we can win without yao because we have tmac but tmac cant do it alone and as uve seen yao before, he can be very dominant. Almost like the kobe/shaq combo, tmac and yao together are much more effective and yes it is becoming a guard's game but look at the big men in the league, Dirk, Brand, Bosh, Howard, Stoudemire, just to name a few are very important to their team and dallas probalby wouldnt have made it that far without dirk. I believe this team has championship caliber WITH yao and tmac and an effective bench and role players.
I will say it again, there is no such thing as a "Yao Only Hater" so if the "Yao Only Fans" must use a term, the correct term is "Yao Only Fan- Hater" this thread title is 100% accurate... we are better without T-Mac than without Yao.. there is no reason to get defensive for the Chosen One or spout off stats of how we are in an easy stretch of schedule... its just the truth, so deal with it! T-Mac makes everybody better, including Yao!
I thought about starting a thread along the same lines. Yao is emerging as the best player on the Rockets, but when T-mac is his old self like he has been lately he's still better than Yao. One of the biggest differences is how the Refs call the games on Yao compared to T-mac. With the game on the line in the 4th Q the defense is allowed to kill Yao without any fouls being called. T-mac gets more respect than Yao and he's the guy we need to win close games because of it. Also T-mac is still a better finisher than Yao because Yao is often tired at the end of games he turns the ball over or shoots off balance shots more than T-mac does. T-mac's stamina is still better than Yao's. Yao has been getting better but he's still most effective in the 1st half of games and fades towards the end.
ok, so finalsbound definitely has a take...and it's a good one. It's just not my take. Yao Ming is the Rockets. I mean, I love TMac, but this is Yao Ming's team. I don't think saying JVG coaches a slow game is unconducive to TMac is quite correct. JVG coaches offense to his team's strength. That is Ewing before and Yao now. Just exactly won't Rudy would do. WWRD Rudy would pound the ball to Yao. WWHD Hakeem would pound the ball to Yao. WWMD Moses would pound the ball to Yao. And to quote Moses during a timeout in the 76rs Fo-Fo-Fo year. He said to Maurice Cheeks..."There is a rat in the house. Feed him some cheese." refering to himself.
This team needs both Yao and Tmac to beat power houses like Spurs, Mavs, Suns. We will need both to beat mid-pack Jazz, Lakers, and Nugs. Now who we should feature more in our offense? I think whoever is hot, and mix things up. Establish Yao early, and that will open up for Tmac. Once Tmac is going, things will get easier for Yao. And if both get going, Lutha, Bonzi, Howard, Battier are going to have wide open layup, jumper drills. We are fortunate to have two dominant players, an in-out combo. Lets utilize them to the fullest and there will be nights one of them is quieter than the other. Shaq once said it when he was playing Kobe that kobe is ICBM and he is the nuke. I think that analogy describes our combo too.
sigh...this is why I need my editing privileges back. I meant to write...."Just exactly what Rudy would do."
I believe finalsbound has a legitimate point but for different reasons. Please remember the team has started to adjust to Tmac being out and we have been close in every single game w/out Tmac. The role players had appeared to be stepping up (especially SA game) and may have carried over through to Tmac's return. The biggest reason I think we have a better chance of winning w/ Tmac is because he can close out a game. There are several games we would ride Yao but lose at the end because they swarmed him or no one else could get their shot off. We dont have that problem with Tmac and if the role players continue to play great (Jhoward, Bonzi, Deke, Lucas, etc) than we have a chance in everygame because if we keep it close enough Tmac can take over ala Kobe to win the game. Not only by his scoring but setting up his teammates. We have a better chance at winning right now without Yao because 1. The role players have been picking up momentum and playing excellent 2. Unexpected emergence of LHead, and the return of JHoward 3. Tmac can set up so many people with open looks 4. Because we have our closer (Tmac) back.
You forgot to mention that sofar we have beaten some of the worst teams in the league. Unless you wanna ignore that as a fact.
