just 3 games and u made a conclusion Deke is good, but i wonder how Rocket to going to play a team w/ strong inside offensive power ex: Suns Spur Lakers
You posted the 2nd quote in another thread tonight, so I am seriously doubting your *disclaimer* about not bashing Yao. Why do some people always have to look for the negative? We won 12 of these 15 games with Yao. Threads like these do nothing for the reputation of the MB. There was the "should we trade Yao" thread. Nobody noticed that the overwhelming majority resoundingly said "NO", what people see are the negative titles. I am thrilled we are continuing our streak with Yao out, but we are NOT a better team without him.
guys this is simple. this team is not better without yao. we play exceptional well without him as of late but only because we played crappy teams. we are a good team that's gonna be in games because of our defense. however the debate of having a low post presence is debatable. if anything we are like the new jersey nets of the east from 2002 and 2003. we play well without a low post presence but we will get swept in the first round if we play a laker or mavs team. jordan's bulls did not have a low post presence granted they defeated a lot of teams with low post presence such as Karla, shawn kemp, charles barkley, jerome kersey. but today's nba is much different.
Of course because I am an avid Rockets' observer.....I am hoping against hope that T-Mac and Shane can become the new Jordan and Pippen and we win the championship...
Rockets are better w/o Yao Ming? kk, try to trade Yao Ming away. You will see 29 GMs gonna ask for him.
In the first quarter the Rockets gave up 7 turnovers and were stuck playing 4 v 5 because Mutombo became a problem with the offensive flow of the game. A lot of the first half was ISO ball with Luther Head bailing out the Rockets with a couple of 3s, and the first 5 minutes of the game involving Alston to go 1 v 1 against the Nuggets resulting in a 2 for 5 start from him. McGrady too was forced to go 1v1 and the lanes were clogged because all the Nuggets had to do was play man to man defense while the Rockets kept making passes around the perimeter. Scola was also effected by the lack of post presence in the paint aided by Yao. The dynamic you speak with the Rockets looking more athletic may be true, but the fact is Yao forced double teams, improved kick out passes around the perimeter and improved on passes by cutters in the lane. Even better was the fact he drew so many fouls and was our leader in FTs averaged a game. Our FT attempts against the Nuggets tonight was abysmal, and were it not for the fact the ran a fastbreak well and happened to shoot near 50% behind the arc in ISO situations mostly, the same defense that stifled us in the first quarter may have dragged it on the whole game. The fact is we took more contested shots early on, were getting dominated on the boards, played 4v5 with the early start of Mutombo, and the early substitution of Hayes. Another thing Yao does is he keeps Hayes from getting significant minutes on the court unless its for defensive situations alone. And the Rockets won't always nail their perimeter shots contested, and are smaller because Yao is gone. When the game is slowed down in the playoffs, and we see match ups against Duncan, and Amare who Yao plays incredibly well defensively you'll sing a different tune. We also lost to the Jazz who admittedly create mismatch problems when Yao is on the court, but still lost without him. Yao makes this team versatile and our offense easier to run. I guarantee when the playoffs start Rafer will get exhausted running against CP3, D. Williams, Kidd, or Parker for nearly 40 minutes a night and his consistent offensive output as of late will decrease from fatigue. He is still a piss poor scorer career wise and while I love his consistent play as of late, I don't expect it carry over as well in the playoffs. I also guarantee McGrady will see double and triple teams while going against the defensive intensity from the likes of Bowen, Hassell, Kobe, and Kirilenko. Yao would defer attention of McGrady and added pressure of creating shots for teammates while still managing to get his own within the flow of the offense. Yao makes this team better plain and simple.
Yao clogs up the lane? So what does Deke do? Stand around the perimeter? Take 20 foot jumpers? Nah, make that 3 pointers? Or even better still, from Desert_Rockets's perspective, Deke takes half court 3 pointers. He does not even clog the half court!!! I bet Desert_Rocket would also be one of those people who would want to trade Yao for Marcus Camby, the legitimate All Starter starter at center for the West.
Who thinks this team is better w/out Yao? From what I am reading here, pretty much only you. You want the rest of us to change to your way of thinking. Maybe you should consider opening up your mind and changing your opinion.
1st of all this team is not better without Yao and will never be without replacing his talent with close to equal talent. Next, yao isn't a dominate post player. He can be sometimes, but 75% time, he's just good not great. The rox are playing good ball right now in the REGULAR SEASON! Its cool to see the young guys play better every game. Tracy is finally healthy, Rafer and Shane are playing more consistently and the team has picked up defensicely which is where they struggled earlie in the season. Anyone who thinks the Rox are better without replacing his talent is foolish. Now if we had Chris Kaman and a couple of lotto picks for Yao, I could agree with u.
Since Yao's out, we've been relying on 3 pts shots. Look at the % of 3PA, that usually happens to team w/o a legit first scoring option. Yao is one of the very few legit first scoring option in the league, I'd risk being called a *** to say that Yao is more so of a legit first scoring option than Tmac, because of the fg%. A better question would be... If Deke was in his prime, who would you rather have? While Yao is better offensively, Deke was light yrs ahead in d. But right now, there's in no way shape of form that we're better w/o Yao.
No we're not better without Yao. The drop of isn't as big against average and below average teams, but it's when we are going to start playing against top flight teams that you'll start to miss him.
When you play against the better defensive teams, you will miss Yao. Yao getting the ball when cutting across the middle of the lane is almost a sure TWO points mainly because he was so much harder to push and a 7'6" turnaround or hook is just so hard to block. It's just one of those plays that the defense knows is coming... but there is nothing they can do about it.
so you think the rocket is better without yao which means yao's injury is a good thing? GREAT!!!!go on
At this point, Yao >>>> Shaq. There is no comparison. Deke is still amazing, but Yao >>> Deke, and we played Deke 24 mins. How can that be better? Why do you think Yao was logging 37 mpg?? Why do you think other teams were tripling him? What happened when Yao passed out of the triple team? You're stuck in about 2004. With our big big, we have had problems matching-up small, athletic teams. This year was the first year where Yao and the rest of the team had reached a point where small teams now started to feared us. It became more an issue for them trying to match-up our big. We are clearly better with Yao. And it will more become apparent when we play teams with big bigs. And we can still win, but it will take more effort from everyone else.
We are 15-0 but we would be 20 -0 if Yao didn't miss the Utah game. Yes Yao was out that game and Tmac couldn't pull it out. Perhaps we are better off without Tracy. I'm not taking anything away from Tmac, I think he is a great player and it is very difficult to take away 22 pts out of your lineup. *disclaimer* I'm not bashing Tmac, just making an observation based on the members of this team and the system, nothing more. Okay the above statement is just stupid. We are not better without TMac. We can win without him but we won't win it all. And the same goes for the initial post in this thread. It is just stupid. We are not better off without Yao.
