It's total BS calling Yao not a Franchise player. He is a franchise player that's why he's getting pay like one. According to Sage's standard, I don't see one franchise player in the NBA right now. Even guys like Hakeem and Jordan, they have very good cores of players surround them. The problem with the team right now it's a lot of old guys that for some reason just lost their games. Yao was right, the older guys don't factor beyond 5 years. We just got a lot of old guys.
SageHare6- I tried to refrain from name calling but its a neccessity to call you an idiot which I rarely do on these boards. Yea ok, just go ahead and insult our other franchise player since he couldn't lead us to a win in the last 5 game or so right? I guess by your assesment of what a franchise player is, T-Mac must suck since he doesn't take the responsiblity role and lead us? How does the end result(win/loss) differ in favor of T-mac if Yao was on the floor without him? Ohhh...Is it b/c T-Mac have yet to pass Yao's 8 game losing streak who have played with a bad big toe nontheless without T-Mac, is that why?....Or maybe b/c Yao had DA and Rafer and T-Mac didn't. Please tell me, I would love to know. Most of us are smart enough to know that this team is sh*t without both of them on the floor at the same time regardless of who is on the floor with them, yet you discredit Yao like he's to blame for this lousy season so far and question his leadership.
Wrong! So wrong! In today's NBA, there is no one who can carry a team on his own. Kobe couldn't in the last two seaons, Lebron couldn't, Iverson couldn't, Pierce couldn't, KG couldn't... Well I agree that it would be really nice if Yao could give us at least a few wins during the 8 game losing streak, but considering the support he got from our role players and bench, it's not a total disappointment on Yao himself. What I'm really worrying about is, even if T-Mac and Yao are both healthy on the court, we may still not be a championship contender. We need our role players to produce consistantly, night in night out! Look at who the Pistons have, who the Spurs have, who the Miamis have and who the Dallars have... I really expect to see some trades before all star break.
God to see yao knows he has to keep improving. all the great players are allways trying to improve there game to get that one % ahead of the rest of the pack.
That's because our role players are producing in this game, not becuaes T-Mac gets 50 or 60 points. Alston: 17P, 7-11 DW: 12P, 3-5 JH: 24: 10-14 Head: 11P, 4-9 Swift: 13P, 4-8 total 28-47, 59.6% Hell, even T-Mac were out, we might still get this game!
Umm...That's an affirmative "No". But seriously, I just got to read this thread now, and I can sense the same frustration in Yao's voice as in McGrady's earlier comments. If nothing else, rest assured that these two guys are the ultimate competitors, and desperately want to win and only win; the mere fact that we have two star players who're on the same page as far as team goals are concerned should alleviate concern about this team's future, barring any major injuries of course. Yao gets it, he really does, and he is the ultimate competitor, and he is dying to get back and help the team win. You can't ask for more than that from a guy, you just can't. His effort and dedication has never been questioned, that's good enough for me, the rest will come, rest assured. As long as him and McGrady are around, this team will always be alright. Just a few tweaks here and there each season and we are set for an exciting season, barring injuries of course. No one can carry a team by himself anymore in this league, no one can, except may be for Shaq because of his mere presence, and even Shaq is getting old and injury-prone. Basketball is a team game, and even the greatest players in history had help, or otherwise they don't win.
