After semi-retiring from Yao Ming Mania for several weeks, I’m pleased to announce I’ll be resuming my coverage starting with either Friday or Saturday’s Rockets game! I’ve been able to work out an arrangement where I can resume covering Yao and the Rockets while we try to get an online store up that will sell new and cool Yao products and memorabilia. Of course, I’ll encourage you to check out those products in support of this site and Yao’s foundation. And I’ve communicated with Raymond in China, and he’ll be resuming his work on the site, too!

I’ve also implemented a new commenting system powered by Disqus that’s all the rage on alot of Web sites. It has several benefits, including:

– Reply to comments through email or mobile
– Edit and republish comments with one click
– Track and manage comments and replies
– Verified commenter reputations across sites
– More control over your own comments on websites
– Never lose your comments, even if the website goes away
– Build a global profile, or comment blog, to collect and show off what you’re saying
– Easier to comment on websites using Disqus

I wish I was coming back when the Rockets were playing a little better. The past few games they’ve struggled, like needing two OTs to beat a depleted Utah team, losing at home to a very bad team like Washington, and just squeaking by Milwaukee on New Year’s Eve.

Bad shooting is permeating the team. After consecutive games missing nine consecutive shots in the fourth quarter, they went 1-of-9 to end the loss to Washington and 5-of-13 overall in the fourth quarter against the Bucks. Before the Milwaukee game, Yao had only made 6 of his last 25 shots, including missing 3 important shots in the fourth quarter of the Washington game. And Tracy McGrady has made only 13-of-45 shots in his last 4 games.

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The Rockets lost a heartbreaker to Portland on a 30-foot buzzer beater by Brandon Roy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the game, and I’m glad I didn’t. You can read and weep the game story here at the Chronicle site.

I do have something I need to tell you that’s pretty important, though. I have decided after running YMM for over 6 ½ years, I’m going to have to take a break from the site, and it could be permanent (gulp!).

I could have just disappeared and not said anything, but then all of you would be wondering what happened. I owe more to you guys than that.

I had decided several months ago that heading into this NBA season, I can’t continue to sacrifice my time, money and health without making a reasonable financial return on the site. It has been like a second job to me. Even moreso now since I’m not in Texas as much as usual because of a time-consuming job which makes it very difficult for me to watch Yao’s games. Also, every extra hour I can get back in my life is precious. I have become extremely busy over the past year, and it’s not going to let up.

Many of you know I have accepted donations in the past, but I refuse to take those any longer. I very much appreciate your past contributions, but after seeing what was donated the past few years, it’s far from being enough to make it financially viable.

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Carlos Boozer (UTA)

6-9, 266 lbs | 6 years pro

Mehmet Okur (UTA)

6-11, 263 lbs | 6 years pro

Head-to-head in ’07-’08, Record 0-1

CB: 30 pts, .520 FG%, 16 rebs, 5 TOs

MO: 16 pts, .500 FG%, 3 3FGs, 10 rebs

YM: 11 pts, .357 FG%, 7 rebs, 6 TOs

DIAGNOSIS: The amount of sheer hatred that these two Jazzees inspire from Rockets fans is enough to place them in the no. 1 spot. The Jazz are strongest where the Rockets are weak. Point guard and mobility/versatility in the front-court. Boozer may be undersized at 6-9 but unlike Dwight Howard, Booze is bottom heavy and consistently able to force Yao to post up further from the rim than he likes. And his lower center gravity mixed with excellent footwork, gives Yao fits.

Mehmet Okur is a different look, kind of like how NFL teams like to change it up with their backfield. Don’t know if Steve Slaton/Ahman Green qualifies yet but you get the picture. Mehmet is just old school in the low-post. Meaning he’s a hack. He even looks a little like Bill Laimbeer. Okur will push, shove, knee, trip, elbow and hack until the refs call it. He leaves it up to them. If Yao can get square, solid position, Okur has no answer. And for that matter, neither does Boozer, but both do a hell of a job to prevent that.

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Amare Stoudamire (PHX)

6-10, 249 lbs | 6 years pro

Head-to-head in ’07-’08, Record 1-1

AS: 23 ppg, 11 rpg, 1 bpg, 5 fpg

YM: 21.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 1 bpg, 3.5 fpg

DIAGNOSIS: No player has more consistently given Yao fits since they both entered the league in ’02. Amare certainly has benefited from a creative and effective Suns scheme that included heavy doses of running and Shawn Marion but those days are gone.

Now, Amare has Shaq, which in theory should give the Suns a solid defense against Yao (Shaq was no. 5 after all), but Amare’s best defense against Yao is his offense. He’s added the 15-footer to his repertoire off the pick & roll, he still attacks the basket as well as any big man in the league and as long as he has Steve Nash looking for him, he’ll be almost impossible to stop. Which usually spells foul trouble for Yao.

