It’s difficult to fault him for last year’s flop by the Rockets. The team chose a new direction in 2004 with a blockbuster trade, sending Francis and Cuttino Mobley to Orlando for Tracy McGrady. In his first season with the club McGrady, Yao and the Rockets pushed the Dallas Mavericks to a seventh game before losing in the first round. But last season McGrady was limited to just 47 games because of recurring back problems.

This might be the indicator season. Yao should have a healthy T-Mac on the court with him, but little else. Head coach Jeff Van Gundy keeps tinkering with his lineup in order to find more balance. His latest tweak is to play Shane Battier at small forward and start second-year overachiever Chuck Hayes at power forward. The Rockets are playing respectable defense, but their offensive output is sporadic at best.

Yao individually is enjoying his best scoring season (24.4 average) but his poorest rebounding effort (7.8 average). It’s early yet, of course. Once Van Gundy finds a rotation he’s comfortable with, Yao might discover the momentum and confidence necessary to become a dominant player.

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Just don’t bank on it. A player never rises above his own personality. Yao will probably always be proficient but not powerful. He doesn’t have an attitude, or demons, or a chip on his shoulder. He isn’t Shaq, who has spent an entire career sneering at critics and opponents in an effort to motivate himself. Yao is a nice guy and a gifted performer, but he doesn’t seem to have the fire in his gut that transforms a player with great talent and potential into a great player.

In China, authorities regularly crack down on Internet access for its citizens. But the NBA’s All-Star voting never seems to be affected. Yao gets about a trillion votes each year. And when you look around the league at the center position, it’s easy to understand why. He’s among the very best of a thin crop, especially in the Western Conference.

Yet so much more was expected of him when he came into the league. With an eye toward his upside, he was compared to some of the game’s all-time greats.

Unless he leads the Rockets someplace other than a first-round exit, maybe those expectations will have to be adjusted.

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