Yao Ming and T-Mac: Too much risk, not enough reward

We utilize Yao Ming fine. If anything, we go to him TOO much. the problem is, getting the ball to Yao is just like the topic title, too much risk, not enough reward. Too many things need to go right for Yao to dominate a game. Its no secret we're a much more efficient offensive AND defensive team without Yao on the court.

As for Tracy, the guy has played only one way his whole life, and thats holding onto the ball and scoring it. he NEVER cuts or moves w/o the ball because thats not how hes accustomed to playing. add to the fact that his jumper has been missing since 04-05, he's the main reason why our offense was so stagnant in the beginning of the year.

as far as im concerned, the t-mac yao era is OVER. this is the ADELMAN era.

 

One game, it's just one game...

Why don't email this to ADELMAN and ask him...nonsense...

Not a single NBA team would win title without inside presence...period

 

Just looking at individual stats or the last game don't do justice to Yao's value to the team. The Rockets played a great game yesterday primarily due to players getting open shots and hitting them. That is a key to Adelman offense but that's not something that is always sustainable. In a grind it out game where the outside shots aren't falling having a post presence like Yao is very valuable. Also because of how Yao alters the game plan of the opponent it opens up much more scoring opportunities for players like Scola.

I understand as primarily a Yao fan you are looking at individual stats but don't be fooled by them. Yao is important to this team, Adelman and the rest of the Rockets would certainly prefer having him than not.

 

I wasn't so sure anymore. I don't value Yao by his stat and I am pretty sure Yao doesn't value his contribution to the team by his own stat too. There is one poster (Y O H) here I despise very much recently but I hate to agree with him/her to a point that Yao's existance on the court was hurting the team more than his contribution. Yao can be taken out of his game too easily. In the JVG era, it was just his defence, now, it was not only his defence and he can be taken out at the offensive end too.

 

I agree with most of what you said....but here's where we differ;

we dont utilize yao ming fine. I feel like Yao, by virtue of his size, is given a superstar role in this offense. We have to face facts- Yao Ming is not, nor will he ever be, Hakeem Olajuwon. We cant run our offense through Yao every possession and force passes to him when he's out of position, double covered, or being fronted.

What I liked about the Portland series is that we learned how effective Yao can be as a role player- getting rebounds, forcing bad shots on defense, and scoring between 10-20 a game.

In my mind, if any team is singling yao and he has position, pass it to him every time until they start adjusting their defense because thats almost automatic.

As for T-Mac: homeboy gets waaaay too much flack on this forum. T-Mac has been hurt for some time, and I dont know if he'll ever be 100% again. It's a shame because he was one of the most talented shooting gaurds to ever don a rockets jersey and was clearly the best scorer in the NBA. We may have lost in the first round w/him, but the collection of talent was inferior and he played out of his mind everytime.

The problem with t-mac and yao is that they both force everyone else to become spectators. Thats fine for battier who can shoot 5 times a game and be okay with it, but its a major problem b/c it never allows guys like von wafer, landry, scola, brooks, or lowry to become active parts of the offense or get into the flow of the game. Our team isnt built for that style and it wont work.

to t-mac's credit he's become much more of a role player over the years, but htat has likely been due to injuries more than anything else.

My thing is- if he's at least 70%, its worth holding onto him and playing out his contract. If not, let him have a few good games in the season and try to move him for what u can.

For yao- turn him into a solid role player; his ideal average should be 18 a game with 12 rebounds and 2 blocks per. We also need to recognize match up problems and sit yao when he's being taken defensively. Boozer, Gasol, and their like will always force him out of his comfort zone. Either you go to zone to mitigate that match up issue, or you sit yao.

 

seriously, what's wrong with u people?

I understand we need to find somebody to blame if we lose. That's just human nature.

But hell we just won this great game, u people still want to blame simply because we won without our star players, despite the fact it's just one out of 100 games in this season.

Ask yourself what u really want before start asking the rest of us.

 

Yao needs to just wear Nikes because those Reeboks ain't working

 

+1

Are people seriously thinking that Morey is just going to ditch Yao b/c the role players are having a hard time adusting to him? It would be a greater risk to jettison BOTH of the players who are the core of this team. Where is the reward of getting rid of BOTH Yao and McGrady???

 

I can't agree more.

It is not the time to trade T-mac, with his expiring contract and his performance in his "prime", we could definitely trade him for something really good before the end of next season.

For Yao, it upset me that nobody so far mentioned how hard Yao worked on the court and during the training. Yao is not that fragile, but he definitely need to know how to play 82 plus 10+ game in a year, and say NO under certain circumstance. If he asked to rest longer in these games versus Blazers and Lakers, he would have been ok and ready to play.

Don't forget Yao's new season wish: to play complete 82 game this year, he almost made his wish. He is a tough guy, not very smart apparently, but he will learn how to do the job.

Yao can not play more than 35 minutes, so what, is it a so big deal? So would you trade a paint-killer just because he can only play 35 minutes, And trade him for what? please don't mention the Randolph TRASH deal. And Yao is always willing to sacrifice himself for big "GOOD", although it looks so pale now.

Plus this team is growing, it is the worse time to trade the franchise player at this time unless you can get another very talent and good player, like Garnett or Wade or LBJ. We are in damn good shape right now thanks for Morey, Why trade both of the best player on the roster?

 

Yao will never be traded. He doesn't just reward this team in terms of what he contributes on the court. The additional revenue he has brought from Chinese markets has made this team one of the most profitable in the league. You can talk about winning all you want, but in the end, it's a business. Yao will be Rocket for as long as he wants to be.

