I vote Yao. Yao lead us 3-2 now evev without Tmac,Rafer and Muto, but Tmac gave us 2-4 with Utah last year, even with Muto who can replace the roles of Yao.
i'm sure portland would like to throw out game 1 too. unfortunately for them, it counts, and yao was a big part of that win. since then, yao has been the focus of their defence and most of the losses can be attributed to the rest of the cast because of the attention that yao has drawn. and a good portion of yao's teammate's success could be attributed to yao's presence, which indicates that yao is making his teammates better. a lesser player the blazer would not be concerned with. maybe the question should be - who would you rather have, a healthy yao or tmac with a better supporting cast? this is almost turning into an apple or oranges debate. obviously, both could be successful with the right teammates.
Yao is not even that successful with this supporting cast. In all honesty, Yao would fit in with a team like the Cleveland Cavs. I truly just question T-Mac's leadership ability. Yao is the better leader than T-Mac and the better player at this point.
Compare our record last season with Tracy and without Yao to our record this season with Yao and without Tracy. And then look at the other players on the floor. Really, this thread is asking an unfair question. The problem with Tracy, more than anything, is that he can't stay healthy and when he's not feeling 100% he let's it affect his game too easily. When Tracy is healthy and he's feeling good, he's a special player. But we've only seen that player sporadically since the 04/05 season.
i guess we're saying the same thing. yao without a healthy tmac and tmac without a healthy yao are both susceptible to a defense's focus.
Yao is very good center and I like to see Yao's play but it is difficult to say "the best". If doing a dream draft today, I think I will take D.Howard over Yao in center position even if Yao can kill Howard by 1-to-1. XD The Offense of Yao is much better then Howard but Howard can provide many other things which Yao cannot provide.
I wouldn't say either or.... The fact is we need both to be healthy. Shaq didn't win without a Kobe or DWADE. KG did not win without Ray allen and paul pierce. Duncan has not won without manu, parker, or the elliot ellie avery johnson years. This is all vise versa as well. Come on it shouldn't be about which do we need more. The fact is we need them both. TMac is not done. The man brought us a 22 win streak a year ago with basically a new team. The first year we got him we almost eliminated a Dallas team that went to the finals. We were slammed with bad ref calls. Yao wasn't as polished as he is now and look at the surrounding role players we had. Sura, Wesley, Juwan Howard... so forth. Give him a chance to recover for next season and see how he plays with the cards that he is dealt with. I hate to say this but those organizations like the Celtics, Spurs, and Lakers sure know how to get talent in there. Look at their roster. How in the hell do you get two stars in Yao and TMAC and decide to surround them with Rafer alston.. no back up pg.. an injured bob sura. Wesley.. Juwon howard.. bonzi wells...Swift? Last year we had no yao. We were depending on a new coach.. rafer alston, a rookie in aaron brooks, a rookie in Scola, landry, an ancient Mutumbo... Unless you can trade Tmac for a Lebron, Dwade, Kobe, or Brandon Roy with fillers... The guy is still essential to this team. When it comes down to crunch time I want the ball in TMac's hand. Why? Because he is the only one who we can rely to get the ball to Yao's hands or he can shoot it. Those two factors itself I believe make it important. Aaron brooks has shown he can't do it. Artest isn't even close. He may pass the ball more but I still don't see him getting it into Yao as well as the Mac does which right now is where it counts. Flame me all you guys want but right now I'll take a Healthy TMac.
when do you suckers and fake fans figure out that we started this gangsta sh... <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kG_qcud1ShM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kG_qcud1ShM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
yao is the best "offensive" center in the L. i think dwight howard beats him in rebounding, defense. so it depends on who's on your team and what are your needs. with McGrady, if he's motivated, he's capable of doing everything. he does A TON of things for us on both ends (defense if motivated of course). the only players who you can say are all-around players are kobe, lebron, wade, and possibly joe johnson, but we're finding out joe isn't that good. the first 3 are clearly another notch or 2 above tmac. i don't think granger, redd, ray allen and guys like those can make plays though, even on this team. i doubt adelman would give those guys the ball at the top of the key and let them run a pick and roll or iso. those guys are "scorers" for the most part. again, i think this team can be special if somehow tmac can recover, make amends with the team and come back motivated. i think even at this stage in his career if he can stay relatively healthy, can put us over the top with just one single thing: playmaking. the reason we're struggling with portland is b/c we don't have that guy to give the ball to down the stretch to run plays. tmac is our smartest player, with the best vision... so with this talent down the stretch, i'm sure he would love to pass "or defer" as you all love to say about him.
morey came too late my friend. morey has done what you asked and surrounded this team with talent. if he was our GM earlier, we would probably won a ring or 2 already.
Mutumbo replace Yao? Uhmmm.... dude...? Then we should have traded yao's fat contract last year and gotten us a back up for Mutumbo and Tmac... This year Tmac goes down and we have artest to try and fill in his roll and von wafer. Yao went down last season and we had chuck hayes a rookie in Scola and Landry. We also had no pg.. except for Rafer who was injured until the third game or so. We aren't going to win the championship without both of those guys playing at full potential. We also need to surround the two with good role players.
I never doubted that we will pass first round this season. This is not a dream to me. Competing hard at least in the conference final is what I consider making noise/doing damage in post season. Yes, we will beat Portland tomorrow. Beating Lakers in a 7 games series this year? I give us an outside 5% chance, but TMac got flamed for saying this, so I better stop
Very clever, Im surprised a full grown man still has fun being a drama queen. Tmac is irrelevant in our current situation, but poor Tinman hasn't gotten enough attention lately so he is forced to come in and drive a wedge between our fan base by bringing it up. A situation where the Rockets would have to choose between these two, being healthy nonetheless, has never happened and never will happen. This is provides no insight to the team whatsoever, its just you being a d******d. Nice job, you succeeded.
you must be kidding, dude. when rockets were fighting with Mavs in playoffs, both Yao and TMAC are healthy, did TMAC tear Mavs apart???
Yao is far better than Howard on offense while Howard is only marginally better than Yao on defense. People underestimate Yao's impact on defense due to his lack of stats. He doesn't put up impressive numbers, but he makes it tough for guards to attack the basket. And sure, Howard gets a ton of rebounds, but he's compensating for their lack of a defensive PF. Sorry, but the question asks about a healthy McGrady. Since he historically isnt a motivated player, its illogical to pretend that he is. When Kobe and Wade won their titles, they were with a top tier center. And when that center left, their teams became garbage. If any of those guys were playing alongside Yao, they'd be definite all-stars. Each of those guys is better suited to play with Yao than McGrady is. Their defensive liabilities would be hidden by Yao. I think this team can be special if McGrady's $20mm salary were used elsewhere. McGrady is only effective as the first option with the ball in his hands. However, no championship caliber team would want McGrady as their first option. Nope, the reason we've had problems with Portland is b/c McMillan cried about the officiating and the officials responded by calling the Rockets for twice as many fouls as the Blazers in the last game. In what way is McGrady smarter than Battier? I'd even say that Hayes has higher basketball IQ than McGrady. I'm usually disgusted with McGrady's shot selection down the stretch. It seems like he's always shooting long, contested jumpers. Even though he will occasionally make them, it doesn't change the fact that he's taking difficult jumpers.