Dirk's "team" beat us when he played like crap. Every one of his teams that advanced were very good. You don't think Yao advances on any of those teams? Do you honestly see Dirk advancing on any of our talentless squads? Dirk is a great offensive player. However, when the going gets tough he doesn't want to take over. So what is the point of having a great scorer that doesn't want to score, much less shoot, in the really big moments (see last years playoffs, where he was running from the rock). Since Yao gets others shots more just because of where he plays, and also plays defense...I choose him.
That argument only works if you IGNORE every other playoff appearance prior to game 3 of the 2006 finals.
Give Yao Ming a real team and he makes at least one or two finals appearances.. Dirk's NBA Finals supporting cast: Stackhouse (former all-star) Terry (borderline all-star) Howard (all star) Harris (good, rising young player) Diop (good defender) Cuban (will spend more money on his team faster than his older, more elegant counterpart - Jerry Jones) Great offense, above average defense Dirk's supporting cast in 3 previous seasons: Nash (2x MVP) Finley (Multiple time all star) Van Exel (All Star) Najera (adequate role player) Yao's supporting cast: vs. Mavs T-Mac (still awesome scoring T-Mac) Howard (nuff said) Bowen (see above) Wesley (lifetime role player, undersized sg) Bobby Sura (alot of heart, but an average NBA player) James (high scoring chucker on bad teams) Barry (3-point shooting journeyman) Good Defense, average at best offense vs. Jazz Battier (good glue guy) T-Mac (older, more injury prone T-Mac) Hayes (good defender) Alston (inconsistent PG, especially against the Jazz) Bonzi (DNP) V-Span (Who Knows???????) Head (????) J-Ho again .......really don't need to address that Similar to 04-05 team, talent wise might be slightly better No wonder Houston can get out of the first round, they can't even field a subpar team without one of their superstars.....this is why the Houston team could be better in the longer run than some of those VG teams.
What did Yao do in the mavs or jazz series that was so awesome??? His last 3 seasons: 57 games , 48 games , 55 games Furthermore, center is the weakest position in the league. F$^K Dirk.
Tsk tsk tsk. Look at all you guys and your petty standards. 2nd round? Who cares about the 2nd round. When we win the title next season with a healthy squad and a healthy Adelman you can take your 2nd round pettyness and shove it. Dirk is a great player, but even he's not good enough. In the end, it's your team success that counts. He lost a 2 game lead in the finals, losing 4-2. He got KILLED in the first round by an 8th seed! When they were the best regular season team in recent history! Now they got utterly man-handled by the Hornets and quit on their coach. The 2nd round will come. You just have to be patient. Because once we get there, we'll be moving on to the WCF, and then to the Finals. I will put my money on Yao and the Rockets' future over the Mavs' terrible past. And honestly please don't use the MVP argument. It's ridiculous. If regular season was all that mattered to you, why are you mad when the Rockets don't win in the playoffs? The "MVP", in last season's playoffs, folded harder than a 10 year-old Yao in origami class, he Wilted more than Chamberlain himself. Oh and he led his team all the way to the 7th seed this season. Yay. The 2nd round will come. To be honest, if you don't win a championship, no one gives a flying ***** whether you made it out of the first round or you lost in the finals by a bank-in 70 ft. 3 pt. shot off the wrong foot by Ryan Bowen. You're still a loser when it's all said and done. Again, the 2nd round will come. It hasn't yet, but it will. If that's all you want then trade T-Mac for PaulPierce-of-***** or Yao for Howard and Nowitzki. But if you want a championship ring, the thing that is actually remembered, then you put your money on Yao.
Yeah most of these poster don't understand that you have the right team at the right time, not just who the superstars are....you need quality players in starting lineup and one the bench....Houston hasn't really had all of those elements since the championship years. Even the team with Barkley, Dream, and Olajuwon dropped off bit after those three names. When our role players and support cast become better than average this will be the best team in league. It was for 2008, since the year first started the Rockets had the best record in NBA. Like I said before, if we stayed healthy we could've easily won 60 games. Possibly ran through the WC until we got to SA. It takes a few years to get formula right take a look at this: Michael Jordan: First Championship appearance in 7 seasons (1991), 1st 2nd Round Appearance in 4 season (1988) Shaq: First Championship appearance in 95, didn't win until 2000. Wilt: It took him 7 years before his first title victory. Charles Barkley: Took him 8-9 season to reach a Finals and never saw single Finals after that. Hakeem Olajuwon: First Championship appearance in 86, next one not until 94 and Houston was pretty mediocre in between and that's was about 8 years. Plus, the Houston teams were kind of odd bunch, too.....a team almost nobody pick to win a title. Detroit Pistons (late 80s - Dumars, Thomas, Laimbeer, Edwards, Dantley, Johnson, and Aguirre): Pretty much everyone outside of Dumars and Thomas were journeyman and were in the league for several years. Utah Jazz players (Stockton, Malone, an Sloan): Didn't make finals until their 12th and 13th season in the league....while it took Sloan 10 years to make it. Dominique Wilkins: Only made out of the first round once in his career. Pete Maravich: Only made it to the playoffs three times in his career. Oscar Robertson: First Finals Appearance - 11th season in NBA and was on the downside of his career. Bill Walton - One lone finals victory in Portland along with one tag along in Boston....and he was never healthy (possibly worst than Yao's injury history), but pretty good center nevertheless. Detroit Pistons (00s) - Most of the players were cast-offs and young players who just happened to gain perchant for defense from Rick Carisle who then became Larry Brown and then they become world champions. And nobody pegged them to beat the Almighty Lakers, especially in 5 games. And that was Larry Brown's first Finals appearance ever after his long coaching career. David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Elgin Baylor, and Alonzo Mourning - All were 10+ years in the league and possibly past their prime (or at the tail end of it) when they finally reached the Finals. Speaking of Ewing, most of the players on the two Finals teams were in the league, more castoffs and rough around the edge players and good young talent Basketball has ultimate monopoly when it comes to championships, essentially only four teams have one titles in an almost decade.....and two had the same player - Shaq. It's not like the NFL/MLB were you just have this abundant talent everywhere and massive FAs and draft picks. The talent disparity in the NFL is much smaller between the best teams and worst teams, while in the NBA it is whole another world. Even the worst NFL teams have good talent in certain spots, while a bad NBA team is usually down right horrible.
