Yeah and they won less games against LA than we did with AB as our best player. That's not saying much, lol. They beat an even scrubbier Cleveland team and a KG-less Boston team. Win by default much?
How do you say, "Um, sorry, no" in Mandarin? More Rik Smits than Hakeem Olajuwon More Brad Daugherty than Patrick Ewing More Robert Parish than David Robinson More Vlade Divac than Shaquille Oneal Get the point? Very good but never dominant for more than a couple of games at a time, no domination in the playoffs and the injuries, god, THE INJURIES. Good not Great.
No he wasn't a top ten center. Even if he lasted twice as long as Ralph Sampson did for the Rockets. Ralph Sampson's last second shot at the 1986 Game 5 Western Finals catapulted the Rockets to the finals. For me, Ralph, together with Hakeem of course, got the Rockets farther in the playoffs than Yao Ming ever did. And watching Ralph Sampson dribble the length of the court like a point guard and finish a fast break was so much more fun to watch than the slow game of Yao Ming. In my opinion, Ralph Sampson would rate much higher than Yao Ming. No offense to Yao Ming. He was a steady player when he was on the court. But Ralph on the team, the Rockets were a potent team and so much fun to watch.
the op was asking if injuries never plagued yao. he might have cracked the top 10 but i think he would have ended up more top 15-20.
Sampson was moved to Power Forward when Olajuwon was drafted. (insert video of Yao on fast break crossover behind his back and scoring.)
Those are nice stats indeed. Yao could not even average that if he was given the green light. He is so unselfish. Yao was as dominant as he wanted to be. He is all heart in training but on the court he looks to pass a lot. These are his instincts. Yes. He dominated under Van Gundy but there were no real options on offense among big men.
The Lakers didn't take the Rockets seriously at all. When they did, I remember a lot of easy blowouts for the Lakers. The Lakers were always an on-off team. The Magic were close in every single game and if Nelson had been healthy they would have had a good chance to win. Dwight is a better defensive player than Yao as well. If they were both healthy it would be pretty close but Dwight took Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis with Courtney Lee and Rafaer Alston and a decent bench to the NBA Finals. Beating a 66 win team with Lebron James averaging 40-8-8 and the defending Celtics who had some crazy good moments. Dwight is already ahead of Yao in terms of career. He passed him when he reached the NBA Finals.
Yao better than Ewing? Ewing's team consistently went deep in the playoffs without a legitimate second star and the reason was mostly him. Knicks offense and defense was geared around him. I seriously doubt Okur would have been able to contain Ewing. Can you Yao homers at least make an attempt to keep it real?
For someone who was so unselfish, he assists numbers were pretty low. Lower, than the selfish Ewing. Actually, his assist numbers were lower than everyone else on the top ten list outside of I'll pass it to myself Moses Malone.
Do you think Yao was a selfish player? Or do you think he was an unselfish player who just didn't get many assists?
In this hypothetical scenario where Yao is always healthy, if Yao won a couple of championships or even one.. then yeah he would be considered better than Ewing and catapulted up like Dirk was.
I don't think he is either. I think he is an overrated passer, with almost no court vision. I also think he has below average balance which is why he has problems getting position and catching the ball. This is why with all his skills, he was never a truly an mvp type player. All-start but not all-time great.
Question is when healthy. Lol a healthy Yao used to own a healthy Howard. I don't even think Yao v Howard was ever debatable when both were healthy. Howard is so overrated, I don't even think he has the potential to be a top 10 center all time. As far as the OPs question goes, not sure. Do not think he could have been top 7/8ish tho he would have a good shot at 9/10. Regardless of whether or not he would make it, he still could have been pretty damn good and it is sad to see injuries ruin the career of somebody who seems like a genuinely great person.
Mark Eaton used to own Dream. Does it make him a better player? Yao was just a matchup problem for Howard, but I would take Howard over Yao any day of the week. You don't have to disrupt the offense to get Howard the ball. Remember, when Yao used to go down. Deke would step in and the team barely missed a beat.
Okay, that Orlando team was not scrubs. They were well built and pretty damn deep. Hedo and Shard were really effective that year. Pretty sure Shard made the all star team that year. Plus they stacked it with three point shooters to compliment Howard. THey probably would've swept Lebron's Cavs if it wasn't for bronbron's miracle three.
lol @ Lakers apologists, didn't know we had any on CFs. And the Cavs were incredibly scrubby, that's why LBJ had no second thoughts about leaving. Their second best player wouldn't even crack this Rockets' starting lineup, lol. And the Celtics had no Garnett, that's not even a championship team without him.
