CNNSI: Yao 2nd Best Player in NBA

if cavs win the east, mvp will be lebrons... unless rox can break bulls' 72-10 record, yao will have a shot.

 

Does Kelly have normal articles on CNNSI anymore, or he is just doing these rankings from now on? He's a great writer ... this seems to be sort of a waste of his talents. Not that these aren't interesting.

 

i pray lebron doesnt get the mvp, i can think of others who deserve it: d'wayne wade~

 

Kelly Dwyer one of the very few Non-YOH (Yao only hater) in the media.

 

I sure like Yao, but 2nd best is a little overrated. I will admit that after we pass 1st round in playoffs.

 

It's not for the year. It's a weekly ranking like power rankings. Yao is 2nd best for the week not the season. If he sucks this week, he will drop out of the next player rankings. Zach Randolph had a monsterous first week and he was the #1 player above Lebron, Wade, Dirk and Garnett in the first player rankings.

 

I have to agree. I'd love for Yao to become truly dominant, but he isn't quite there yet. I still think Duncan is the better overall player. Yao is great when he's got the ball in his hands and he's close to the basket. But often times the Rockets waste a ton of time just trying to get him the ball -- you have to factor that in. And while Yao can be an imposing defensive presence, he also has weakensses that can be exploited. None of these things show up in the stat sheet, but they are relevant.

 

I don't know if he's the 2nd best player or not yet but he is by far putting up the best numbers for a 5 in the league. He still needs to be able to handle the smaller and quicker players in the 5 that he's going to face that just simply try to rattle him with swats at the ball. His teammates have to get better as well in helping him with more easier baskets. I hope he can continue with 25 & 11 throughout the season and carry this into the playoffs.

King James has had some postseason success last year and it did make him better...Yao needs to experience the same and get to the 2nd rd and beyond to take the next step in his dominance as a center.

 

I really enjoyed that top 20. It was quite obvious that Kelly is really watching these players play and isn't going on statistics alone.

Good job, Kelly.

And oh yeah, way to go Yao!

 

Yeah, I just think 9 games is tough to assign anyone anything. Let's wait a while and see what happens. We don't need more false hype.

 

KD's the man !

 

yao ming #2? i think the kid's looking for some love from this board after some of us (including me) bashed his last article.

 

If you base this on the first 9 games, maybe. But I don't think Yao is the 2nd best player in the NBA, yet. Now maybe the zealots will chill some on the respect in the media issue with Yao.

 

The new editor at SI.com's NBA page has decided not to continue with the Champs and Chumps column, which appeared twice weekly in 2004-05 and 2005-06. This will be the only column you'll see of mine at SI.com. I'm not ... I'm not a fan of that; especially as someone who has been yelling for years about how pointless Power Rankings are ... especially in November.

Thanks for the kind words, they mean quite a bit, especially coming from one of my favorite posters.

 

I'm 26. I have a beer gut and gray hairs.

I don't think he's the second-best player in the NBA. I think he's been the second best-player in the NBA from October 31st until late Thursday night when I finished this. Zach Randolph had the top spot last week, and I wouldn't call him the top player in the NBA.

 

Why do you have to post in every Yao's thread? Did he steal your kid's Halloween candy or something?

 

You'd think you guys would be happy with praise Yao is getting...to the point you wouldn't be bothered by honest appraisals....the guy said "yet" - why do you have a problem with that?

 

i'm glad to see him get some respect. of course, it's only been 9 games.