The edge would have to go to Dirk. People try to make it like he's at Mike Dunleavy level (maybe during cruchtime he is). Compared to Yao his accomplishments kinda speak for themselves... Its hard to find great centers, so that puts Yao at a higher value level I gues. Chances are if you give up a great center you wont find another great one for 10 years.
Yao does not need to worry about a championship.....he needs to worry about finishing a season and making it out the first round. I repeat first round. Those players you named are way better than Yao.
Yeah, maybe better...but not head and shoulders better. Yao has better career numbers than both Mutombo, Mourning, and Parrish. He actually has numbers comparable to Bill Walton, Dave Cowens, and Bob Lanier. In some areas, his worse, but in other areas he's better. He's numbers are on par with some obscure hall of famers....in seasons where he was fairly healthy....his teams did fare well in the season and he has only appeared in the playoffs 3 times....while the others were cut short by injuries. You can't really judge his career yet, because it is not finish and he is still in his prime. He has shown that he is still pretty much the offensive motor for Houston, probably will average around 22 - 25 ppg and about 10 to 11 rebs. Would be the primary reason for time being, if Houston goes deep into playoffs. People often compare him to the likes Rik Smits and Brad Daughterty, He's a way better player than Smits and is probably slightly better Brad Daughterty. Statistically, he's superior to Smits, since Smits best year was about Yao's second year in the league. While, Daughtery's two or three best years are not quite as good as Yao's two or three best.
Why not, he already screwed up and took on Jason Kidd for Devin Harris. Cuban has screwed the pooch. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH DD
You are factoring there whole career which includes their downhill years. Prime for Prime Yao is not better than Mourning. Yao is an offensive player playing against no-name centers but can only manage 22 pts. Yao is not the defensive presence or rebounder Mutombo , Mourning , or Parrish was. They stayed relatively healthy during their career.
I wish we had them both. I would trade T-Mac for Dirk...then, all we would need would be a decent playmaker...but...Yao and Dirk, and Scola and Landry backing both of them up? Niiice frontline... or: PG whoever SG Battier SF Dirk PF Scola C Yao Size and shooting wouldnt be a problem...this might even work with Alston as the PG.
I believe that is the case, because the numbers are fairly similar and as far as indivdual best years.....the numbers favor Yao. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/845/career;_ylt=AqFUvH08lkEY0BdA2QnmvBekvLYF/ http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3599/career;_ylt=AqFUvH08lkEY0BdA2QnmvBekvLYF/ Defensively edge is Mourning, Offensively edge is to Yao, Rebounding is a push...Mourning never had big rebounding numbers, sort of like Ewing. But Ewing was slightly better than both, but one thing to note is Ewing averaged less rebounds than both players for the first four seasons of his career. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/ewingpa01.html/ Both players I believe are easily in the HOF, if not for injuries, Alonzo, I think would've eventually gotten Miami to finals, if he didn't get injured lead to showdown with Lakers. While Yao is hard to say. Both players numbers are creeping towards 20 and 10, which is good for the HOF. Yao's biggest problem is we can't get long enough for the playoffs or healthy enough for the playoffs or good enough cavalry to do some damage in the playoffs.
Dirk is more durable and despite his "soft" label he seems to heal pretty quickly. Defensively, he is just a little better than horrible so I'll give the nod there. Both guys seem to have an obvious kryptonite that, in my opinion, keeps either guy from reaching superstar status. Yao has huge problems with quick, athletic double teams and Dirk, despite being 7 ft tall, can be completely taken out of a game by putting defensive minded, moderately athletic SF on him. Put a gun to my head and I take Dirk purely because of the injury issues with Yao. If Yao can give us 70 games a year then I chose him due to his value as a low post presence and his ability to clog the lane and block shots.
