Yao Ming's Vote of Confidence in TMAC and Veto Garnett

Yao can give quotes regarding his bball philosophy all he wants, but he isn't the gm. And if he's a humble nice guy like everyone says he is, there is no way he has any sort of pull in the rockets personel decisions other than to just voice his opinion.

 

hakeem has hit some game winning shots in his time. i remember that one play when cassel made an all-oop in bound pass to hakeem who layed it in for the game winner, against i think it was the mavs.

 

none of that had happen at hat point and time
so BONK!! try again

Rocket River

 

I will add 3 more real quick just at the top of my head.

Against Cleveland. Game winning turnaround jumper in their arena.

Game winning shot when he was playing in Toronto. I forget against which team though..

94-95 Playoffs. Game 5 vs Phoenix. Rockets were down 2 and would be elimianted, if not for Hakeem's last second game tying basket. If that did not go, no OT, no 2nd championship for Rockets.

I know he had couplefrom early years but I forget against which opponents, I will have to check back on that.

 

I disagree. First of all, talking about what happened at the end of the Cleveland game is completely irrelevant, because Tracy McGrady wasn't on the floor. If he was, the Cav's wouldn't have been so willing to swarm Yao with a triple team. If Yao had a better supporting cast, and opposing teams had any reason at all to worry about double and triple teaming him, Yao could definitely be the guy hitting game winners - I think he can even do it if he's double teamed, but the triple team is too much. The beautiful thing about having the ball in Yao's hands at the end of the game is that he's our best free throw shooter, and as his prestige in the league grows, you better believe he'll be fouled in those types of possessions more and more often.

 

And we should definitely run the team's offence through whichever player happens to be the most popular at the time.

I also love the translation "changing room" -- I imagine these guys getting ready for the game at Macy's.

Yao Ming is the team leader when he's the best player on the floor, like now. Maybe next year, he'll be better than a healthy T-Mac. Maybe the year after. Until that happens, though, T-Mac is the man.

 

Dream usually created those shots for others.

 

It is true that Centers are easier to get to because defense knows where they will be and is more predictable. However, your choice of Hakeem is a very poor one. A better pick for you would have been Shaq based on their history.

Hakeem and jordan were two of the most dominant finishers in the game in terms of the impact they had. During 92-93 season, championship years and years before he had knee surgeries, Hakeem made an impact on offense and defense during closing moments. He would either score in the fourth quartero r block shots and get steals. It was very common to read the game reports those days and see Hakeem being mentioned as changing the game in final minutes with offense or defense.

Your statment of Dream not being a close out guy..I dont know where to begin.

I have give n3 instances of him taking and making game winning shots in my post above. Take a look above. Somone else mentioned another. There were others earlier in his career too.

This did not even take into account of numerous times where his performance was needed to close out games. Closing out doesnt simply mean hitting the game winning shot btw. It includes the final stretch of the game.

I will give you couple of examples of Hakeem.

93-94 Playoffs. Game 2 against the Jazz. Hakeem wins the MVP and scores 40+. He closes out the game by scoring several times one on one in final minutes of the game. Charles jones mentioned how Hakeem was super tired but he refused to lose the game and decided to carry them on his back by scoring late in the game. jazz had no answer for him and he scored everytime in final minutes of the game. In addiditon, he guarded Malone one on one in closing minutes and shut him down.

93-94 Playoffs. Game7 vs Phoenix. Two closers this time. Hakeem and Cassell. Hakeem was a man possessed and made clutch shots to close out the Suns. He also had a clutch block on Barkley. Cassell's 3 pointer in closing moments came off of Hakeem's pass off of doube/triple team. Thank you very much.

94-95 playoffs. Game 1 against Jazz. Hakeem's clutch shooting at the end of the game kept them in the game at Delta Center. Had maxwell not decided to chuck the ball from hid backyard and given to Drexler or Hakeem, Rockets couldhave pullet it out.

