Drexlerfan22 and Don grahamleone: How many Yao Ming Games have you watched? you can only make statements like that if you have watched both players. Have you?
Now that's an overstatement. But I agree that Khandi looks very much like Cato with a little bit more talent. He'll probably be back to his own self after he gets his money.
Yetti- and your making these assumptions after seeing Ming play againist the caliber of players he will face in the NBA. I say we give Ming a little time before proclaiming him the second best center in the NBA without even playing one game. I hope over time Ming does become one of the top NBA centers, but it`s not going to happen over night.
Do not forget Alonzo...although he is not the same before his health issues, he still can put up points and play the D....
Do you also consider Oscar Torres a bettr SG then Francis because Francis's natural position is PG? Yao might be as good a center as Jermaine O'Neal and Ben Wallace but I don't think he's at Duncans level yet. Also let's not forget about Nowitzki, he gets some minutes at the 5, right?
Yao looks like an even more athlethic Sabonis. I always thought that Sabonis would have been one of the 50 greatest if he could have come over here young and healthy. I think Ming has much more potential than even Sabonis. He seems to have Sabonis' ability to pass and will probably even get better when he is surrounded by quality players to throw to like Eddie, Cat, Steve, Mo, Glen, KT, etc. that can also shoot and slash. The Chinese team doesn't have talent close to that level, and the competition kills their guards and small forwards. As for "true" centers, I think you have to obviously say Shaq is "better" right now. Different game styles though. In some ways you may be able to say Mutumbo is better but in a much different style. I think Duncan plays "center" in SA's offensive scheme, and he is obviously better at this point than Yao from that standpoint. On offense, we may have just found a 7' 6" Duncan for all those who wanted to trade for Duncan. Rudy only needs to adjust the offense to take advantage of his different skill set while he develops a more "Shaq-like" upper body and inside presence. You aren't going to be able to play Hack-a-Yao either, he can hit the free throws. Get CD to show him a Dream shake and some jump hooks combined with his outside touch, ability to dunk and possibly alley oop on the fast break or from a cut from the post and watch out! For that matter Nowitzki and La frentz are "centers" and you would have to say at this point Nowitzki is "better", I'm not so sure about La Frentz. In the offensive scheme of things the Mavs play almost a center-less game. Divac, I don't think so... He was, and is, really good... OK, like I said really good... Because of Yao's size, I think Yao will have to be used as a more traditional center on defense, but also because of NBA zone play, this is probably where you want him on defense anyhow. Size does count on that end. He will definately be in the top 2-3 on defense. At 6' 9" Ben Wallace isn't a better defensive center. Mutumbo may be. Mourning would be if he can get healthy. Obviously Shaq has a more powerful defensive game, but Hakeem and Robinson demonstrated that agility and timing are just as important. If this guy can improve his timing and footwork on defense he could be dominate on defense. That is exactly what CD and Mr. Mean did with Hakeem. And, Yao is 7 inches taller! All that said, and Yao not even have played a game in the NBA, he is second in my opinion as a true center like Shaq.
Shaq is definitely the only center better than Yao right now. I would like to see Vlade go put up the kind of stats that Yao puts up playing with the Chinese national team. No way. I love Vlade, but he can't compete with Yao's natural ability. And yes Vlade can pass better than Yao. He is just not a Freak though. The fact that only Shaq is better than Yao is a testament to the lack of good true centers in the NBA right now. And get Kandi the F*&K out of that list! I can't believe you put him instead of Mutumbo.
Guys you are out of memory: Shaq, Duncan, Mourning, Divac, Ilgauskas (when healthy), J O'Neal, D. Robinson (when healthy), Mutombo, Wallace, Davis are all currently better than Ming on a full game, although their talents and qualities are vey different. This is at least 8 quality centers on a third of the NBA teams. I hope/think that Ming could creep up to the 5th spot at the end of the year. You guys are a bit ahead of schedule!
Can't the same be said about how good Yao is? How many games have you watched him play against any other NBA centers? None right. Remeber he'll be playing this year without a training camp under his belt (he's committed to the Asian Games) not to mention the fact that he's a rookie. All rookies struggle at some point in their first season i don't care who you are. Give the guy some time to develope. I agree that he will be very good sometime in the near future but I think it's putting too much pressure on him to expect him to be a dominant force in his rookie year.
Ming will be as good as Shak or better if the refs let him stand in the lane for 15 seconds or walk all over the place without traveling being called as they do for shak.
