i would seriously smack some of the people in this thread in the face if i was arguing with them face to face.
I find it funny how people are saying this team is compared to last years team. Do any of you honestly think Tracy, Artest and Brooks would co-exist? That's honestly a recipe for Disaster right there. 3 Chuckers in the same team cannot co-exist. We already saw that Artest and T-Mac were having chemistry problems in the middle of the year anyways. That being said, we would be in the 6th seed at best if T-Mac was playing this season instead of Yao.
Moot point. If T-Mac was actually playing quality minutes on this year's team, Alston would not have been traded.
tracy and artest played fine together when artest was brought off the bench. it was when they were starting together that it was a struggle. tracy and brooks haven't had much problems
Here's my team with Yao as the foundation. The total salary is $60.5 mm which is $0.5mm above the salary cap of $60mm. Salaries were taken from the 2008/2009 season at hoopshype. PG Jose Calderon SG Stephen Jackson SF Shane Battier PF Francisco Oberto C Yao Ming PG Steve Blake SG Eddie House SF Grant Hill SF Travis Outlaw PF Jason Maxiell PF Chris Andersen C Kwame Brown C Dikembe Mutombo I would love to see a projected team from any of the clutchfan voters who chose a healthy McGrady over a healthy Yao.
Man I am getting sick of all the people who are stubborn and do not understand basketball. More than half the people voted for Yao rather than Tmac. Most of their reason are because Tmac is lazy, he jacks up shot and they just do not like him. I like Yao as a player and I am also angry the fact that Tmac is a lazy player. But this playoff series and the all the series Yao have been in, he is completely terrible. Yes Tmac can be horrible also but all the teams still have trouble guarding Tmac. Tmac create shots for everyone and he is dependable at the last minute of the game. Like Okur said, Yao is very easy to guard. He is predictable and he do the same moves over and over. Even Rick Adelmen said Yao needs to change his move like a pitcher changes his pitches. Right now the Rockets are very vulnerable. We are an excellent team during the regular season but in the playoffs, the opponent exposed our weakness. Our offense go through Yao and just by fronting Yao, the Rockets are clueless on the offensive end. Just pay attention to Yao in the series. He just stand there helplessly. Without Tmac creating shots for him, he become very vulnerable to any player about 6'10. People complain about the Rockets not giving the ball to yao, well how can they if yao is fronted and do not try to fight around it. Believe it or not, the Rockets will lose this series if they do not change things up quickly.
after this season, it wouldn't have been fair. it's like if you took a poll last season, it wouldn't have been fair and the team you put together wouldn't do much.
Use current year productions from other players and pretend that McGrady is healthy. The team I put together is good enough to beat any McGrady led team. Prove me wrong.
The team is held back by salary cap limitations. Keep that in mind before making any ignorant criticisms. According to Hoopshype, the only teams that had a smaller salary cap are the Clippers and the Grizzlies.
it's all circumstantial. all i know is your memory is short. last year, we went 19-8 without yao: 71% winning rate. this year, we went 33-14 without tmac: 71% winning rate. compare the talent on this year's roster without tmac v. last year's roster without yao. it's not even "close" if you look at the talent level. plus, we took a tough jazz team to 6 games without yao, rafer out for 2.5 games, no bench, battier injured that required surgery, same with tmac. yet we have a hard time beating a team that is young, basically ZERO playoff experience... last year's team without yao would beat this year's blazers team if i had to take a stand.
LOL and where are we supposed to get that proof. Lets break out the videogames? A McGrady led team would blowout that squad. Prove me wrong.
lol just proves you can't build a championship calibur team with 60 mil then if that's all you can get.
Once again, your simple-mindedness rears its ignorant head. When you talk about winning percentages, you can't just look at rosters. You also have to look at strength of schedule. After Yao went out during the 22 game winning streak, the majority of opponents we played were creampuffs. It would be embarrassing if the McGrady-led Rockets weren't able to beat them.