It doesn't matter this season. But if the Rockets can prove that they are still a very effective, elite-caliber team without Yao, then that should impact how we use him next year. For example, we wouldn't have to rely on him playing 35 minutes a game, and we would (hopefully) be a little more willing to match up against small ball teams with quickness at the 4/5.
Fans are short sight. Blowing out the opponents doesn't mean you're better. Spurs doesn't blow out the opponents. Are they good? Our chemistry became very good after the All star, or the trade. We won the games after the All star without suspense. It's all about the chemistry. The games without Yao look like better because we played faster tempo without Yao, not that we have more advantage. If you want to know how important Yao is for this team, recall the games when we were strugglling. Recall how who lead the team get out of the strugglling and how the Streak began!
With Yao, we could have won that Utah game and we may have a change to break the winning streak record!
you completely lost your credibility right here, buddy. i was wrong when i said in the past that you did not seem to have something against yao, because you actually do for whatever reason. 85% ft shooting is "great" for a big man, but by itself it's actually not that "great", you fool. and all the coaches and players in the league must be dumb fools, too. they double a center who is not great at anything but ft on the court (when he's not shooting ft's, lol). all the basketball fans are fools as well - they voted him an all star 6 times in a row. and whoever voted him for player of the month, fools too. they just thought a player only great at ft's was the best player in the entire western conf. for the month of january. but all that doesn't matter, my friend, because only you are the lone one who is right about yaoming, eh? you may know some basketball. but you're really having somethig against yao. why? only you know. are you even a rockets fan? i'm questioning you because you, along with a couple of others, bash our best player when he's down (after played too much ball for this club).
There is no doubt that the talent level took a huge hit with Yao out of the lineup. However, the Rox are playing better as a TEAM. The Rox are scoring alot more while defending about the same. The role players are relishing the fact that they will be getting about 3 to 5 more shot attempts every game. With Yao in the lineup, some of our role players would disappear and it would bog down the offense from time to time. With Yao out, Scolandry can develop much faster and they actually are a better compliment to Tmac. For example how many times has Tmac made a great pass to Yao and he fumbles it away for a TO? That doesn't happen nearly as often w/Scolandry because they have hands made of velcro. Even though this will never happen, I think the Rox should trade Yao this summer after he fully recovers from foot surgery. They should trade him for a slightly above average center, a good swing player and a #1 draft pick for the future.
5 games after yao's down is too small of a sample to draw conclusions, don't you think? and your "example"? yao's average t/o has been 3+ per. so 3 fumbles max? what is your point? as to your trade yao proposal, you know, morey is on 610 every wednesday. why don't you call him next time and ask for his thoughts to see what he has to say?
I also think this board would be much better without morons like you aka ekim aka rofflesassholz. The Rockets is winning. What about you morons just leave us alone and stop the hate for a while. Continuing to preach hate on this board after we have won the last 17 games has done nothing but proved how lowlife you are.
You have been right on throughout the thread about how good Yao is until the best player part... Sadly Yao is not our best player TMac is. I know I know TMac himself said that Yao is the best player, but you just don't have a pretty darn good record with TMac without Yao but the same can't be said about Yao playing without TMac. Best player is one who makes his team better and TMac does that and thats just plain facts. No excuses, No favoritism.
I think that when Yao and T-Mac are on the court together, Yao generally plays better. But when they don't have the other, that actually helps T-Mac and hurts Yao. Yao is dependent on other players getting him the ball, while McGrady excels when he doesn't have to think about setting Yao up. I think that's an area T-Mac needs to improve in for next season.
You mean Rockets/Yao needs to improve on getting the ball to him. Because TMac is the best passer to Yao and as you said Yao generally plays better with TMac. Anyways.
I confirm that the team definitely needs YAO. Though Rockets now win again & again without YAO, all these teams do not have a really good C or PF. Let us consider the Phoenix Suns, why they trade Shawn Marion for O'neal? It's obviously that if you do not have a good C, it would be too hard to win the championship. Rockets needs a good C!! and no one can deny that YAO is one of the best C in the NBA. However, I think YAO can learn something useful from Pau Gasol
if you insist mcgrady is the best rocket and yao second, i have no problem to concede, though i don't think so. but that's outside of this particular thread. the with-and-without type of analyses are often flawed, anyways. and the make-team/teammates-better thing can be overblown too imo. another topic, anyway.
I said it's all about the chemistry. Now the team without Yao and Tmac on the court can even blow out the opponents. If the time comes back to 3 months ago, which player will you rely on?
For those who actually believe this stupid suggestion... YAO WAS INJURED MOST OF THE SEASON AND STILL PUT UP 22/10 NUMBERS FOR THE ROCKETS!!! Yao played injured most of this season. Yao has never been a great leaper but sometime before the all star break clearly lost some of his bounce and agility. Even then this team was better with an injured Yao than not. If someone wants to argue this team is better off with an injured Yao or not than I say that is a legitimate argument that you would still lose but at least it's not total stupidity. But to argue that a healthy Yao does not improve this team leaves no doubt about your lack of intelligence. Yao is one of the best players in the league no doubt and is the best player on this team. Again let me repeat... YAO WAS PLAYING ON A STRESS FRACTURE MOST OF THE SEASON AND STILL PUT UP 22/10
it happened in Dallas...the first loss of the season My friend who is a die hard suns fan says the same thing about Amare. He thinks Amare will be exposed when Nash is gone. He has no back to the basket game......and he'll take Yao over Amare on his team any day of the week. Apparently there are people on Suns boards who say this often. Apparently Yaoo eats amare's lunch everytime they meet. I dont know about everytime, but i guess there are dillusional fans everywhere
