What if Yao had started his career on a team with no other star?

The best always rise to the top.

Magic came to the league with Kareem.

Dream had sampson

Duncan had robinson

Kobe had Shaq


The best players figure it out no matter what team they are on.

 

Nicely done.

 

Magic was a pure pg. He handled the ball, period.

Sampson was an underachiever.

Robinson, see above.

Kobe is a prima donna.

 

I kind of expected this type of response

 

But Yao came to league with Cato and Jason Collier.

I truely think if he had played with Dream for one or two years, he could have been much better.

He may not have the physical gift like Shaq, Dream and Robinson, but he is a good student. He just need better teacher. So practising with Dream and watching him play from the bench would have a much more positive impact on Yao, I believe.

 

wow. lol.

 

No body can stop him from being GREAT, if he do has heart. Unfortunately, his EGO is too tiny to motivate himself.

 

that wouldn't have made any difference. if Yao plays with scrubs, he'll play to scrub's level. He'll let his scrub teammates dominate the ball and take more shots. Even if this team doesn't have TMac, players like Sura, Mo, Howard will step up and become a brighter star than Yao. The only team Yao would take over is this Chinese NT.

 

Intelligent post Jonhty. It's up to Yao to prove us wrong from now onwards.

 

No kidding.

 

Who did Kareem, Robinson, and Shaq have? Forget Sampson.

Kareem was dominant, got The Big O and won a championship.

Robinson had Gervin (?) past his prime.

Shaq had Nick Anderson.

Yeah it's easier playing second fiddle at the outset but if you're better you're better.

 

The way I see it Yao was the only star on the Chinese team. His performances with them should gauge how he'd do.

Yao is on par with the best centers in the league in scoring. Defensively the guy is a catastrophe. (Last night T-Mac outrebounded Yao and had an equal number of blocks.) That is what separates Yao from Shaq who, despite supposedly getting long in the tooth still can dominate and make that sorry Miami team a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.

Perhaps a long term solution is to acquire a defensive-minded forward so that Yao won't have to focus as much on defense.

 

I find the statements grossly inaccurate, cept the one about Sampson. I'm not sure what Kobe being a prima donna has to do with anything

 

Defensively the guy is a catastrophe? Are you sure you aren't over-estimating him? I mean 3 blocks last night - I don't know any center who would be happy with that. And Yao never changes any shots either. I'm sure it's a coincidence that the Rockets went from being a poor defensive team the year before we got Yao to a good one after. It's not like we've been near the top in the league in ppg allowed and FG% against every year since Yao got here.

Oh wait...I was wrong - Yao is a good to very good defensive center. You can out-quick him or shoot over him from outside, but very few people choose to challenge him inside. No one aside from Shaq can back him down (and even Shaq has problems), and if they try to go against him one on one, they often get blocked. He changes many more shots than he blocks, and while he does get dunked on, it's because he will challenge you to dunk over him where 98% of other players in the league just get out of the way because they are afraid of getting posterized.

Yao's defense has shown gradual improvement, just like his offence. Anyone complaining about it is missing the big picture.

 

I was responding to the original post. My point is it doesn't matter who you play with, trully great players produce. MJ averaged 35 points when he was the only one, and he scored 35 points when he had scottie pippen. Same goes for shaq or Dream. Great players get theirs.

 

Chilly Pete:
"First it was Steve and now its Tracy. Would he have benefited from being on a team where he was clearly the best player? He would be forced to be the teams offensive option. Would he have become a more aggressive player by now? "

Rockbox:
"The best always rise to the top.

Magic came to the league with Kareem.

Dream had sampson

Duncan had robinson

Kobe had Shaq"



The best players figure it out no matter what team they are on."


Since many of us questioned on Yao's passiveness, Pete conjectured if Yao was clearly the best on the team, could he be FORCED to take the leading role. Rockbox's statement is generally correct in that MOST great players figure it out no matter what team they are on. But it doesn't really answer Pete's question on Yao's situation. Dream and Duncan were clearly better than their counterparts from the get-go. Was Rockbox agreeing with Pete? Unlike T-mac and Yao, there was no competition between Magic and Kareem as far as scoring. Magic's primary role was to find the open man on the floor, just like between Stockton and Malone. He didn't need to play as a second fiddle to Kareem. Shaq or no Shaq, Kobe would take over because of his ego.

 

What if the Sun rises from the west?

 

I always thought if Yao was at least the average of Smits and Shaq that would be a worthy career. Worthy of the #1 pick. Both were All star caliber players so being at least the average of both qualifies as worthy in my opinion. Thus far...

Smits 14.8ppg
Shaq 26.9
Average (ShaqSmits): 20.8
Yao 16.0

Smits .507
Shaq .578
Average: .542
Yao .513

Smits .773
Shaq .535
Average: .650
Yao .803

Smits 6.1 rpg
Shaq 12.0
Average: 9.1
Yao 8.6

Smits 1.4 apg
Shaq 2.9
Average: 2.1
Yao 1.5

Smits 1.3 blk
Shaq 2.7
Average: 2.0
Yao 1.8

Smits 1.8 to
Shaq 2.9
Average: 2.4
Yao 2.2

Smits .8
Shaq 1.7 stl
Average: 1.2
Yao 0.3

My conclusion thus far is that Yao is on pace to acheive all the marks above, tho at the current time he is below many of them due to his rookie season.

 

I think our frustration with Yao is due to mostly our unwarrented, to a certain extent, expectations of Yao, simpily because he's 7'6" and 310 lb. In this sport that emphasizes both size and altheticism, one needs to see that they don't really go hand in hand. It is Yao's enormous size that makes him so ClOSE TO the ball or the basket, ironically it's also his lack of athleticism related to his size that makes him difficult to GET TO them. That's why we kept seeing him not able to finish the plays around the basket, or grab all those rebounds when they appeared so close to him. Please give the guy some slack, stop accusing him of not playing with heart. He's trying his best at this stage of his development and under this system of JVG. Whether he could turn out to be an all-time great or just another good player, only time will tell barring from any major injuries.

IMHO, Chinese as a race are shorter than the European whites or American blacks. It's fair to say that Yao's 7' 6" is kind of equivalent to 7' 9" of the other two races. Imagine a 7' 9" black person, I wonder how athletic could he be.