Come on, stat-wise it's going to be much closer than some of you thought. At the end of the day, Yao would get his 27/10 and dream would get his 25/14. The main difference between Yao now and prime Dream is those "little things" like experience, control of game, etc., not statistics.
How Ewing did against Hakeem would be exactly the same as how Yao would do against Hakeem. So Hakeem would outplay Yao, but Yao would get his 20 points.
Hakeem is a nightmare matchup for Yao - incredible speed, a "quick leaper", and most importantly, a low center of gravity for a big man.....a decided advantage to the dream. I've seen Yao's shot get blocked by Andrei Kirilenko. I'm pretty sure Hakeem could do it considering he was one of the greatest ever in that department and blessed with impeccable timing. I think Yao might have an easier time with somebody who relied more on their size, a la Jabbar or Wilt, rather than a speed guy like Hakeem.
Exactly. I don't think tha even Hakeem could stop Yao One-on-One. Yao has more problems against fronting and quick double-teams. He actually played better against elite players who have too pride to double-team him. By the way, Hakeem and Sampson couldn't stop a 40-year Kareem to drop 40 pts on them.
I don't care what kind of rules you play with, Dream will dominate Yao with ease. No contest, Dream is just too quick for Yao. All time top ten steals leader and blocks leader.
do y'all realize that Hakeem is #5 in ppg in playoff history for retired players with more than 10 games played..and the #1 PF or C of all time...yes, including Shaq, Chamberlain, Kareem. He actually has Chamberlain and Kareem beat by a large margin. AI will probably bump him out of the top 5, when he retires. plus, dude holds the record for most points scored in a 4-game series. now, we aren't even talking about the rest of his playoff stats. <a href="http://www.basketballreference.com/leaders/playerplayoffsearch.htm">lookie here</a> He also has the biggest jump in ppg from reg season to playoffs of any retired player (and AI) with more than 10 playoff games scoring over 20ppg in the playoffs. As far as I know, it extends beyond that 20ppg threshold.
look again at his playoff stats: http://www.basketballreference.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=OLAJUHA01 2nd yr in the NBA = 26.9 ppg over 20 games 3rd yr in the NBA = 29.2 ppg over 10 games 4th yr in the NBA = 37.5 ppg over 4 games anyone who says it took him 10 yrs to peak does not remember his playoff performances over his entire career. At equal age to Yao, with no other players on his team (his 4th yr), no he could not win a playoff series by himself, but he scored an NBA record 37.5 points per game at 57% trying.
By stat alone Amare would be the best player in 05 playoff. Averaged 30 pts in 15 games including 38+ pts per game against Duncan.
If anyone thinks Yao could come close to Hakeem they must have only started watching the Rockets after 2002...
Yao will more then hold he's own on offense. however the dream was the complete packiage. defense is where the dream would really excell over ya.
It's great that this franchise has/had both of these players... Yao is getting closer and has really grown by leaps and bounds the last 50-60 games or so ... he's been great, so I'm not knocking him. With that said, Hakeem would destroy Yao -- I don't think it would be close. He would likely foul him out within 10-12 minutes of court time. Yao bites often on block attempts and Hakeem's head fakes and spin-stops were so hard to detect that he couldn't stay with him. It would take Yao several games to figure out the Mark Eaton approach of staying flat-footed with arms raised on Hakeem, but that really only flustered Dream early in his career. No way does Yao's team leave Hakeem single-covered by Yao. On the other end, hard to say .... if Yao could get his shot off he could do fairly well, but Hakeem was so smart and gifted athletically that I think he would figure Yao out and give him a real hard time. Yao's post-turn-fadeaway in the paint is getting to be outstanding, but it's much slower than Hakeem's. I think those two would respect each other a great deal .... have a lot of nice things to say about the other. The good news is Yao is getting better and better.
I don't think Hakeem was THAT good. I didn't see as many Rockets games as you guys since I grew up in Los Angeles but I did see my share though and most centers during that time did not foul out in 10 minutes versus Hakeem. Guys like Smits, James Edwards, Bill Cartwright all did do ok versus Hakeem. They did not put lines like 3 points, 6 fouls, 10 minutes vs him. I am a YOF but I do think Yao is better than guys like Smits or Cartwright.
Not going to happen. The team will double-team Hakeem. As a matter of fact, the reason David Robinson was destroyed by Hakeem during Robinson's MVP year is exactly because the Spurs coach was stupid enough not to double-team Hakeem, but Rudy T was smart enough to double team David Robinson. I like Hakeem a lot and watched many of his playoff games, but the difference between David Robinson and Hakeem is not that huge.
People tend to live in the past. Once Yao finished his career, people will realize how great he actually was starting from his 5th year, and he'll be considered one of the all time great centers too. Yao is underrated not only by the media, but by a lot of Rockets fans here as well. Sabonis used to be a dominant international player, he dominated Robinson in international play before Drob got hurt. Yao is just as dominant as Sabonis was in international basketball if not more, and the overall level of international competition is a lot higher than before. That already showed something. Donyell Marshall said he played against a lot great players including Dream, Shaq etc, but the hardest players to guard are Shaq and Yao. Eddie Jordan compared Yao with KAJ and believed Yao is equaly dominant from both boxes while KAJ domiated from one box. And as we can see, nobody can even SLOW DOWN Yao one on one now if refs call a fair game, and there are plenty of good defensive centers out there. So there is no reason to think somebody would catually dominate him one on one. A 27pts/game center in zone era being double teamed all night long is not going to be dominated by anybody one on one, I believe. Hakeem in his prime was definitely better than Yao is right now, and he'll forever be a better defensive player than Yao by a large margin, but that doesn't mean Yao will be destroyed by him. Outplay? Yes.
