I believe we are also on pace to 45 wins this season aren't we? But it's just that 45 wins may not be enough to make the playoffs. And good point about the zone limiting our guards' 1-on-1 game. Not to mention that Mo Taylor was a consistent contributor that year but he's not now. And Hakeem cancelled out Yao. So basically we should be a worse team than the 2000 team but we are on pace to win the same amount of games. 1 more thing, I believe all is not lost even if we don't make the playoffs. I think. the 2 or 3 years ago Mavs team of Don Nelson, Nash, Finley and Dirk also missed the playoffs. Look at them now. Keep the faith.
I have a different view. I don't think we would have had a better record without Yao. However, I think we would have had a better record if we continued to use Francis and Mobley as our 1st options and used Yao as garbage man or outside threat. Actually you could see that since Jan/Feb our offense run through Yao more but our results were more consistent and I think the main reason is because Yao's yet to have the inside dominant ability. But we all know that in order for us to win the championship Yao must become a dominant inside presence. So I think we now are determined to develop Yao as our inside force and learn the new inside outside system regardless of the current results. That's growing pain. And I believe this take 1 step back before take 2 steps forward tactic would really benefit Yao and thus be good for the long term future of our team.
