Espn Mag You have to be an insider for it, and tilt your head. I think Yao is capable of being a much better leader.
I think Yao has stepped up so far this year. Looks much more agressive, especially on defense. His shooting is off, but Im not worried about that. Once Sura and T-Mac are back, I think we'll go on a tear.
Yao IS the problem right now. He is the franchise player. With TMac, Yao alone isn't supposed to win championships. However, Yao alone is supposed to carry the team enough to beat the Hornets and the Magic. When you are the franchise player, and the team isn't winning, you ARE the problem, no matter what the excuse might be. Duncan, without Ginobili, can lead his team to beat the Hornets/Magic. Shaq, without Wade, can lead his team to beat the Hornets/Magic. Yao, without TMac, didn't lead his team to beat the Hornets/Magic.
You have them reversed. Yao is to T-mac what Wade and Ginobili are to Shaq and Duncan. T-Mac is clearly our best player. Yao is a very good player, but he is not yet in the class of Shaq, Duncan or T-Mac.
he was standing right under the basket, that is why he missed the dunk. His FT's are off too tonight.
did you forgot T-Mac, without Yao, lost to weaker Hornets last year. that just can happen to any player........
Is this thread about an article? If so what does it say besides Yao needs to step up or does it say that at all? I read the other two threads that coolweather and fa7999 linked to but I didn't see the article.
Its a page in the espn magazine. Just talks about the aspects of Yao, not much. It does say that he only averages 4.7 points per 4th quarter, including 3.9 in losses. Yao has been dissapearing in the clutch. Without tmac, its been a lot more obvious.
Kareem minus Magic= Detroit sweeps the Lakers McGrady minus Hill= 21-win season Shaq minus Hardaway= 1st round sweep Garnett minus any type of 2nd star= missed playoffs Duncan minus Derek Anderson= swept by the Lakers Kings minus Webber= defeated by the Mavericks Stoudamire minus Nash= 5 straight losses
Post players are incapable of being clutch. How many games has Shaq won down the stretch (final 2 minutes), Hakeem, etc.? Yes, Yao has room for improvement, but by default, you are dependent on how good your guard play is down the stretch...the Rockets, right now, is horrible. Consider, in the 1 game where T-Mac has played, Yao was fanatastic in the 4th quarter.
This is a team. A TEAM. Should we just put Yao and T-Mac on the floor by themselves, and let those two players play against the opposing 5 players? No? Why not? Because they can't do it by themselves. Neither can Shaq. Neither can Duncan. Yao had a double-double tonight and played much better than Mourning. But, once again, our guards could not get their outside shot to fall. When the gaurds can't sink their shots, we don't put on backcourt pressure. When we don't put on backcourt pressure, we don't spread the defense When we don't spread the defense, the lane gets clogged When the lane gets clogged, centers get shut down. It ain't complicated. And if you think that the way to win is for Yao to improve from his 24-14 game against Mourning and the Heat, you are just wrong. Jon Barry shot 0 % from the field. So did Ryan Bowen (a starter). Alston (another starter) shot 11% Anderson shot 35% Wesley shot 50% but only took 2 shots. Head shot 50% but only took 4 shots. And the entire team shot 23.5% from 3-pt. THAT's why we lost to the Heat. It wasn't because of Yao Ming.
I have a feeling that Yao is gonna average better than 20-10 this season, and yet he will still be heavily criticized and sacrificed if the Rockets keep disappointing.
Excellent post. Thats what most of use were posting about in the game thread. The bottom line is that Yao played the best he could regardless of his position or stamina and with 24pts/14 RB you can't argue with that...He did his JOB. Thats what JVG was saying at half time. He said Yao should just continue and do what he does in the 2nd half but everybody else needs to do their job.Everyone's shot was just pathetic as a whole and when you add that to our guards careless turnover, its gonna kill us everytime.
