Landry can be that guy. Hopefully the Rockets figure that out and start to use him more as a post-up player.
first you said yao had missed a "majority" of games in all previous 3 seasons. i called you out and now you're saying that claim you made up doesn't matter. why should i bother to debate with one who just made something up and says it doesn't matter? and you went on here and said yao is a liability and is expendable (but yet you tried DEFEND him). i think even a 5th grader knows you are lying. and if your bball iq tells you yao is a liability and is expendable (like luther head?), then all i can say is you are a hell of a rockets fan. lol.
IBM- ur my man and all and I understand what ur trying to say in a sense, but to me, for the right price, everyone is expendable. Now if you want to keep a good player like yao because he brings money to your team that u won't spend then ur not serious about a title. I think the rox can when with Yao,tracyand artest, but I don't think they can win with the other cast members. Neither 4's can makeup up for Yao's lack of footspeed and defensive liability. There are a lot of don't haves for a team trying to win the title. If one had to go, I don't think the rox would do it, but history has shown they can win without Yao. Plus he has the highest value and would bring the most back in return. I'm not worried about that, but it has been clear that mclazy,t-back or whatever people like to call him is the "dude." Many wish that wasn't the case, but it is. He knows it, most know it. When they talk about playoff failures, they bring up tracy. That means he's the best player. When Dream was 1 and done in the 90's, they didn't blame dirk minnefield or buck johnson, they blamed dream. That's just the way it goes. If tracy is traded and yao is left and they can't make it out the 1st rd or win a ring, they blame the best player.
i think his point is that if marc gasol can outphysical him in a reg. season game, what do you expect when the playoffs roll around when everybody increases their physicality up a notch? you can't take yourself out of a game b/c another guy is stronger than you. like london said, we don't care if yao is inefficient in games like this: BUT WILL YOUR WAY through the game. you know how some games kobe shoots 5-17 like he did v. the wiz a few nights ago? he stil got to the line 13 times and so on to get his 23 points. yao just needs to will his way and get those points and rebounds and make himself a threat. he can do it. he just has to want to do it.
if anything he misses time before january. he always plays most of the games after january to the playoffs.
An entire team is built around him while he sits out alot. We get crappy record and then no home court advantage and if by some miracle we do get home court advantage we gonna lose it to any of the other 8 contenteders in the west. While mcgrady is on that team, THERE IS NO HOPE.
Not 2 sound rude or anything but i guess you don't know basketball. Just his presence alone would have changed the game and spaced the floor. No other team is going to be scared of Rafer , Luther , Wafer and all. All the Grizzlies had to worry about was Yao and that's it. McGrady would have made a huge difference or even Artest if he played.
everyone is expendable ULTIMATELY. that is true. but that wasn't what i was replying to in that particular context. mcgrady included, we've seen franchise-type of players got expended all the time. our 4's imo are perfectly fine. scolandry plus chuck wagon are as good as any good 4's any other team may have. we've tried players like swift, a very athletic one, before and we all know how it worked out (or not). this team has won in the past without yao in the regular seasons. that's because they still had enough help left in the front court. when yao led a mcgrady-less team, his situation was much tougher since #1 we didn't have enough help left in the back court (even more so last night) and #2 the current rules favor wing players heavily. plus, without yao, we lost in 6 games in the postseason; with yao, we went to game 7. there is a difference there. to say yao is expendable based on win-loss record is kinda baseless. looking forward, yao has some good years left barring injuries. mcgrady is off the peak of his career clearly. that's not a knock on his god-given talent, it's just the wear and tear after a long career. had he entered the league at the age of, say 22, his fragile body might have held a lot better as of now. last year marked his first season not being selected to all star team. this year imo is also doubtful for him. i know it's mainly the injuries, but that says something about his clear decline physically. so it's clear to me that in 4-5 years, who the rockets should rely on more in between yao and mcgrady. people have got to understand, the 13-in-35 mcgrady or the 60+ pts angry mcgrady is gone. (same applies to sf3, to a different extent.) if i have to gamble, my bet is on yao. plus, good wingmen are easier to replace than a good center who attracts double teams and alters the opposing teams' gameplan far more often. i may be wrong, but i believe give yao enough time he can succeed as a leader and a lone core player of this team. he's never really got a chance to try that before. the only exception was 2 years back, but unfortunately he broke his leg on a stupid charging tim thomas.