"Me and Noize over Lunch" Seriously though... and I'm not saying this to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative, remember all those threads about whether or not Yao can live up to the standards of a Shaq or an Hakeem or a Jabbar? Well, if anything, I think this season helps put to rest a lot of those debates. But first to answer your question, "no, I am not saying T-Mac sucks." In fact, I'm saying the very opposite and looking to our record this year as proof. Factually speaking, from the stats... 1. We have won more games with T-Mac than without 2. Our "other" players have played better with T-mac than without 3. We would technically be a 500 now across all games WITH T-Mac So there's no argument here. But now with respect to Yao - which is really the focal point of this thread here - I think this is a different story. Some may say that eight games does not a conclusion make, but in analyzing each game, I honestly didn't see the requisite "performance" of a franchise player. I mean, 0-3 or 0-4 is one thing, but 0-8??? Something is seriously amiss IMHO. So for all the threads that used to wonder about Yao's upside and whether he'd be more like Shaq or more of a Rik Smits, I think the verdicts in that as of this season, Yao is NOT a true franchise player and thus is more Rik Smits than he is Shaq. If you consider for a second too the implications of this... considering our team was built with Yao as our "franchise player." To see us struggling this late in the season for reasons of (and obviously notwithstanding last night's game) poor shooting and age. Why did management risk going that way to begin with? By my memory, the reason we got many of the players we got was b/c we wanted to be an INSIDE/outside team (i.e. Yao is our go-to guy) whereby catch-and-shoot guys were all we needed... yet if Yao ain't dominating, how much can we depend on a roster full of shooters? I'm sure many people will lynch me for this whole piece, but the base assumption on which this team was largely crafted - that Yao is a legitimate franchise player - is questionable at best. I don't think that much is wholly out of realm of reason, but then again, what do I know? HugsforNoize, theSAGE
I guess that sums up what your idea of leadership is. But your thoughts about Yao seem dishonest in this particular thread. And, your drone on what a max player is, is hopelessly out of date. Yao really seems more open and honest in this interview than I've heard in a long time. He apparently does expect more from himsef than most of us do. If your intention was to turn this into a T-Mac vs. Yao thread, you haven't succeded yet, but it's only a matter of time...
Dude, if your're trying to prove that T-Mac is a better player then Yao, then no one could argue with you unless they're a YOF and even so, they would be crazy to think such a thing. You just wasted a bunch space proving what the majority of us have already know...that T-Mac is twice the player Yao is right NOW. If you want to be truly be fair to Yao can you at least wait util he's been in the leaque as long as T-Mac has? T-Mac has been in the leaque for freakin 9 years, he is bound to have some good season as well as the bad as the case with his 19 game losing streak. The same can be said for Yao, but we don't really know how he will end up like and I think 4 yrs is a little too short to make a long term assumption about the type of player he could become. Funny, you never bring up T-Mac losing ways in Toronto yet you try to make your case with Yao's 8 game losing streak while only being in the league for 4 years and statistically, he's improving gradually. I think it takes time to be a leader and you have to be at the right place at the right time in this league and with a little bit of luck along the way. Sometimes it takes a person to hit bottom or to faulter a little in their early yrs before they could rise to the top just from experience and the feel of the NBA. It took KG,T-Mac and J. Oneal nearly 5-6 yrs before they could make a name out of themselves...heck, didn't KG gotten out of the first round in his 9th year? So, he wasn't a franchise player before that yr he gotten out of the first round according to your definition of a franchise player right? Seriously, I think you missed my point and that it went right through your head. We all know T-Mac is better and thats a given, my my main point I was trying to make was that the team will be better off with T-Mac and Yao on the floor at the same time and that the team will suck if one or the other was not not on the floor. I also responded to counter your assesment of what's a franchise/max player is in which I disagree with. Yes, T-Mac have won us more game, but it doesn't change the fact that we're still 7 games below .500 and struggling, but I hope I'm wrong and will continue win more game without Yao. "remember all those threads about whether or not Yao can live up to the standards of a Shaq or an Hakeem or a Jabbar?" Hey now, before the media began to put high expectation on Yao by comparing him to those once great centers, he had to overcome the burden of being compared to another not so great center. Did you remember what 90% of the member of this board thought he would end up like and was the reason why they didn't want him? I give you a hint, he's about Yao height,skinny,slow,soft and average like 12ppg at his peak. I'd say just let Yao be Yao and don't get caught up with who the media is comparing him to.
Perhaps Yao started playing better because Tmac's presence on the floor did not allow the opposing defense to completely focus on Yao... Not only was he constantly under double and triple man coverage but unfortunately Yao does not get many calls from the referees!.. Add to that that his position is the one position that depends mostly on getting good entry passes something the majority of our guards haven't excelled on... and to top it off our shooting as a whole went on maternity leave then that might give you some idea as to why we were'nt winning.... If the outside shots aren't going in the spacing gets out of wack and Yao does'nt get any room to make some noise! It really does'nt matter what Yao scores or does in general some people will always expect more from him.
Yao is good not great. He is not even the best rebounder on his own team and he is a center. Deke is 79 and can rebound better than him. Yao will max out a 21pts 9rebs a game. We need TMAC and YAO and quality role players to beat spurs .
