That is one matchup. Dwight was DPOY three (3) times! Led the league in rebounding 6 times. Went to the finals as the best player on his team. Was player of the month 6 times to Yao's 2. Player of the week 18 times to Yao's 6. The only thing Yao has on Dwight is free throw percentage, but Dwight took so many more free throws than Yao did it really matter? And that's not even talking about health which is a huge factor. If we have Dwight in 09 instead of Yao who knows how far we could have gone, even with Tmac out.
The point is: Yao dominated everyone including Dwight. Yes he had trouble sometimes with fronting offenses, but he could not be stopped by single coverage. Leastern Conference player of the Month. Disagree, Yao was a significantly better offensive player. and fwiw: doubtful Dwight has as much FIBA success carrying the Chinese team as Yao did.
To Yao's credit, his post game was much better than Dwight's and obviously had a better face-up jumper as well. And was a much better passer. Yao's advantage wasn't just limited to FTs.
He got dominated by Boozer. East was a lot stronger back then. Pistons were good, Cavs were winning 60 games, and the Celtics big three were in their primes still. On a pure efficiency basis? He was a better shooter but Dwight was such a monster back then, he could blow by anyone and was an efficient post up player. The guy led the league in free throw attempts for like four seasons. If that's not offensive dominance idk what is. And Dwight has a gold medal. Look, I love Yao, a lot. I truly believe that had he and Tmac been healthy we would have won a championship in 2009, I promise. But the vast majority of people around the NBA would take Dwight over Yao (besides JVG). Dwight as voted as a top five NBA player numerous times. I just don't see how you could put Yao ahead of him in any "all time" ranking. Dwight has many more accomplishments. Is there any stats to back this up? I'd like to see Dwight's post up points per possession in the 08-12 range. He was significantly better than he is today. I'd be surprised if it wasn't on par with Yao's at least. And Yao averaged 1.6 assists for his career with Dwight averaging 1.5 over his career. So I wouldn't say that.
I really don't mean to sound like I'm hating on Yao either. Yao is awesome. In a Rockets uni, Yao>>>Dwight. No doubt. But Dwight was the best C in the league in his Orlando days, he was a totally different player than he is today.
I'd take Malone over Duncan in a heartbeat. Malone was so much better than Duncan. Duncan is on a better team, but he's not a better player. I watched both plenty. Malone every time. The argument might be defense, but people ignore Malone's quick hands and the fact that he made baskets. As good as Duncan is at shooting a high percentage, Malone had a higher percentage in an age where on court molestation was legal.
Malone was a better scorer than Timmy, but his problem was clutch ability. He probably owns the worst FG% drop between regular season and playoffs.
......Mad bro? Because you did not understand how valuable players that can shoot Free throws are? Those players exist like it or not. I did not say it had to be Yao so you can insert any star big than can shoot that kind of percentage. It happens in history that MVPs like Nash cannot be in the finals but he is still pretty good in my books and THAT is reality. (Not a big but a player that shoots FTs very well)
That is basically the beauty or non beauty of this ranking.... those are subjective.... I am not mad if you think Dwight is the better player. Hell he was on Defense.... but I know lots of people who are going to take O over D. And the Defense alone wins championship days are long gone. Dwight is injured half the time if you are talking about health...... He is not playing for the national team so that is why he can at least play half a season. You just cannot fault a guy like Yao for his gigantism, bad foot and his pride to play for his country and in the Olympics. All in all Yao had better potential and Dwight did better in the East so at least it is a draw. Fair to both players.
I'm okay with putting them on the same tier for now. Especially if Dwight starts missing a ton of games (last season was only his second year when he missed a significant number of games). I don't think Yao's advantage in offense was as much as Dwight's advantage in defense. For now, they are same tier at best but if Dwight wins a title as a major contributor then he is above Yao.
Guys, I know Yao is well loved here but there is absolutely no basis for ranking him above Dwight Howard. No way.
Except that we watched him dominate Dwight time and time again. I get what you're saying, but it's hard to tell people who mostly only watched Dwight when he was being dominated by Yao that there is no case for ranking him above Dwight. As an aside, everybody has completely forgotten about Derrick Coleman around here. And I've seen no mention of Larry Johnson either. Those guys had some good years.