I wish we had Yao because he'd make the Rockets much more formidable, but at the same time, I'm really enjoying the recent 7-0 spurt without him. Shows the team's character and it's awesome to see T-Mac stepping up. Yao fans, just enjoy the ride, the big guy will be back next season.
I enjoy the ride as much as you do. I enjoy every Rockets win no matter Yao or TMac is in or not. This team is on fire now, playing team basketball and it's a great fun to watch. DO NOT label everyone who defend Yao as 'Yao sth Fan' and assume he'll enjoy Yao's individual success over the team's, or assume 'Yao fans' must hate TMac. Yet I'm just sick of some people find every chance to trash Yao. Even when everybody are enjoying the team's success, they find a need to add salt to a key player's wound. Pathetic.
actually, everyone sucked in that series. yao would need a better support cast. the same support cast would need a better star.
You right everything is happening so quick. This team is coming together and playing with a lot of heart, and they believe. I still can't say we are a better team without Yao, but it does look like it right now and thats for sure. I guess only time will tell.
Well, I think the following remarks from Shane Battier in the players changing room, right after the historic win over the New Jersey Nets, fittingly sums it up on all these talks about how useless Yao Ming is and that the Houston Rockets should give him up and trade him while he still has value, and how stupid and ignorant these people are.
pryuen, I respect your what you're trying to get at. But I frankly disagree that just b/c select players and Rocket brass say as much, then it's gotta be true. What is Shane Battier or T-Mac or Adelman going to say? "Yup, we're better without Yao, he's useless... really, he is." That would be sticking to the Rockets top brass, not too mention P.R. suicide. Had the Rockets top brass said the sort, it would be a huge admission of a strategic faux pax. Call it the biases that come with the inside view. But what else would you expect to hear? Now, admittedly hindsight being 20/20, I do think that strategically, we were a bit flawed in the JVG years of riding Yao as much as we thought we could. Naturally, Yao got his chances and flourished for the most part. But as a team, and more signficantly, a team that was oriented around Yao with Yao as the centerpiece (and as some other poster alluded to, one of the longest standing Rocket members), it's been a FAILURE of an experiment. Didn't matter if we had Stevie in the backcourt. Hasn't mattered when we had T-Mac in the backcourt. Expectations were simply that we could/should have advanced past the 2nd round. Now I know there are those who believe that a couple of different bounces and Voila we'd be deeper in the playoffs last year, and perhaps even against the Lakers a few years back. But who cares? Yao had big games, but not enough to carry this team in the playoffs. Isn't that what the question is all about? So I think back to the thread comparing Yao to other centers, and imho, Yao is more Rik Smits than Shaq, more Patrick Ewing than Hakeem. In fact, I kind of see Yao as a poor man's Patrick Ewing. A topic perhaps best left for another thread, but the bottom line is Yao is not the super-center that the All-star voting would seem to suggest. And quite frankly, we still won't know this year b/c he's out for the season. He's good. Maybe great. But he ain't super. He does however have great value b/c he is such a rare commodity for his position. T-Mac on the other hand, is genuinely great. And maybe super. theSAGE
As genuinely great and super as TMAC, he has not yet been successful to carry his team to advance further than 1st round of playoff for how long ??? right, 10 years of his NBA career.....which is twice that of Yao Ming. Nuff said.
We had a 12 game win-streak before Yao went out and there is no reason to beleive it wouldn't have continued if Yao was here. Anybody who thinks losing a 20-10 is good for a team is delusional. I think we have learned lessons with Yao out ...but the team will be even stronger next season cause the guys have a newer level of confidence. But you are delusional if you think losing a 20-10 is a good thing. DELUSIONAL!
Well fair-weather fans are so dumb, short-memory and short-sighted.... and they selectively forgot that this team did not turn around without the leadership of Yao Ming who led by example being the most hardworking player on and off the court, often came 2 hours ahead of everyone in team practice and pre-game shootaround was the most consistent player who contributed 20+/10+ day-in day-out for the full season prior to his untimely injury was the leader of this team who stepped forward to movitvate his team mates by criticizing them as soft and that the Rockets is like a sinking ship was the one who shouldered this team on his shoulder right after the injury of TMAC, and started building the current winning streak And in fact Yao Ming had carried this team to a winning streak of 4 in absence of TMAC, right before the current winning streak of 19. If not for an acute upper respiratory infection that he had to sit out the game versus Utah Jazz end January, he would probably have led this team to a winning streak of 17 before his season-ending stress fracture on his left ankle was discovered. Right now this team, in particularly Tracy McGrady, is just continuing/riding on the solid winning streak that Yao Ming had built up. And yet, these fair weather fans started to burn the bridge once they crossed the river. 過橋抽板。。。
w/ Yao we destroyed New Orleans and w/o Yao we beat them but not like we did with him. NO WE ARENT BETTER
Yup, T-Mac is the guy with the playoff millstone around his neck. The new experiment is Yao, T-Mac and Adelman. It's looked pretty good so far this year.
Well,personally i respect YAO!!it is him who make the others know the responsibility on their shouders as a professional player.
Agree. Also that hard win over New Orleans has home court advantage, w/o their all star forward West, and Tmac has to play 48 mins. The result is still a very hard win.
