I'd probably take Amare over Boozer. I believe Amare has a couple of year on Boozer, and I'm pretty sure he's going to develop that short jumper. He's like 21. If, by the time he's 24, he can drive both sides and hit the 15-ft jumper, he will probably be the best PF in the league. Lots of ifs, but considering his age and work ethic, it's quite possible. A agree, though, that at this point Boozer is doing better than Amare, especially considering how bad the Suns are and how bad Amare is shooting.
Amare over Boozer. Yao over them all. Offer Yao or Amare to all teams. I say only the Lakers take Stoudamire. Amare has game, and is mature like LBJ. It'll be interesting to see if and how they develop their games over the next few years. I'll be enjoying watching Yal grow into the next big thing!
That's definitely true. Amare is far more athletic, powerful, and quicker then Yao...and if we knew Amare was going to develop he might even be a better pick then Yao...but history makes Yao the no-brainer. Players with basketball fundamentals get better with time. The Jordons, Olajuwons, Birds, Magics, even the John Stocktons. I think Yao is in that class. You can teach his height, and with his soft hands he's only going to get better and better. Amare is awesome physically - I mean almost like nothing I've seen before. He reminds me of...Derrick Coleman, Shawn Kemp, Larry Johnson - powerfully athletic players whose games declined with age. Why? Because that's all they have. Once that goes, their weaknesses stand out 10 times more (such as free throw shooting) and they tend to put on weight and slow down. Amare has 5 years tops before he becomes the next McDyess. No Brainer.
Kemp and McDyess are the two guys that most come to mind. Kemp was a beast when he developed a well rounded game including an 18 foot jump shot, good FT shooter and good weak side defender. The year Seattle went to the champioship Kemp played Karl Malone (in his prime) to a push and the year before almost (but not quite) did the same with Barkley. Amare needs to match TD and KG in a series to even begin such comparisons. People don't remember how tough a player Kemp was then because he faded so fast. McDyess's game even w/ot the injury just never got dynamic like a Kemp (in his brief peak), or say KG (who of all these athletic freaks at the 4 also had the court vision). My guess is Amare at his peak will be in between Kemp/McDyess at their peak, and that is an excellent player who almost always wins his individual match-up. MVP material however, no way--I don't ever see Amare making his teammates better in the way of a Barkley, Malone, KG or TD can by breaking down the whole opponent's defense--and that is a characterstic Yao Ming already flashes.
yeah if you completely throw out anything not involving pure statistics then amare is neck and neck with yao. as far as impact on a game it's not even close. yao would average 25+ easy without these gimmick defenses teams play specifically for us.
Boozer is clearly the cream of the crop as far as rebounding. I guess Coach K teaches people how to box out over at Duke.
Amare definitely has more upside than Boozer. Right now Boozer is a better player, but his upside is quite limited. On the other hand, Amare can improve much more, since he is quite bit raw.
No, Laker will still take Yao over Amare, a no brainer. They ARE one of the team knows how important a dominate center is. Shaq will be used as a trade bait.
A few years from now, maybe. But if the Lakers are trying to win rings in the next few years, they probably keep Shaq since he is already a finished product.
Amare, easily. After the allstar break, Amare is averaging something like 26 ppg, 11 rpg on 55 % shooting, for a second year player out of high school that is really amazing. The main reason the suns isn't winning now is they got Barbosa at pg and Zarko at center and are tanking big-time!
The following are the stats comparison between Yao and Amare for the games played in March: Scores Rebounds shooting minutes win loss Amare 25.3 10.3 58.30% 42.2 5 2 Yao 24.4 10.4 49.20% 35.1 2 5 Pretty close stats and the main difference is that Yao shoots 9% better from the field in the face double/triple teams, and Yao played 20% less minutes than Amare (Yao played less in wins against lesser opponents). If you normalize the stats to the same minutes played, Yao will be averaging 29.2 ppg 13.2 rpg, which will make him hands down the MVP of the league. And of course Yao's team is 5:2 while Amare's is 2:5.
I would prefer Boozer because he can play in a system, which means that he can win. Even the greatest athlete of our time needed a "system" in order to win, Jordan couldnt do anything till the triangle came in and though he freelanced from it quite a bit, he also flourished in it. Great athletes come and go in the NBA, the guys who also have fundamentals and are coachable are the ones who stand out.
