A Playoff Howard > A playoff Yao. Howard performs in the playoffs. Dont forget, Howard has taken his team to the finals. Also, you guys are forgetting how easy it was to neutralize Yao because he couldn't solve fronting defense. Watch the Blazers series if you have still have doubts. Also, no need to speak on his behalf. He himself has admitted that fronting defense was his kryptonite. A playoff Harden >>>>> A playoff McGrady. This ship sailed last playoffs. It's not coming back. Wave it goodbye while its still in your sight. [REALITY] Healthy Mcgrady and Yao ----> 1st round exit against the Mavs Healthy McGrady and Yao ----> Embarrassing first round exit against the Jazz. One settled for jumpers with the game on the line. The other could not rebound to save is life and got destroyed by Carlos Loser and Okur. Howard and Harden duo in 2nd year ----> Western Conference Finals [/REALITY] But yeah....carry on with your fantasy tales.....
Weird poll results. Yao is a little better than Dwight (Rockets version). But Harden is much better than TMac. Harden-Howard had a better supporting cast IMO but I still choose that duo.
How about we team up Yao and Harden. I think James has shown to be far more consistant and has a stronger body unlike Tracy. Yao was far more skilled then Dwight. You cant really have this discussion its a what if. Different competition ect, too many variables. Real question is if Yao and Tmac were to face Dwight and Harden who would win.
Harden is better than rockets tmac rockets tmac is overrated, i always thought his way of playing was really passive in crunch time when he would pull up for those long jumpers instead of going into the lane like Harden to get fouls. Plus Tmac's defense was already downhill by the time he played for us. Dwight is too much of a liability on offense at this point to be considered better than Yao. Yao would have given the team a legit 1st/2nd option on offense.
Why do people have to resort to insults and acting like their opinion is fact / objective, even if backed up by stats. It's all subjective guys, relax.
James is playing fast-paced offense with a barrage three-point shooting, jacking up the most threes in the history T-mac played halfcourt with JVG, a lot slower and with way more aggressive help defense, no way you can compare Once Rockets decided to play faster, he had amazing stretch, then he got injured, we lost 5 or 6 in a row. After he eventually came back on one leg, he lead this team to 22 game winning streak, but he has never player in a face pace game where he belongs to. Never had a ton of ball-movement around him. So, it's like looking on James stats in halfcourt for 82 games stretch over 4 years totally. Would be a clearly different number. Too hard too compare those
Very true on the fronting neutralizing Yao athough there are drawbacks to a fronting defense... Such as giving up rebounds and rim protection. It is a team game after all. Carlos Boozer did murk Yao though. I still say Yao was more dominant offensively than DH. Also T-Mac kicked ass his first season with the Rockets in the playoffs. He already had back problems by then but wasn't hobbled yet. We are talking about fully healthy and prime T-Mac ie) Orlando days. I take him over Harden, especially with today's perimeter friendly, easy to get touch foul calls league. There was a different feel of dominance watching prime T-Mac play.
But the biggest key with James is his age. He's playing better than T-Mac has ever played for the Rockets, better than Clyde played for the Rockets and he's only 25, so there would be a 4-5 years of straight climb to the even higher top for him. And he's already playing on the NBA-historic level. T-Mac came here at the same age but he wasn't able to improve because of all the injuries, and this conversation would have a chance only if James would become an injury prone or Kardashian would bury his personality. But if so, **** that we are cursed But if not, which we all hope, there is no conversation around. Harden is going to end up as the second best player in Rockets history. Over Moses. And Moses was the best center in the game till middle 80's
Orlando T-Mac and Dwight are better than Rockets Harden and Yao But Rockets Harden and Yao are better than Rockets T-Mac and Howard But, most important part is versatility. T-
"If Healthy" could be said about alot of players that never did a damn thing in the league. If healthy, every GM in the league would have taken Embiid over Andrew Wiggins last year. But would any GM in the league take Embiid over Wiggins with health as part of the equation? No. If healthy, alot of fans/gm's would take Yao & T-Mac over Harden & Howard. But would any fan/GM take Yao/T-Mac over Harden & Howard knowing that health is an issue?? Hell freaking No. Health is part of the equation folks, and there is nobody here that should vote Yao/T-Mac over H&H. You can argue raw talent all you want, but the ability to stay on the court is maybe the most important attribute you can put on paper to make any roster personnel decision. ..... If you argue talent alone, its still a good debate. Both duo's are different, but I can't remember any season alone other than that one year in Orlando where T-Mac carried a team the way Harden did last year in a much more competitive conference. To my recollection, I can't remember T-Mac ever finishing above 4th place in MVP voting, and never carried a team past the first round. Harden already is a more accomplished player in that spectrum, and when its all said & done, he's likely going to put up better numbers across the board.
But, most important part is versatility. Harden won't co-exist with Yao. Game would be too slow for him, Yao brought a lot of help on a lane, closed it for driving, that's why T-Mac jacked up a lot of shots. T-Mac had too much size to shoot over people, while James is penetrating player at first, his size is incomparable to T-Mac 6'8 with 7'2 wingspan. Harden jacking up shots - best key too defend him. T-Mac jacking up shots - not so much. T-Mac would have played with both of those guys. Harden could play only with pick-n-roll version of Dwight. His post-ups, even effective as in Portland series, are ruining James' game
The same key with LeBron, LeBron just could not play with true-center because of the locked paint. Ilgauskas has a similar game to Yao, but he never got Yao's number of touches, so James was Ok. But once Yao would like to shoot over 20 FTA, both Harden and LeBron are screwed or rather very inefficient, comparing to the drive-and-kick offense
Somebody forgot tmac played with rick adelman as a coach but you said he likes to play fast like in orlando. Slow offense jvg was your favorite coach! Also people forgot to tell you that orlando didn't do anything except suck in the weak eastern conference.