 

I think we will resign artest and i think many of these players will still be around in three years. I doubt we are even players for the 2010 free agency or even looking forward to it.

 

Likely, yes, but I want Yao to get a pay cut since he can not stay health. Do not know how much he should get, but not for max that is not good for the rockets and him too.

 

How can you be so sure about such nonsense?

 

If these guys can just stay healthy together for one season in the next couple years, we will win a championship. Just one.

I think the odds of that happening are better than the odds of rebuilding a championship team from scratch anytime soon, but I guess if anyone can pull it off, it's Morey.

 

Yao is going nowhere. Ever.
Les will not allow it to happen.

 

If McGrady or Yao gets traded during the offseason then its obvious which direction the organization is heading. If you are in contention to win a title you add pieces. You don't subtract great talent and expect to win something.

I personally thought its how these guys train and get ready for the long brutal season. Personal trainers and the trainers for the facility are key pieces to winning also.

 

"Great" in the "great talent", is debatable. Too many people focus on stats and say, there's a superstar. No. Michael Jordan is a superstar because he wills his team to victory. Tim Duncan is a superstar. Hakeem. Wade.

Winning = Great.

And T-Mac has never won when it counted. And he's had more than his fair share of occasions to do so where his team is at least as talented as the opposition. He can't do it alone, but when it's a toss-up, and you lose time and time again, you're not a winner.

Yao has a different, though equally troubling problem. He can't stay healthy. And it doesn't matter how great you are, if you aren't playing, you aren't helping. If Yao was more durable, trading him wouldn't be an option. But he isn't durable. Whereas once you had hope that he could settle down on the health scares like Big Z has, it's clear that the extra weight and size of Yao relative to all other NBA players, puts him at a huge risk for continued injury.

So now, you are stuck with wondering: Can (1) Yao stay healthy for a full season and be at full strength in the playoffs, (2) Can you surround Yao with the right players to maximize the team's performance, and (3) is that good enough?

Right now, the answers to the above have to be: (1) No, (2) Yes, (3) Maybe, Maybe Not.

Honestly, even though it wouldn't be a question, even if 100% healthy and durable, we all know that there are still other players out there who, as individual players, you'd definitively rather have on your team (Kobe, Lebron, Dwight, CP3, Wade, Durant, Rose, Rose, Roy, Deron Williams, Dirk) and a number who are at least in the same category as Yao (Bosh, Devin Harris, Rajon Rondo, Al Jefferson, Granger, Melo, Tony Parker, Joe Johnson, Amare).

Healthy Yao, T-Mac, Artest and supporting cast never happened, but even if it did, and everything clicked, you still may not win a championship.

From a pure basketball perspective, the time to trade Yao would be soon. By the beginning of next year, he'll be 30, which for a healthy player would be near a prime, but for Yao is getting old. He will almost certainly pick up his player option for 2010/2011, which means you have something of value beyond the player - the contract - for another season and a half...after that, you have the difficult question of how much he's worth and the potential disaster of overpaying for all the non-basketball reasons associated with him. Despite this new injury, Yao still has value as a player. When healthy, he is definitely near all-star level skill wise, and he does have the non-basketball attributes that would be attractive to certain owners in today's economy. And, while I don't believe the Rockets are a better team without Yao, I do think they have a coach who is perfectly suited to win with a "different" kind of team - whereas with JVG as coach, losing Yao would hurt more.

Still, trading him is difficult. The obvious "markets" of NYC, San Francisco both have teams that play a style Yao would be horrible in. Chicago could actually be a good fit as a market and style, but any combination of Deng, Hinrich, Gordon, Thomas (players they'd potentially trade in return) isn't really that enticing. And it's that return package that is difficult. Short of any of the players mentioned above, you really have a hard time feeling like you are getting equal value back (even though you might be given Yao's injury history) with any trade. Would Minnesota trade you Al Jefferson for Yao? I doubt it. Yao's marketing appeal doesn't go so far there, and Al Jefferson, though also injury prone, is 4 and a half years younger. Would Toronto trade you Chris Bosh? Maybe, but maybe not. Plus, Chris is a PF, which honestly, is no longer a real huge area of need for Yao.

So, would I trade T-Mac? For sure...not only would I, I think Morey should.

Would I trade Yao? At some point, but perhaps not until after next year. Trade T-Mac for something useful, add another player with the MLE, re-sign Ron, hope Brooks, Wafer, Lowry and Landry improve, and pray Yao stays healthy and give it one more go.

That said, the risk of Yao getting hurt is a big one (especially in that with every new injury his value as a player goes way way down). So, if Morey could turn Tracy and Yao into 3 highly serviceable players (2 starters, one big minute bench player; 2 starters, one young high potential player; something like that) that fill needs (frontcourt players to replace Yao and add more size; SG in the more traditional mode - Ron, Shane, Tracy all fit more as a SF to me; a taller PG to push Brooks and Lowry), then I'd be for it.

Championships or bust...

 

The reward is what you saw on the court in game 4.

Excellent ball movement, spacing and unselfishness. Low turnovers, and making the extra pass. And thats only on offense. Defensively we were superb. You are not taking away a rebound from Chuck Hayes, Scola or Landry.

The last time a team shared the ball this well was the 2001 Sacramento Kings

 

You will also see the result in games 5 and 6. The only way we lose this series is if Artest shoots us out of it (which has a 50% chance of happening).