I, like many Rocket fans, am disgusted by the under appreciation Yao receives from mainstream media. I have many "casual at best" basketball fans who tell me that Stoudamire and Howard are WAY better than Yao. It is very frustrating to say the least. I decided that I would break down Yao's #'s in January, because I have felt his play has really picked up without T-Mac around him. The #'s were as I anticipated..... Yao averaged 25 points and 11.6 rebounds in 13 games he played in January. 9 of those 13 games he had a DBL-DBL and led the team to a 10-3 record during the month in games he appeared. It must be noted that T-Mac did play in 4 games with Yao in the month of January, and the Rockets went 4-0 in those games. It also must be noted that in the 4 games they played together that T-Mac only averaged 16 shots per game, but Yao has only averaged 12.5. That is a significant decrease in the 9 games that Yao played without T-Mac. In the 9 other games Yao averaged 17.6, which is slightly above a 5 shot decrease. Too much in my opinon. To break it down even further, Yao has averaged 22 points per game in the 4 games played with T-Mac this month and 26.4 points without him. Now you are probably thinking he is only looking at individual #'s, how does it effect the team? Well, I will tell you. In the 4 games that T-Mac has played this month the team scored 94.3 points per game. In the 9 games that Yao played without T-Mac the team scored 99.8. Now, you are probably asking, well 4 games is a VERY small sample. Well in the 30 overall games that T-Mac has played this season, the team as a whole has averaged 93.9 at this point. I am not advocating we trade T-Mac or Yao. I think both are great players, and I love watching them both. I think when Magic Johnson said that these two just don't click and you have to trade either one, he was right on the money. It is my opinion that if the Rockets MUST choose out of the two to trade then it should be T-Mac. In my opinion Yao is more reliable to give you maximum effort night in and night out. Yao has missed time due to injury just like T-Mac, but Yao's injuries are a bit of a fluke and T-Macs seem to be chronic.
Wow - those are eye popping stats....... I mean you could factor in competition etc, but 5 points more per game when Yao plays without Tmac..... What about defense? DD
Yao has been really carring the team on his shoulders. this season's rox stats leaders Scoring Yao Ming 22.4 Rebounds Yao Ming 10.9 Assists Rafer Alston 5.3 FG% Yao Ming 50.4 FT% Yao Ming 85.7 3PT% Shane Battier 37.9 Blocks Yao Ming 2.2 Steals Rafer Alston 1.3
Completely disagree. We need both of them in order to win a 7 game series against an elite WC team. TMac has done a better job of playing within the system when necessary and taking over when Yao is out. We can be a good team without TMac, but a great team with him. Also, it is nice to have him as well b/c fluke or not, Yao certainly hasn't proven to be durable yet.
Blake this has been my position for a long time, but if Tmac does not play off the ball, then it may be time to trade him for players that fit into the team ball concept. Sort of the A-Rod addition by subtraction method. DD
Oh, I totally agree...but I think he has been playing that way for the most part. He did take over more in the fourth quarter when Yao was out, but it was needed. I think that so far he has played better off the ball, and I think our record since his return is a testament to that.
In T-Mac's 30 games this season the Rocket's defense allows 92.6 points per game. In the 14 games that Yao has played in without T-Mac on the season the team allows 94.2 points per game. It must be noted that 3 of those games where against the Warriors and the Suns and that each of those 3 times the opposition scored over 100 pts so that hurts the average some. Even with the defense being slightly worse with Yao only it still equals +4.3 points with Yao and without Tmac on the season. In this case it may be more effeceint to take the median of the #s since the extremes will alter the average by quite a bit. In that case the median would be 93.5 for all of T-Mac's 30 games, and it would be 91.5 for Yao by himself for his 14 games.
In T-Mac's 30 games this season the Rocket's defense allows 92.6 points per game. In the 14 games that Yao has played in without T-Mac on the season the team allows 94.2 points per game. It must be noted that 3 of those games where against the Warriors and the Suns and that each of those 3 times the opposition scored over 100 pts so that hurts the average some. Even with the defense being slightly worse with Yao only it still equals +4.3 points with Yao and without Tmac on the season. In this case it may be more effeceint to take the median of the #s since the extremes will alter the average by quite a bit. In that case the median would be 93.5 for all of T-Mac's 30 games, and it would be 91.5 for Yao by himself for his 14 games.
Here are the comparable stats between Yao, Howard and Amare for January. YAO Pts. - 25 Reb. - 11.6 Ast. - 2.3 Blk. - 1.9 AMARE Pts. - 24.4 Reb. - 8.9 Ast. - 1.1 Blk. - 2.5 HOWARD Pts. - 19 Reb. - 13.4 Ast. - 1.1 Blk. - 2.2 Pretty comparable but Yao is really the only one of the three that gets a consistant double team without the ball and was playing many games without another allstar-calibur player to help take the pressure off.
Sorry for the double post above. Blake as I mentioned in my initial post, I am not saying we should trade T-Mac. I am saying if you MUST trade one it should be T-Mac. I agree with your assesment that T-Mac has been better off the ball, but it still must be said if he is on the floor AT ALL it is for some reason or another cutting into the field goals attempted by Yao. Also, to play devil's advocate, when was the last time that T-Mac has won ANY series? I agree with DD when he says that it may be beneficial to the "Rockets" (they are the main focus after all) if they trade T-Mac for someone that gels better with Yao.
My conclusion is that the overall defense is a near wash if T-Mac is on the floor or not. He doesn't help you but he doesn't hurt you.
a "better" job than - what? "taking over when yao is out"? yao was only out for one game - the loss to utah on sunday. i'm just a lil confused at what you said.
What a lot of casual b-ball fans, who pick Amare or D. Howard over Yao, don't understand is that by just looking at the stat sheet or a few highlights on ESPN, none of the other two are "go to guys" at the end of the game. It's either they have a limited low post game and/or subpar FT shooting. Take away Marion and Nash from Amare and do the same of Rashard and Turkulou from D. Howard, then I want to see how these guys deal with double and triple teams every night.
