nobody expected KG and pierce (or even ray allen) to ever reach the finals from where they were last year. all got there after more than 10+ seasons in the L. tmac will enter his 12th season next year. yao will enter his 6th season (but he will become 29 with 3 straight injury-plagued seasons). basically, both only have probably 3-4 years left together. do you think tmac and yao will reach the NBA finals? more importantly, will they do it as rockets? after watching the celtics big 3 reaching there, i immediately think of our 2 stars and how they have had ZERO playoff success and it pains me to see that. but again, it's never too late. hopefully they both will reach it b/c great players deserve to play in the biggest stage. more importantly, hopefully they will reach it as rocket players.
He will, if he goes to a caliber team. He does his best to carry a team, but not even Kobe could do it last year. And Kobe is on a new level atm. Yes he will win something. The man still holds a lot of records and most of the Magic franchise records so I'll always remember him.
I hope for these players legacy's that they will accomplish playoff success and championships within the next 5 years. Thought I'd share you this, but with the NBA Finals featuring the Lakers vs. Celtics matchup, here's a lookback at how past NBA Finals have fared out in terms of TV ratings since 1981. CBS 1981 Boston Celtics 4, Houston Rockets 2 6.7 CBS 1982 Los Angeles Lakers 4, Philadelphia 76ers 2 13.0 CBS 1983 Philadelphia 76ers 4, Los Angeles Lakers 0 12.3 CBS 1984 Boston Celtics 4, Los Angeles Lakers 3 12.3 CBS 1985 Los Angeles Lakers 4, Boston Celtics 2 13.7 CBS 1986 Boston Celtics 4, Houston Rockets 2 14.1 CBS 1987 Los Angeles Lakers 4, Boston Celtics 2 15.9 CBS 1988 Los Angeles Lakers 4, Detroit Pistons 3 15.4 CBS 1989 Detroit Pistons 4, Los Angeles Lakers 0 15.1 CBS 1990 Detroit Pistons 4, Portland Trailblazers 1 12.3 NBC 1991 Chicago Bulls 4, Los Angeles Lakers 1 15.8 NBC 1992 Chicago Bulls 4, Portland Trailblazers 2 14.2 NBC 1993 Chicago Bulls 4, Phoenix Suns 2 17.9 NBC 1994 Houston Rockets 4, New York Knicks 3 12.4 NBC 1995 Houston Rockets 4, Orlando Magic 0 13.9 NBC 1996 Chicago Bulls 4, Seattle Supersonics 2 16.7 NBC 1997 Chicago Bulls 4, Utah Jazz 2 16.8 NBC 1998 Chicago Bulls 4, Utah Jazz 2 18.7 NBC 1999 San Antonio Spurs 4, New York Knicks 1 11.3 NBC 2000 Los Angeles Lakers 4, Indiana Pacers 2 11.6 NBC 2001 Los Angeles Lakers 4, Philadelphia 76ers 1 12.1 NBC 2002 Los Angeles Lakers 4, New Jersey Nets 0 10.2 ABC 2003 San Antonio Spurs 4, New Jersey Nets 2 6.5 ABC 2004 Detroit Pistons 4, Los Angeles Lakers 1 11.5 ABC 2005 San Antonio Spurs 4, Detroit Pistons 3 8.2 ABC 2006 Miami Heat 4, Dallas Mavericks 2 8.5 ABC 2007 San Antonio Spurs 4, Cleveland Cavaliers 0 6.2 In terms of NBA Texas perspectives, the single highest rated NBA Finals for any team from this state is the 1986 NBA Finals featuring the Houston Rockets vs. Boston Celtics with a rating of 14.1. 2nd highest rating was the 1995 NBA Finals featuring the Houston Rockets vs. Orlando Magic with a rating of 13.9. So to put in Yao/T-Mac words, get us to the finals soon and we'll see such ratings again!
Yao will be 28 in September. It is TMac that just turned 29. And to answer your question, nobody knows if the road we currently are on will ever get us to the finals. It would be a much easier question to ponder if we knew for sure we would have the health that has so far escaped us. We need luck and more talent wouldn't hurt.
Those two could bring us to the finals but they definitely need more help. those injuries could have been avoided
Wow. In 27 years (counting 2008), only 8 teams have won NBA titles. That's pretty amazing -- that means nearly 3 out of every 4 teams have not tasted that sweet finals victory in close to three decades. I feel really bad for the fans of those teams. Except Utah, of course.
I strongly belive yes, Yao is a great player, so is McGrady. They just gotta stay healthly for the entire season. I also belive Adelman is teh right coach but a lot depends on role players. If they keep sucking in playoffs like they have been doing it so far than the answer is quite easy, especially in the Wild West
yes is the simple answer...and it always comes down to health i mean HEALTHY all around steve francis maybe??
I really hope they can, but gradually I start to feel less confident about that. West conference is just so good now, Lakers, Hornets, Jazzs are the teams to beat in next 4-5 years, so is Spurs (but I kind of feel it is going down gradually as it is a very old team). Last year is the first year that Yao has some fatigue related injury, that is definitly a bad sign. I don't worry too much about his first two injuries, because they were mostly "accident" related. T-Mac is definitly declining, and kind of decling fast. How many great years he is still able to play? Look at Spurs-Lakers series, were it not for Kobe (and very healthy and energic one indeed), they may not be able to beat Spurs. T-Mac won't be at that level physically because of his health condition. Will Yao be the man in that situation in the whole series? I hope so but I doubt that, as Yao has some physical limitations and can be exploited, so I kind of feel a great oponent coach will be able to take him out of the game more or less in 2-3 games in a series. I just feel that the chance for both of these two guys to stay healthy for the whole season and the whole playoff is slim. And because neither of them (and no star in this team) has good playoff experience, I think it is very normal that even when they pass first round, they will have some difficulty going forward, and they need several years to build their playoff experience first before talking about finals. Best wishes for them, though.
If Yao and TMac are perfectly healthy and play all 82 games at a high level they will not make the finals. The supporting cast does not measure up to the elite teams in the league. Two on five are bad odds.
i don't think our starting 5 is that bad with the expected improvement of scola (arguably one of the top 5-6 starting lineups in the L). it's the bench that concerns me. REALLY concerns me. even if landry improves, who else is gonna back up tmac and score when eh goes to to the bench?
True,despite the inclusion of Scola and Landry it's not going to be enough. In my opinion Yao and Tracy don't have it in them to reach the NBA Finals even with a better supporting cast but I think they might be able to make it as far as NO did. I don't want to trade either of them because we are unlikely to get enough back in return.