'This is the best Ive seen this team play with or with out Yao Ming' - Mark Stein on ESPN Radio Spurs @ Suns Pre-Game 03/09/08. I told you guys the critics and haters would start to pop up. It will only be worse for Yao, CNT, and Team Yao if the Rockets do well in the playoffs. They will say Yao's been holding the team back from post season success. Mark my words. Like Ive said before, With Yao out we are missing a BIG offensive threat in his 20+ points a night. But it takes Deke+Scola+Landry to make up for Yao. Although they possess many skills that Yao does not. WIth Deke you get better Defense, with Scola and Landry; Rebounding, Putbacks, Dunks, Speed, Hustle. It takes all of this to make up for Yao. (not to mention the guards are also allowed to shoot more) So the Rockets do become somewhat better in different areas with out Yao, but they also lack Yaos size and offense. I was really hoping this would be the year Yao stepped up and totally take over in the Playoffs when it became a half court game and push us over the hump. Instead it looks like we are going to have to grind it out with Deke holding Shaq/Duncan. Regardless, the streak started with out T-Mac, and continues without Yao. This TEAM is just that a TEAM, and they know how to play like one, no matter if T-Mac, Yao, Landry, etc. go down they step it up and fill the holes. Give credit to THE TEAM and Coach Adelman. p.s. we are 19-0, geeze, some of you guys just need something to b**** about to be content .
It took Garnett 8 tries to get out of the first round; does that mean he is not great? To be honest, if a Garnett for Yao deal was on the table, I would take it in a heart beat...I'm sure there are others that feel the same way! T-Mac has only made the playoffs 6 out of the 10 years in the league; in his first appearance, he wasn't the crucial factor...so writing him off as not a super/great player because he hasn't gotten out of the first round seems illogical. Yao has made it to the playoffs three times and I'm pretty sure T-Mac and Francis (the first time) had a lot to do with it. As for your comment about T-Mac playing twice as long as Yao...well, lets just hope Yao can last 10 years. Given his size that’s still up in the air... I'm not taking anything away from Yao, I'm not in favor of trading him...unless of course Garnett is in the Picture. But your argument sees a bit skewed! GO ROCKETS!!!!!
For Pryuen: First, most here are not fair weathered Yao fans. They are Rockets fans. So, if some people feel that the team is playing better without Yao and thus better without Yao, so be it. Being a Yao fan Pruyen, you would support the team wherever Yao is playing and not the Rockets. So why are you taking it so personally when "real" Rockets fans are stating their opinions too. I personally think its BS that the Rockets are better without Yao. I do however think that we are not half as bad a team without Yao as we are without TMac.
Wwhy do people like you even come to this post? Just to say I told you so when we lose to the Lakers? Seriously, you think Yao could have carried us to 7-0 without TMac? You guys are now talking like the haters, who have we beaten since Yao went out? Dallas! NO! Denver! 3 very good teams out of 7 games! What else do you guys want. Just get off this board you Y O F
What made you think I'm not also a Rockets fan? And what made you think those who d!$$ed and bashed Yao Ming, and said this team is a better team without him are genuine real Rockets fans? Let me put it this way. You don't find too many big and skilled centres averaging 22/11 day-in day-out in NBA. Fans who think this team is better without a dominant big man who contributes 22/11 per game is just not in touch with reality. Yeah, this team is playing like a well-oiled machine now. But come the playoff, when they have to face LA Lakers, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs.....they will definitely miss Big Yao. Not that Mutombo is not great in defense. But he can't sustain more than 20 minutes, and he could not give you more than 5 points in that 20 minutes. And even with Carl Landry and Luis Scola combined, they won't be as dominant and contributive as Big Yao offensively and defensively......... And history had demonstrated/proved this time and again.....Every of those past NBA champions, they all got big and dominant centres. Remembered the Orlando Magic of 95 ~ 96 season? Shaq was injured, and Penny Hardaway was playing some of the most eye-popping games of his career including torching Michael Jordan in his prime. And experts/fans started to say all kind of bullshiiiiiiiiiit about Shaq, that Orlando Magic was a better team without Shaq and that upon Shaq's return, he would ruin Orlando Magic's team chemistry, blah blah blah? Sounds very similar to the current situation, right? What happened to Penny Hardaway & the Orlando Magic when Shaq decided to pack his bags and move onto LA Lakers in the following season? FAILURE !!!
pryuen, We should just agree to disagree. Clearly, you believe Yao to be a better player than I'm giving him credit for. Me? I think between Yao and Tracy, it's Tracy who is the more "valuable" of the two with respect to with whom this team is better with. On other matters of value - like talent, tradeability, positional value, this may be a different story. But to the question posed by this thread, imho I genuinely believe this team is better w/o Yao when T-Mac is healthy to play. I'll pose the same questions I posed before... 1. If we advance past the 1st round, will you change your opinion then? 2. If we advance past the 2nd round, will you change your opinion then? 3. If we are not better off today, why bother rooting for the Rox at all? Might as well write-them off this first round? Again, this is not meant to be a roasting of Yao. Yao is truly valuable and again, I think he has a place in Adelman's system. But as the focal point of our offense? As the go-to guy during crunch time? Honestly, I think the burden of proof is on those who think the team IS better with Yao here than naught. However people slice and dice the JVG years, as one BIG aspect to JVG beyond defense was his philosophy of making the center, i.e. Yao, the focal point of our offense. Yes, we had T-Mac. Yes, we had Stevie for the early years. But bottom line is we evolved toward that model and imho, it FAILED, and with it, any argument that Yao could somehow be an offensive centerpoint. I'll say it again. Yao's good. Maybe great. But he ain't super. b/c if he was great verging on super, we'd have seen more by now. And for a point of reference, when I think super, I think Shaq, I think Hakeem, and with a little license, I think Duncan. Great? Think Ewing, Smits, etc. theSAGE for the record - if the Rox don't advance past the 1st round this year (and that's without Yao), I will eat crow and publicly acknowledge as much.
