not establish a line of continuity to replace old parts over the years. Avery Johnson David Robinson Sean Elliot here and there turned into Manu Ginobili Tony Parker Bruce Bowen and even Steven Jackson. Role players went from Robert Horry to Bruce Bowen to Ime Udoka now. Michael Finley has now given way to George Mason and George Hill. In a microcosm, that's exactly what Morey has been able to do the last couple years, with Landry and Scola replacing Juwan and Hayes, Brooks and now Lowry replacing Rafer. Next year he will have to find a way to replace Tracy. If Morey could do more, he would have done so, but when you are handed the core of T-Mac and Yao you have to make the assessment of whether or not it is worth it to see what those two can do with an actual team around them (which we had not had until last year btw). If you say yes, then you do what Morey has done the last couple years. If you say no, then you dump them in time and start from scratch, dealing with likely 2-4 years of atrocious play and frequency in the lottery hoping to luck out on a core guy like Durant or find a FA superstar willing to bless your team with his presence. So far that last option has only happened once to lead to a championship--Shaq signing as a FA in Los Angeles. Otherwise, you build from the ground up, and I don't see how you can blame Morey at all for how he's handled the team so far. We are contenders still. But we are also better prepared for success in the future than we have been in a long time also. With actual payroll flexibility Morey is going to get his first chance to show us what he can really do.
