I don't think the Tim Donaghy situation will change anything as far as officiating in the league. Stern and the big suits are passing it off as an "isolated case", and they'll probably exhaust the rest of their time towards making sure refs don't gamble rather than trying to improve the overall quality of the calls. The biggest problem by far in the NBA is not the decline in quality of officiating, but the gradual public acceptance and expectation of said poor officiating. Like Bill Simmons said, when we heard about the corrupted ref we didn't ask "how could this be" we asked "which one" and started guessing among the ones in the back of our heads that have singlehandedly decided games thanks to their unintentional bias, incompetence, egomaniacal self-righteousness, or any combination of the three. So no, I don't expect any calls regarding Yao to change. The last progress we made regarding Yao fouls was two years ago when JVG got huge fines for complaining about it in the Dallas series. In the regular season following that you could tell that the refs watched him differently, and it was reflected in his numbers. If there's any one thing I can feel grateful to JVG for doing, it was that. Actually, number one would be bringing in T-Mac, but that would be a close second.
I agree with the guy on Yao. Yao is the most efficient offensive player we got. Another year of experience and better spacing and more motion and better shooters around him, pound it too him--very good formula. Tmac should be the guy if we have just 5 so seconds though and we don't have time to set up. Think Duncan/Manu.
You can criticize Stevie all you want about turnovers and dribbling the air out the ball but you can't fault him for his clutchness. The guy can flat out put points on the board at the end of games. I remember him making many clutch shots while he was here. He also draws alot of contact which will get him to the free throw line which is something TMac does not do.
Anyone that forgot how clutch Francis is just needs to go back and watch the game called Shaq vs Yao I. He tore it up out dueling Kobe and got us the victory with clutch shots one after another. It may have been a regular season game, but the atmosphere was bigger than any playoff or Finals game in years. From the build up, the sell out crowd, all the extra media, and being on ESPN as well, i've yet to see that much buzz around the Toyota Center ever.
i'm sorry, why does manu's name keeps coming up in these convo? he's nowhere in the league of tracy. he doesn't do what tracy does.
francis is clutch. mike james is clutch. bonzi is clutch at times. so we have plenty of clutch players. as long as we put a lineup of guys out there who have "no fear" of missing shots down the stretch, we'll do great. just no alston please. he misses when it's not even a clutch situation. hell he misses in practice, shootouts...
This is the 1st time I have brought up Manu and Tracy. I am not saying Manu is as good or does as much as Tmac. What I am saying is Tracy can do Manu's role, or Bryant for Shaq's role, or Drexler to Hakeem's role in 95. Basically super second banana players who can pick importamt spots to really make key plays and sustain their teams, but none of these guys could carry a championship caliber team without a bigger beast centering the team, and I think Tracy is the same.
lol brooks will not even be in the game in the 4th quarter, unless its a blowout. he is not going to get much PT.
that's fine if tracy played w/ duncan/hakeem/shaq. yao is not on their level in any way or form. and duncan has ginobili AND parker. i don't think duncan is as dominant as during his prime, hence the reason why parker won the MVP (though duncan drew alot of double teams).
Yao will need to be if the Rockets will be title contenders. Maybe not Hakeem/Shaq in their prime level since no other player in the NBA has been at their level since Shaq started declining, but he need to be probably Duncan level.
Prior to he's injury, yao was on Duncan level(on offense). not hakeem or shaq level, but he was on duncan level. duncan still had him beat on defense, but on offense if anything yao was more effecient. I'm inclined to be alot less worried this year about who will stepup in the clutch. you know mike james or francis are not gonna shy away rom taking the last shot if tracy or yao start being passive again in the clutch.
but i think the rockets would be better if Yao had more of a DEFENSIVE presence. thats one reason Yao will never be on duncan or shaqs level no matter what numbers he puts up on the offensive end. the problem is Yao doesnt intimidate anyone. no one is scared to take it to the hole and challenge yao. guys are ALWAYS trying to dunk on him and often times the suceed. how many times do you even see people ATTEMPT to dunk on shaq ? thats why this will always be Tracy's team and will only go as far as T-mac takes it.... IMO at least
If Francis, James and Bonzi are all so clutch... they would not have been so available for us to sign at the minimum or easily trade for. At this stage in their career, all three of them are supporting players at best.
supporting players can't be clutch? horry? dfish? paxson? kerr? all we need them to do is what alston/howard/head failed to do and failed HORRIBLY. knock down open shots consistently when they have them. we don't need them to take over games; scores a ton;carries the team. francis/james/bonzi give us 3 other options (AT LEAST one of them will show up nightly i believe) to help out our big 2.
T-mac didnt choke. We got out rebounded. T-mac did his job...WE SHOULDVE WON THT GAME 7. I think we can win a championship! T-mac's the man!
