I see Amare as just another star, not an All-Star yet. But Yao is definitely an All-Star. Yao literally change both end of the court, that's HUGE!! Opponents can't do a damm thing inside with his presence, you can't say that about Amare. Yao draws double team everytime, you can't quite say that about Amare...consistently i don't think. Yao is a dominant force offensively and defensively...what more do you want out of a player??? Last year, he didn't quite step up on the podium and play up to his potential and since the ROckets didn't make the Playoffs and the SUns did, that's why Amare got the ROY Award. But even with all of that ....i still think and I believe obviously everybody know Yao deserve the Rookie of the Year as much as Amare does, the stats speak for itself, they're virtually identical. Oh by the way, I never have a doubt that Yao is a wayyy much much better player than Amare, even when he didn't get the ROY Award.
no brother, your arguments don't stand. 1) Yao palyed the entire season without his girlfriend by his side 2) Yao's left ear is almost completely deaf & it's beyond repaire.
Yao also didn't have the benefit of playing in the U.S. and practing with NBA players all summer. Not to mention a full training camp and conditioning with his team. It can also be argued that meshing Yao's skills into the Rock's system was a lot harder than meshing Amare's talents into Phoenix' system. The advantage was Amare all along and Yao made a case out of it!
The bottom line is that they should have shared the ROY award just like Francis and Brand did. Both Yao and Amare had almost identical stats and both were playing with a minor injury. Yes teams do plan games around stopping yao, but Amare showed signs of shaq-like dominance from time to time. Yao is a better shooter, but Amare is much stronger and isn't scared to get into the paint and bust through oposing center's arms. The fact that yao had the same numbers as amare and had to deal with the cultural barriers should have been reason enough to give him the award. And, Amare dominated like no rookie has since shaq. The result should have been co rookie of the year awards.
Uh, dead wrong! Opponents often abuse yao in the paint, if they didn't he'd be considered the best center in the league which he isn't. You can absolutely say that about amare. He is MUCH more physical than yao is at this point. True, yao does draw a double team but that is solely based on his size not inside scoring ability. All yao does is shoot fade aways. When he learns how to back his way into the paint and get close to the basket, then you can say yao is better than amare. Amare physically dominates opponents more so than yao does. Yao plays like a finess player, not a physical big man. That is exactly how amare plays. Get your **** together buddy!
WRONG! A year before, we didn't even come CLOSE to missing the play offs with ONE game! How did you know that Yao didn't carry us that far?
Yao is not physical enough, especially last year, we all know that and I accept that as true. But if you are going to use that as an argument you'd better get your facts straight. Amare was single covered and not very well covered at that all season, some times not even covered at all. I watched about 30 of the Suns' games down the stretch and I couldn't believe how many times he was left open under the basket. When your opponent doesn't respect your game, you can't make a case for being a great player. Where as, if Yao is going up through a double team, some defender is going to throw him to the floor like they do everybody else. Translation: I don't want Yao going up in double teams unless there's no better option. I think people underestimate the impact of Marbury. I think he's a punk and I think he should never open his mouth, but that doesn't change the fact that he played AMAZING last year. He got his team so many open looks it really helped them out. The bottom line is, I can live with either of those two getting the ROY because they were both great pick ups. But I think Yao deserves it or at least deserve co-ROY. Nevertheless, I don't think Yao ever cared about it and I basically got over it, so everybody else should too. Btw, DavidS, not to disagree with you, but Penny picking up his game was the difference maker on the Suns' playoff run (you can see this by checking the Suns' record w and w/o him). He's the difference between last year's Suns and the year before.
How about changing this topic title to "who is more important to a team?" I don't think I can say Yao is better than Amare or Amare is better than Yao. They play different positions. Clearly Yao is more important to a team. But if we ask those two guys to play one one one, I am not sure if Yao can beat Amare. But that doesn't mean Amare is more important to a team than Yao.
Clutch I never new we were going to send Cato to the Suns... What were the juicy details of this trade...
I don't think Yao's been abused by one opponent in the paint this year. If Amare is such a great inside force, why does he shoot a worse FG% than Yao. If Amare is "abusing" players inside, it would mean he's getting good shots close to the hoop. He does play tough inside, but he also shoots jumpers and fadeaways, etc. just like Yao. He also misses them too. If you've watched any of the Rockets games this year you'd also know that Yao does a lot more than fadeawy. He's been throwing in hook shots and definitely has been dunking more. In any case, if Amare is such a great aggressive inside force, why does he shoot a worse percentage than Yao? Granted Yao isn't a dominant inside force, but I think his game is fine and is on the right track. Going back to the original question, I don't know who's better. They're both very good, but I'd rather have Yao. Who wouldn't?