It’s almost as if Phoenix was built to stop Houston. But no, the Suns were thinking about the Lakers and their front-court of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. And now all three of these Western Conference powerhouses, and in some respects the Utah Jazz, are looking awful traditional in the new NBA.

PROGNOSIS: With Scola, Landry, Hayes, Joey Dorsey and surely at some point, Ron Artest, available to fill in at the PF position, Yao won’t have to guard Stoudamire. But count on Shaq playing less minutes than Yao and if Stoudamire finds success against the scrappy but undersized Rockets forwards, Yao may have to switch back in spurts and Stoudamire has no fear of guarding Yao even if he never has quite slowed Yao in single-coverage.

And when Nash inevitably goes back to the pick & roll, the Rockets’ backside help defense should be that much better with Artest and Battier available to drop down in the paint. The benefits of adding a third dynamic player of Artest’s class keeping popping up everywhere.

Dwight Howard (ORL) | 6-11, 265 lbs | 4 yrs pro

Head-to-head ’07-’08

DH: 18.5 ppg, .500 FG%, 9.5 rpg, 5.5 fpg

YM: 22.5 ppg, .472 FG%, 13.5 rpg, 3.5 fpg

DIAGNOSIS: You may be wondering why DH only comes in at no. 3, especially considering most NBA analysts and bloggers have put Howard as the no. 1 center in the NBA now. It’s mostly because Orlando is one of the few teams that will let their center try to match-up one-on-one with Yao and Yao has had some of his best games against Howard. Like most centers in Howard’s mold, Yao is just too big for him.

When healthy, Yao really hasn’t been contained in the last two years one-on-one by anyone in the league. With the arrival of a rookie center with true center size and uncommon explosiveness (and who frighteningly resembles a young Shaquille O’Neal) in Greg Oden and the evolution of Andrew Bynum, that might soon change, but for now, if teams want to single up on Yao, it means they’re satisfied with letting him get his.

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After hearing Monday that Jeff Van Gundy signed a 5-year agreement with ESPN to continue his commentating career, Yao Ming said, “That’s good for me. Not as many people will know how to defend me.”

I wouldn’t be too sure about that. I’m shocked JVG signed a 5-year deal, but I’ll bet he’ll opt-out of that contract within a year or two to take a sweet NBA coaching job somewhere. I just can’t see him NOT coaching for 5 more years.

4.) Al Harrington (GSW) | 6-9, 250 lbs | 10 yrs pro

Head-to-head ’07-’08*

AH: 16.5 ppg, .439 FG%, .409 3FG%, 8.3 rpg

YM: 20.7 ppg, .487 FG%, 11.7 rpg, 2.3 bpg

*Harrington played one more game than Yao in ’08 but NBA.com’s Game Logs is not working at the moment so stats were taken from Game Splits.

DIAGNOSIS: When you look at the numbers, they’re not too shabby, 20 and 10, can’t ask for more, but when you consider Yao’s considerable size advantage up and down the roster, the fact that Yao doesn’t always completely dominate the Warriors is why Harrington makes the list.

Richard Justice has a nice story on Joey Dorsey and how he “has given Yao Ming fits in practice.” As Justice observes, Yao dominates true bigs, it’s the smaller, more athletic post players who have sometimes done better against him. Al Harrington falls into that category but not so much with Dorsey’s Ben Wallace-like physique and athleticism but with his versatility. Harrington is strong enough to make Yao work to get position on the low-block and fast enough to beat him down court in transition.

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In an era that claims with increasing validity the true center is dead in the NBA, Yao Ming is a throwback. But being old school means having to resist an overwhelming trend of NBA teams going smaller, faster and more athletic at the center position; essentially, playing power forwards at center. It’s been no easy feat for Yao to keep up, as 3 seasons of missing 25+ games may attest, but then again, that size advantage or disadvantage, however full you see your cup, cuts both ways.

When healthy, Yao is the the best offensive center in the league (yes, this point is still arguable with Amare Stoudamire thrown in the mix but he won’t be because he’s officially a PF again this season) but the list isn’t restricted to centers but to those players assigned to guard him. This is a breakdown of the match-ups that should not only be the most entertaining to watch, but also the ones that may be the toughest on Yao.

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Later on in the evening after Sun Yue‘s press conference in front of the LA media, he fell ill and was rushed to the hospital where they diagnosed him with mononucleosis! So he’s out indefinitely! Click here for a short article about it.

Sun Yue had his first press conference with the U.S. media yesterday in Los Angeles.

A second round draft choice of the Lakers, over 50 reporters (foreign and local) attended. Click here for Raymond’s photos. Click here for video from the press conference.