Dude you totally stole all of that right out of my head. If it weren't for my "member" status, I would've made a thread almost exactly like this because I felt exactly the same way. Sadly, most of these so called "analyists" don't really watch and studiously analyze a game as one might think. If they do, the games they're following are either the Lakers, Celtics, or Spurs, etc-the so called "elite" teams in the NBA. So what makes anyone think they would care anything about us, the team led by a star player that has never been past the first round? Oh please, he is destined to be injured and the team will flail just like their fragile leader Thats the most annoying part about all of this: they just base all of their "analysis" of this one fact-that Tmac has never led his team past the 1st round- and procede to declare us and our streak invalid just because of that, then they think thats all thats needed to be said, and then they think they just did a thorough job. And the whole presumption that because Yao is out, we're going to immediately lose 20 points and 10 rebounds, is ridiculous. I bet that makes them sound so brilliant. Thats the definition of a logical fallacy right there. So just the big guy is gone, we're bound to score 10+/- 10 points or so less, and the rebounding deficit will be too much yada yada. Yes, we can't replace that 7-6 presence, especially on the offensive end. But that doesn't mean the team and Tmac can't or won't step up and play good basketball. If Yao was so important, why did analyists like Tim Legler took Marcus Camby over Yao Ming?!? And now all of a sudden they say that Yao can't be replaced (and he can't) and such, like he was an MVP candidate before he got hurt?!? Proof: Tmac led the Rockets to a 20-10 record last year when Yao was out. Here were his stats: 28.1ppg 5.1rbs 5.9assists AND HE DID IT WITH A TEAM WITH CHUCK HAYES AS THE STARTING POWER FORWARD. Oh I bet not many teams can brag about an undersived 6-6 power forward starting for you I don't really care what these brilliant analysts have to say about us; but at the same time, their ignorance and bias (not to mention chronic short-term memory issues) is hard to ignore, especially when its coming out of Stephen A Smith's mouth
most of the avid fans here know more about the Rockets than your average tv "analyst". so take their "criticisms" with a grain of salt. to make sense of their Rocket takes first decide which ones are credible. the knocks on the win streak are pure rubbish not worth the time it takes me to type this. first round skepticism, otoh, is a real issue. on not making the playoffs sans Yao; not much research on taking an absolute yes position there. the Rockets played better than .600 ball w/o Yao before. plus, our success this season is generally less Yao/TMac dependent. in their defense, the WC is probably more competitive than ever & the EC, where we've had great success in recent years, has more bite than prior seasons. imo, its not a totally unreasonable position. hell some fans here wrote off our playoff chances before Yao's injury!
ditto, just look at my post above. Granted, the WC is a lot tougher than even last year's, so making the playoffs will be a hard task, without a question. However, for everyone to assume automatically that we're going to sink sans Yao is idiotic and an example of the media outside of the local market is just a big bandwagoner
Oh, and I meant nothing against your beloved Hayes btw Although I wouldn't complain at all if he was only two inches taller; but really-besides that I have nothing to complain about him. He is our beloved Chuck Wagon after all
