I said many years ago that Yao at best would be a Sabonis. It appears that Yao is on that track...a better scorer, but not as strong defensively. The thing is this, Yao doesn't have to be great when you have Tracy MacGrady. I wasn't happy with the Yao pick-up, especially after seeing Amare bloom...now that's a guy who's got upside. Personally, I am tired of people making excuses for Yao...he looks like a guy that's not having fun out there, he's doing this for country and parents more then himself. It's an obligation almost. Maybe he needs to take a sabatical and really think about what he wants. Because so long has he doesn't play with the fire that so many other player do, I'm not going to be a big fan of his.
Well, considering 99 percent of people were declaring Yao to be the best thing since Wilt, it's understandable that someone might wish to inject a dose of reality. Besides, predicting the future ain't easy...
NIKE: I have followed your posts for a couple of years now. You are knowledgable, well spoken, and all-in-all an asset to the board. I am surprised by the vitriol of this post, however. I am just responding and I don't want it to get personal. Himalayas was versing his opinion which may not be allowed in some countries, but it is in this country even if you don't agree with it. The expectations are those normally associated with the first pick in the draft. And because Yao was the first pick you normally expect to craft the team around him, just like we did around Hakeem. Other than that you seem to agree that Yao has become a GOOD roll player on a very good Rox team built around TMac. That's okay with me also. Because, I am a Rox fan. I was before Yao came along and I will after he is gone, God willing. A franchise player, IMO, is one that deserves MAX dollars and is almost superhuman in his ability to play basketball. Kobe is a franchise player, just not on my franchise, however. Shaq is definitely a franchise player. KG, Duncan, and AI are franchise players that come to mind. TMac is our franchise player. A franchise player is someone you can expect to bring it every night, and bring it hard. Yao Ming does does not measure up to that yardstick. If we were going into the NBA finals, who would you rather be injured, TMac or Yao. Stupid question, but you get the point.
what 99 percent are you referring to? The Rox was ridiculed by every single columnist I read, plus on every single NBA message board before th YOFs showed up. You keep saying this, yet everyone in CF says otherwise, and shouldn't we as Rox fans know whats going on in terms of opinion about our team?
99% on this board obviously. And please, don't go back and do a statistical analysis to find that it's really only 62%. Hyperbole isn't meant to be taken literally.
I didn't deny his right to verse it. Just exercising my right to expose it for what it is. I mention Kobe because without Shaq the Lakers have been extremely average, even with a talented Lamar Odom as the #2. We agree TMac is a franchise player, but obviously franchise player does not mean single handedly being able to carry a team night in night out. I'm happy to see Yao carrying the team for longer stretches within games this year, and games overall this year than he did last year- that is why my expectations aren't left unfulfilled. Obviously, a franchise player deserves dollars, but I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. That is to say, one can earnmax dollars without necessarily being a franchise player. I don't necessarily agree with this (I think it's a flaw in the CBA if the top ~20 players were all free agents, Duncan/Garnett would get the same money as Stephon Marbury) Is Ray Allen a franchise player? Tough call. Will he get max dollars? Probably. Pau Gasol, Andrei Kirilenko, Shareef Abdur-Rahim 5 years ago, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Marbury, Francis, Damon Stoudamire etc. IMO, Yao's current impact puts him in line for that type of contract, only modestly taking into account the room for improvement he still has. Even if you think he's no better than Brad Miller- Miller got a 7 year, 67 mill contract coming off a year of 13-8 with under a block a game and less than 50% shooting, at age 27. If we're going to the NBA Finals, TMac and Yao better be healthy. Though, we are undefeated in all the games Yao has missed the past 3 seasons. When we got the pick, I actually wanted to trade the pick to the Clippers for Odom+8+12, draft Amare at 8, and trade 15+12 up a few slots and land Caron Butler. Would we be better off now? Possibly. Perhaps the TMac trade never becomes reality, and perhaps Rudy is still coach and/or JVG is not the coach. Hypothetical. When we drafted Yao, I was salivating over a young triumvirate of Griffin-Yao-Francis. I thought Francis never had the benefit of playing with interior talents aside from a short stretch of Hakeem brilliance, and then we had 2 fall into our laps. Griffin busts, the Francis/JVG relationship was clearly never going to work. Enter TMac. Nothing personal to you. I'm just frustrated with some of the truly ridiculous things that have been said of late. Besides, if Yao isn't the franchise player, why does he preoccupy the board so? A certain faction keeps rehashing the same things about Yao's role, how unhappy Yao is, etc. etc. We're winning, and we're winning the right way. Yao is doing a large part to contribute to this winning. Some people need to wake up and recognize this. It's not the end of the world that Yao is playing #2 (really #1B) to one of the most prolific scorers of the last 5 years. It's not the end of the world that sometimes the Rockets need to make the matchups work, Yao's playing tired, or he's in trouble and we're fortunate enough to have a 3 time defensive player of the year on our roster. It's not like we're taking Yao's minutes and giving them to Zan Tabak.
Will you be able to post Chinese character? I have no idea. I am afraid that you have to have the capablity of writing Chinese before thinking about it. T-Mac has reached the expectation of many (if not most) of the fans in Orlando. He's just not staying there now, because he has the desire and goal. That's one reason he came here He's not #3 either, isn't he? he's been #4 for a while. Don't forget Mutombo has shortest minutes per foul. How hard to place D in this team, especially you are not good at. How do you have this judgement? what do you base on? He's not franchise player at this point, it might be sometime late, but not at this time.