94-95 playoffs. Game 5 against the Jazz. Hakeem made clutch shots in 4th quarter. A memeroable one, couple mins left, Hakeem catches the ball, turns around, all in one motion and shoots. The ball kisses the very top corner off the backoard and goes in. Mario Elie looks in disbelief, as does karl malone, who took the challenge of guarding him and failed.

94-95 playoffs. Game 5 vs Phoenix. I already mentioned Hakeem's clutch basket to keep the Rockets alive in final seconds in the post above.

94-95 playoffs. Game 1 vs Orlando. Hakeem with the winning basket in OT against the Magic.

So......

I have given several examples of Hakeem closing out the games. And these are just a few examples from his championship years playoff time. I am not even gonna bother looking at several games during regular seasons and prior playoff games.

If we go strictly by Game winning shots, remember that Horry, Elie etc got all those open looks because of Hakeem being double and triple teamed during closing moments of the game. It's no different than Jordan or mcgrady being forced to pass out to open shooters like Kerr or Barry. If Hakeem was left one on one, he scored. Of course, opposing teams knew they had better chance of double teaming him and letting others beat them. Unfortunately, for those 2 seasons, neither worked.

Hakeem has had a number of game winnig shots and PLENTY of closing out performances.

Question is..Can Yao do the same? I dont know the answer to that.....

 

These are the kinds of quotes that have me LOL...

I dont remember seeing this type of thing being said when Tmac was defending Yao when NOONE else was, when the Trade Yao for KG fans were swarming the boards.

Fact is, this article is as biased and written to put one player down to lift up another. This is what fanboys usually do with their favorite players pitted up against another teams star.

One good half a season with Yao staying on the floor and now all of a sudden Tmac is expendable and Yao can handle it all.

Its laugable and the thing is, people here know they need eachother but wont admit it.


THIS ISNT SHAQ AND KOBE II FOLKS. Let it go!

 

Steve didn't have an attitude problem when he played here. That's not why we traded him.

 

Head will be our go-to guy couple of years later

 

There were plenty of people not wanting a Yao for KG trade. Trading TMac wouldn't be an issue on the board at all if people had faith in his spine.

And clearly Yao cannot handle it all by himself. This stretch w/o McGrady clearly proves that. Of course he needs help. But if McGrady were to be traded Yao still wouldn't be all alone. There would be another star next to him + whatever else Tmac could net.

Not saying I want McGrady traded, but I do think it would be stupid to not at least look at the options if you are soured on his health.

If McGrady is healthy, he is the best player in the league to pair with Yao.

 

I agree with you totally I mean Yao is good but he has not been consistent on a yearly basis the way Tmac has...there are not that many players in the league who have the basketball IQ Tmac has, the guy can do everything plus some when he is healthy so I think Tmac should stay the leader (if he is healthy) of this team for the next couple of years until Yao really gets into his prime because Tmac is a beast, we have all seen what he is capable of doing...Rockets fans dont lose faith in Tmac he will be back to his old consistent self very soon.

 

Tmac maybe the better Player
Yao is the better Leader

Rocket RIver

 

Who freaking cares who is better?

Last time I checked they both were Houston Rockets.

 

and you know this cause???

the 3 weeks in which he's been given the responsibility of leading this team??

 

us YOFs and MOFS and CLOFS and NODOUBTSOFs
everyone cares . .
it is only to what degree

Rocket River

 

So why keep spreading the division by pitting our two best players against each other?

 

T-mac can be the consistent go-to player in the 4th quarter. Yao can do it as well but can't do it consistently because of endurance. I wish zone defense is not allowed then Yao will be indeed a monster on the offensive end consistently. He is never going to be as good as Dream on the defensive end though.

Shaq of course can't do it because of extremely low FT percentages.

 

I've only watched TMAC when he got to the Rockets but I don't see him as a leader I imagined him to be. He doesn't congratulate his teammates or slap high fives with them much... Even when he was on the bench, he was the only one usually not excited... is it just me?