So, "you have crystal ball", know what would/wouldn't be? Geesh! Look, you are the one made the statement that Amare deserve ROY because he was better, playoffs "may not be the factor". Now, you keep bringing up Suns playoff. Son't you think it's woo weid? You also keep using "probably", "maybe", "if", at the same time you accused me speculating. Do you have a differrent standard for youselve? Why you keep bringing up "playoffs"? Didn't you say that may not be a factor? I feel very sad for you. I believe Yao should get it based on basketball merit. But, I don't really care about it, I didn't even get into the ROY debate last season. We are talking about it now because this is what crash brough up in this thread. As a contrary, you are the one COULDN'T get over it, spent al the time to dig out those URLs. I feel for you! --daoshi
So, what's your point? You believe Amare was better than Yao last year, deserve the ROY over Yao; I think differently with the reason I presented. Is that okay? So, you are saying that your point should be ignored because you are a fan of Rockets? There is no need to make accusation if you have nothing worth to say. I was not a Yao basher, or a lover either. I was one of the first posters pointed out Yao's potential problem before his rookie season. I have been constantly reminding people about his weakness. I defended Francis & Mobley when many people here wanted to trade them. Where did you get the idea of "can not see the other guys"? Then, you souldn't post on this thread. This thread is about the comparison between Yao and Amare, last season, this season, and in the future. Do you have the "crystal ball" to see what I'm doing? I don't agree with the ROY result, so I voice my point with my reasoning. You don't like it, tough! You know the sad part of this board? Too many people like you who belittle/accuse others when they have an opinion different from yours. --daoshi
It was voted by sportwriters and such...its just unfair that they thought Butler was a better player last year than Stoudemire and Yao which really hurt Yao's chances.
SRF, I don't think voting for Butler hurt either Yao or Amare's chances. If a sportswriter doesn't vote for Butler, you still don't know which one of Yao or Amare that sportswriter would vote for. What I think though, is that talent evaluation awards such as ROY should not be voted for by sportswriters. Quite frankly, unless one watched 30+ games of both the Suns AND the Rockets against the same calibre teams, one is really not qualified to make a judgement on which player was better, because the evaluation would invariable end up a stats comparison, which we all know denies Yao the intangibles and impact displayed by Yao. Conspiracy theoriests would also that Yao lost because he's not American. Although I don't acknowledge that, I also can't say sportswriters from Amare's home state of FL, or a black sportwriter wouldn't prefer Amare winning the award instead of Yao. In either case I don't think sportswriters are the best way to judge talent. What I think should happen in an official award like this, is to have the 29 coaches, their assistant coaches and the 29 GM's vote for ROY. Although those people may also not have watched 30+ games of both the Rockets and the Suns, there's more chance of them having done that, eg. JVG. These people are also surrounded by scounts and talent evaluation teams which would make them better judges of player talent.
Agreed! Agreed again, but it's not going to happen since NBA IS a businesses. It's the media who hypes the players and games, etc, with some flash highlights and maybe a little controversy to attract the casual fans. All we can do is enjoying what we got with the Rockets, voice our excitment and frustration here. --daoshi
Yes, Yes. who knows what would be if we did not have this Larry for coaching the team? We may go to the playoff
LOL!!! That's funny. I said, "Crystal ball" because we don't know what would happen. Not for sure. We can only speculate. But you can't speculate about anything. What? Are you going to specluate on how Yao did not win it? Heh...he already didn't. I'm speculation on how he could have won it. Which is what you would want! We just dont know what would happen. Why is that so hard for you to understand? If you want me to make a guess. I can do that. Now remember, this is speculation on what could have happened (except the first one). 1) Yao missing the playoffs, Amare make the playoffs (Amare wins ROY). 2) Yao make the playoffs, Amare make the playoffs (Co-Rookies). 3) Yao make the playoffs, Amare miss the playoffs (Yao wins Roy). Do you get it? Do you understand. Now, this is not written in stone. So, that's why I said we don't know for sure what would happen. But this is reasonable. Do you undersand? And the reason that I said, not to take to much stock in what Sun/Rocket fans is because a lot of them would automatically pick their own player. Biased. Do you understand? You are diehard Yao fan. Of course you would pick Yao with such passion. It's an emotional attachment to you.
Amare hasn't improved since last year and now he's showing to be injury prone. Last year all they would talk about was how he's playing hurt on his 'turf-toe'. He had surgery on that in the offseason and spent the whole summer recouping, unable to improve his game much. Then a month into the new season he injures his ankle and is going to be out a month. All that high flying is tough on that frame of his. Maybe it's a good thing Yao doesn't have a 36 inch vertical...can you imagine the punishment his feet would go through on a daily basis? Amare's rebounding and scoring hasn't improved(+1.6PPG, +.2 RPG) , simply inflated because of the 3 extra minutes a game he's getting compared to last year. His defense and inability to pass is a key reason for the Sun's lack of success this year.