You can post English characters, can't you? No, he's not #3 in FGA on the current Rockets... Do your research. Yao is #2 on the current Rockets team in FGA. He was third on the team last year behind Francis and Mobley. Thanks for playing! I don't know exactly what you're trying to say...but please. Mutombo plays under 15 minutes a game. How many fouls he picks up is fairly immaterial. His role is to play back up minutes- he's not going to foul out of games. If you're arguing about Dikembe Mutombo's defensive ability AFTER I've given you his resume (actually, I was wrong, he's a 4-time DPOTY)...you're simply a joke. He's won more defensive players of the year than anyone else in league history- no one else has more than 2. Mutombo knows he can be more aggressive because he's not going to foul out. The Heat had 2 all-stars, Wade and Shaq. The Rockets had 2 all-stars, Yao and TMac. Shaq is the #2 scorer and leading rebounder on the Heat. Yao is the #2 scorer and leading rebounder on the Rockets. That and http://www.nba.com/rockets/ Notice the banner at the top of the page. Yao and TMac. Heck, http://www.nba.com/heat/ Shaq's not even on their big banner. Did I say he was? Shawn Marion is probably the 3rd best player on the Suns after Nash and Amare. Notice how we blow them out by 20 when he's not there. You don't have to be a "franchise player" to be a big part of a team.
Ya know, I know when i first came here, I ripped on Huston fans, and well, i don't apologize for that, because, hey, that was a long time ago, and i am liable to say it again. But my point is that, Huston ain't that bad of a place. Yeah, it's hot and sticky....yeah, it's hard to find a decent dive bar to hang out at, yeah, well, I'm just saying...Huston's not that bad.
Please notice "for a while". I am not the single person who mentioned it, T-Mac said the same just several days ago. please do your own homework, then you will realize how long "a while" may be. The best defensive player plays his shortest minutes/foul in this team, how can you expect a 3 year young guy? BTW, in terms of foul, he's already better than did Hakeem in his first 9 years. I have to tell you this is strategic marketing, nothing with how coaches play them.
You honestly don't know what you're talking about. I'm not saying that to be condescending; you just don't know what you're talking about. Yao has been #2 on this team in FGA "a while". He's 289 FGA ahead of #3 on the team, Juwan Howard. I don't think he's gotten 289 FGA in the last several days; if he did, you'd probably be throwing a party. I have had nothing more than a cursory foul mention. I'm not talking about fouls. Welcome to frustration. I'm talking about Dikembe being one of the best defensive players ever and thus getting minutes over Yao when certain matchup calls. This is what gets annoying: all some people want to do is talk about Yao. Believe it or not, not everything's about Yao. Here I am, defending what his expectations should be, and out of nowhere I'm accused of expecting too much out of a 3 year veteran. The fact of the matter is, he's not as good a scorer as the back to back defending scoring champ, and he's not as good a defender as as a 4-time DPOTY. Again, shock and horror. Or maybe he's 1/2 of the face of the team and an integral part of the franchise.
NIKEstrad: Bravo! Bravo! Outstanding posts my friend! I'm not sure why but Yao sure is a magnet for the most illogicial analysis about his ability. Thanks for posts that bring some reason and perspective to it all. The funny thing is "Yao worshippers" & "Yao haters" suffer from the same problem - that is having inflated and unrealistic expectations as to where Yao should be in his development and how much time it should take for him to reach his maximum potential. They just have different reactions to this .
I'm coming here late but here are my two yuan. I believe this team was meant to be built around both Yao and T-Mac but what I'm guessing you're asking for is a team who's job is to do nothing but feed the ball to Yao. Like it or not because Hakeem was a much better player than Yao while Deke was a much better defender and rebounder than Yao in his prime on teams when he wasn't counted on to play offense. A few problems here. 1. The NBA is nothing like the competion that the Shanghai Sharks. The CNT face better world teams but a Yao led team there hasn't been to a medal game yet at the World Championships or the Olympics. 2. I believe the team and management want Yao to be a leader the problem is right now the team is playing incredibly well and they're not going to sacrifice a winning formula. This is the NBA winning is what counts. Here comes the crux of why so many of us get annoyed with Yao biased fans. This is a Rockets board not a Yao board! Most of us like like Yao a lot but we care about the Rockets more and get annoyed when people keep coming in here griping about how Yao would be better / happier somewhere else. Let me repeat. This is the NBA winning is what counts. While Yao might get more endorsements, lift attendance and possibly have better stats its doubtful the team he was on would be winning more. Yao is in a business that winning makes an inordinate difference in the amount of fame and prestige one gets. Fromw watching Yao I believe he wants to win as much as any other player and understands great stats mean squat when you play for a bad team. Of course we want yao to stay here to make the team a contender while many criticise Yao every now by far most Rockets fans recognize that Yao is a crucial part of this team and the key to success for years to come. Again this is a Rockets board not a Yao board and anyway why wouldn't you think that Yao doesn't want to go to the playoffs too? Here's the other key issue which you seem to acknowledge here and contradict your earlier contention that Yao would do better on another team. Yao has some pretty bad weaknesses that he needs to address. Just being big isn't enough otherwise the Shawn Bradleys of this world would dominate. Yao is a phenomenal talent but needs work and because he can't run the break, grab a ton of rebounds or play incredible D its doubtful a team completely focussed on Yao would do very well. Until he fixes those it would probably hurt Yao's career to have totally Yao-centric team than one with another option. Of course it depends on management. Les could sell the whole team if he wanted to but it would be pretty stupid of him to do so or to trade Yao. One last comment, the city is spelled HOUSTON. I understand that english is probably your second language but please make every effort to spell the name of the city right. Its as annoying to keep spelling it 'Huston' as it is those who keep on calling Beijing 'Peking.'
