If all you were grading on was highlight reel dunks I would agree but since Yao consistently shuts your man Amare down everytime they play head to head I think your statement is a bit premature....Amare is a great player but I think Yao has better overall skills.
i knew that ya'll were going to hate on that. but if you ask me both players are sub par defenders but amare rebounds better and has the lateral quickness and strength to guard pretty much all the big men in the league, he just has to do consistently. yao gets into foul trouble too much because he tries to take charges and even though most of them are probably actual charges no referee in their right mind is going to call a charge with a 7'6 man on the defense. it just isn't going to happen...ever, so yao just needs to go after the block and play agressive defense. and if you people look at the numbers amare is a better scorer than yao. no he doesn't have the skills that yao has but his athleticism and underrated mid range jumper get him 26 ppg and 30 ppg in the playoffs. and don't give me that steve nash excuse either because in his 2nd year when barbosa was running the point after they traded marbury he was still averaging over 20 ppg. if you want to go to that excuse that yao plays less minutes if he played the same amount of time he'd be better, amare averaged 34.6 ppg per 48 minutes (2nd only behind AI). Yao averages 28.7 ppg per 48 minutes which is still excellent but that's nearly 6 pts. less per game. their rebounding numbers are really close but during the playoffs amare was a beast on the glass averaging nearly 11 rpg and at a better rate than yao. he was at one rebound every 3.7 min. and yao was at one every 4.08 min. it's almost a toss up with them at rebounding. i wouldn't argue with anyone either way. they're both great rebounders. overall, it's close but i think amare is a better player right now and probably in the future too simply because of his great strength and athleticism. yao's conditioning and lack of foot speed bothers me some, despite his great size and skills. personally i wouldn't trade amare for yao on THIS team because i think yao fits tracy's strengths better than amare would. but people can't deny amare's talent and the fact that he's one of the best big men in the league.
I agree that Amare is a better scorer. He doesn't have the overall offensive skills of Yao, but with his athleticism and quickness, he doesn't need to. Few can guard him one-on-one right now. He's put up big numbers on Duncan and Garnett. There's no shame in Yao being less of a scorer than Amare. I think Amare and Yao are about equal in terms of rebounding. Both should be better, though. On defense, I pick Yao over Amare, and it's an easy decision. Amare just doesn't look like he knows what he's doing on defense. He doesn't fight hard to keep his man away from the basket. He just concedes position and goes for the block. Yao at least puts effort into his defense, and has done a much better job than I thought was possible when matched up with quicker players like Amare, Garnett, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Bosh, Zach Randolph, etc. On top of all that, Yao will actually "show" on the pick-and-roll, unlike most centers who hang back in the paint.
I agree with this ranking implicitly. Perfect ranking, for once. And yes, Brad Miller is a damn good center.