Mc Grady is wearing off on Yao with his under achieving? Dude you name yourself after T Mac on here who has the most experience and the most money and you are taking shots at Yao. I believe YAO should get blame when he sucks, but people around here just have a grudge against him. I believe if an objective person who knew nothing about Yao or McGrady or basketball came to this site, they would see a great CULTURE WAR playing out on the BBS and its a damn shame. I hope I'm reading to much into it but it's getting too close for my comfort over the last couple of years.
This is why..... You shouldn't start threads. Yao is a leader (maybe not "the") on this team whether you like it or not, even if he plays like a fluffy bunny sometimes.
You called me on what? Change majority to a good chunk of games. Does that make you feel better? I don't care how good you are if you can't play, it doesn't matter. Also frustration with Yao has no relation to me being a Rocket fan. I was a fan long before Yao ever came on board. I will still be after he retires or is traded. He hasn't done a damn thing for this franchise to be put on a pedestal though, so get off your high horse. I like Yao. I think he is good, but his value is severely overrated. Thus expendable.
Barring injuries? Plenty of injuries in 3 consecutive years. In 4 or 5 years I doubt the Rockets will be building around either of them at all. I hope not at least. One game isn't a big difference at all. It just means the same 1st round exit. If the league is built around wing players, wouldn't it be better to build your team around wing players then? Also 6 years in the league isn't enough time to be a leader and core player on the team? No one ever stopped him from taking over except himself. Put the whole Chinese bull**** respect aside. No one ever stopped him from being a leader from the get go. If it really is injuries that has stopped him, then that just means he's expendable because he can't even play on the court when it matters most.
you know what's funny? change the yao's in your post to mcgrady's name. i think it applies better. see below for examples - "I don't care how good you are if you can't play, it doesn't matter." - bingo. guess who's not playing now and for no good reason? "He hasn't done a damn thing for this franchise to be put on a pedestal though, so get off your high horse." - bingo, again. can you tell me what has #1 brought to this team? he's got his chances plenty. so why iso yao? and don't pretend you've "defended" him. at least yao brings a beam of fresh air to the league from a different culture. he also brings $$ to this team.
where were you when akeem had his share of injuries earlier in his career? and i said the current rules unfairly favor wing players. that is just a fact. where in hell did i say a team nowadays should be built around wing players? and if yao did nothing in his 6 years, what did mcgrady do in his 11 years? get rid of your bias, and try to be fair - if you know what fair or objective means.
IBM- The league has always favored the swing guys. Its very,very rare when they aren't the top scorers. If yao had dominant personality, he would. Shaq,dream,moses, robinson would avg 27 a game today. The combat that used to go on down low wouldve equaled jail time. As far 4 or 5 yrs, both are downward arrows. Tracy with the injuries and the body and yao with injuries and pace of the game. Scolandry and hayes are not good compliments to yao. Scola is a terrible defender,landry is the best of the 3, and hayes is a terrible offensive player. None of the 3 are long,skilled players who can force a matchup to beat guys off the dribble. Nor are any capable of erasing shots at the goal when yao is off the floor or out of position. So when teams see yao, they pull him away from the goal like gasol did, which allows uncontested shots at the rim. When he's out the game, the toll way is free. No one can contest a shot. When team tried it during the ring yrs, hakeem could makeup a lot of ground, but also horry was a long guy who blocked shots also. I don't care how many games they win in the regular season, they have no shot at beating the lakers. Sadly, that's the team they will have to beat to win the west. Unless Yao can dominate for the series, which I doubt or scolandry can single gasol, another doubt, or they find someone who can matchup with odom, the last doubt.