To the person initiate this thread, I want to say: You are fooled! I remember quite clearly when T-Mac was in his back problem, many people lost faith, they only counted on Yao, Without T-Mac, Rox lost several games, but we still have chance to win these games, Yao is not a play maker, and I think he will never be a good play maker, how many centers are play makers in this league? excellent guards or SFs are much better killers at clutch times, T-Mac, Kobe, AI, Wade........., they did better. BTW, Yao is exhausted and mostly double teamed and he has a stamina problem. After the SAS win, Yao and other Rox players gained confidence, but unfortunately, Yao was hurt, otherwise, I think we have a 6 win streak already, even without T-Mac. T-Mac is back, and the old T-Mac is back gradually, it's nice, especially when Yao can't play. We won 3 games in a row, and the next game, but these teams are just mediocre, we shouldn't be that happy to talk about who is better. Without Yao or T-Mac we can win some games, but we can't win playoffs. This is a T-Mac&Yao team, we need them both.
This thread sucks!! firsts we need Yao no matter what anyone says period!!!!! second as good as team Suns is they still can't win a championship and that is because come playoff time teams will be playing games slower with more defense and cautious and that is where a dominant player comes in especially like yao who has a soft touch, excellent free throw shooter to go with his size. And about Suns yes they will do great during regular season games but they struggle in playoffs especially against teams like Spurs and guess what we are a team like Spurs, even spurs struggled against us twice with Tmac playing bad, that should tell you something. Now, with Tmac's, JHo's, and battier's shooting improving while Yao is out if they all keep this up especially Tmac this will tell the league that there is a new sheriff in Texas that they need to watch out for. p.s. I have a feeling Bozi's shooting will pick up dramatically in playoffs after all he needs to build his rep again.
LOL ... my bad, could have done without it. Happy New Year to all CF members! Including you crack whoring YOHs out there!
Tough to fairly compare so far. In the 4 games since T-Mac has come back we beat the Nets, Hawks, and Grizzlies who all have well under .500 records and the last two were at home. The Nets were on a 3 game losing streak before facing us and the Hawks had a 5 game losing streak. The Grizzlies only have 2 road wins so far, being 2-15 on the road before facing the Rockets. In comparison, during the 7 games T-Mac missed, the Rockets faced only Western conference teams and had a 2-5 record. 5 of those games were on the road and all 5 teams had winning home records if not winning records overall. Yao led the Rockets to wins over the Clippers and Spurs on the road. They barely lost against the Warriors and Lakers. In the close loss against the Blazers, Yao played well but did'nt get much help from his teammates. Against the Spurs the team looked like they were adjusting to being without T-Mac and blew out the Spurs. Unfortunately Yao got injured early in the 1st quarter in the home loss against the Clips, a game they would have won if Yao did'nt get injured. It looks like the supporting cast was starting to step up when Yao got injured. T-Mac came back to a team that was prepared to play with only 1 of their stars. Anyway, this topic should'nt have been posted until the Rockets beat a few Western conference teams with good home records on the road without Yao, not some of the worst teams in the league. That would be more comparabe to what the Rockets faced without T-Mac and then your point would have some validity.
Before blaming others who threw tomatos at you and called you a clown, would you care to think again what you were saying? It's this kind of thread that claimed even Mutombo is better for the team than Yao is made it a waste of time to read along. As for the start of YOF calling, I've been around long enough to know how it began and I don't believe it's been fair to single out Yao fans. Many fans like certain NBA stars and then their teams, some support more of the stars than of the teams. They tend to care about their stats. I've seen many such fans in NBA sports, and these Yao fans are not alone. So why call them out and accuse them indifferent to the team? Yao was unfortunate to be hurt the first game after they beat Spurs and believed it was the start of their turning point to win tougher games. Yao just learned how to lead the team to win against better teams. While it's impossible to compare team's performance w/ or w/o a certain player, you'd know better not to compare Yao's road games against western playoff teams with Tmac's easier games against those lesser teams. I'm very happy to see TMac seems to be back to himself and play with great passion, and I'm aware that both Yao and TMac don't care who's the leader and they like each other. It's only such kind of meaningless topic you started to stir up the whole thing.
Now I see a TOF here. Care to elaborate how the team is much better with TMac as the leader, but not with Yao? From the last three wins? LOL
