Do you guys FINALLY realize why I thought Dwight Howard was so overrated offensively?? All you need is size and length to guard him...he has no real post up skills except for outrunning a slower center, getting to the front of the rim, and getting fouled or dunking it. Thats all great when you play against a stick of a center in Dalembert, or when you play against a Boston team who had no depth behind Perkins and Big Baby, therefore they couldn't play aggressive, and if they got in foul trouble, they had Mikki Moore and Scalibrine guarding Howard. Then vs. Cleveland you had a 34 year old Ilgauskus who was has been unathletic for the last 5 years, a 35 year old Ben Wallace who is a shell of his former self, and Anderson Varajao who is a very poor man's Scola on defense (just not strong enough). However, when Dwight Howard plays against Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol (solid, but not great defenders), he goes 1-6 and his shot attempts looked horrible and unpolished. When he can't overpower or outrun his opponents to his spots, he is neautralized quite easily. Sure, you can win a lot of games in the season in a weak era for centers, you can get through the playoffs when other teams are either injured or simply a bad matchup, but unfortunately he will be exposed in this series. Lack of skill ALWAYS catches up to you at some point. Although Shaq was overpowering, he knew he needed to develop a couple of moves to be dominant. He developed a lil jump hook, a drop step for a lay up or a dunk, a spin move, and a lil 5-10 foot baseline one-handed flip shot fadaway. No double team and certainly one man couldn't stop him. Thing with Dwight Howard, he is about a 100 lbs. lighter than a prime Shaq, so he can't just dominate everybody, there's always players bigger/stronger than him (Yao, Bynum, Perkins, Nene, Marc Gasol, Maxiell etc.) So he honestly has to develop more of a post game to be dominant. I said Cleveland's big men allowed Dwight Howard to look like a prime Shaq. DH12 came through and did what needed to be done to get to this level, but he was honestly facing inferior competition in Cleveland's frontline. I mean Yao played better vs. Bynum and Gasol on a bad knee and a fractured foot (2nd half of game 3) than Howard did last night. He was able to do that because he has a vast array of post moves, good foot work, can shoot a jumper, can pass, and he can even put the ball on the floor for a dribble or 2 and pull up for a jumper. He's doing that at 7'6. In all honesty, the ONLY way you can stop Yao is by double/triple teaming him, fronting him, or zoning him (sandwiching him). If you allow Yao to catch the ball and go 1-on-1, he will succeed. There is no doubt about it. I think that is dominating your position, rather than padding your #'s vs. inferior competition. It is no coincidence that we haven't seen a "Yao-stopper" or a guy who can even contain Yao. Shaq is about as close to that as you'll find. Shaq can cancel out Yao's #'s, but thats it. Yao gets the better of Tim Duncan since 2007. Gasol can score vs. Yao, but he can't stop him. Dwight Howard turns into Yao's b****t when they play each other, he dominates Boston's big men, Detroit's, Denver's, Tyson CHandler, Kaman, Okafor, Okur. He dominates them all. The only thing that can stop Yao is injuries, which unfortunately has the last 4 seasons. But what do you expect when a guy has never had a summer off. When healthy, I don't think its even a debate. The rebounding #'s are skewed because DH12 has weak rebounders around him minus Gortat who usually only plays in place of Howard. Yao had good rebounders at every position except point guard around him. Example: Last night Howard had 15 rebounds, the next guy closest to him was Gortat with 8, but they don't play at the same time, next closest is Rashard Lewis with 5. Howard has to get every rebound. Yao has Scola who is a good rebounder can get you 10-15 rebounds on any given night, Artest/Battier both good rebounding wings who can easily get you 6-9 boards each, and Tmac is a 6'8 SG, so he'll get 5-8 himself. Thats just his starters. Howard is a better shot blocker than Yao, but I still say Yao is the better post defender where as DH12 is the better help defender. If last night's game didn't prove it, then I don't know what will. Dwight Howard can easily be guarded by size, strenght, length, depth, and a big men who can keep up with him running the floor. Yao Ming CANNOT be stopped without double teaming, triple teaming, fronting, or zoning him. There is no way one player can stop Yao 1-on-1. The same can't be said about DH12...
The Irony... Let me start by saying that I agree with you 100%. You sir are correct, after 5 years in the league, a player is what he is. With that said, people on here, (not saying you) still think Yao can improve his game dramatically, they start threads, like this one, looking for Yao to completely change his game to one of toughness, to one of defensive minded, and to become a monster inside. Yao is what he is, a slow, soft, no defense, 19 and 9 center. He is not going to get any better and wont develop that toughness that Howard has, just like Howard will never develop the offensive touch Yao has.
Not really. So what would you do, move Yao to the high post and have him catch passes out of double teams for 18 foot jumpers all day long? Or rather reduce Howard to a Chuck Hayes style passer/rebounder and give opponents more freedom to crowd Yao in the low post (granted Howard would be far better at finding ways to attack the weak side than Chuck would)? How would you defend against teams with shooting fours/fives like Orlando and Utah? Howard has no offense outside of 10 feet. Both guys are great players, but they wouldn't really mesh well together as teammates because they are both pure centers. Yes, Howard is a C -- despite his lack of offensive polish.
A great post. To me, Howard is the best center today because Yao can not stay healthy, and Howard is young, who can rebound, block more. But overall, Yao is still a better player, and you can only stop Yao by double/triple teaming him, fronting him, or zoning him (sandwiching him) just like what you said. The rockets would be in the NBA finale today if we are in the East with Yao who will likely demonate big Z too.
Why don't u pull up yao stats vs those same centers and pull up howards before you continue to make yourself look dumb.
yao puts up the same stats v. both conferences. he averaged 19.7ppg & 9.9rpg overall, but 19.9ppg & 9.9rpg v. the west (ESPN) howard averaged 20.6ppg & 13.8rpg overall, he averaged 21.2 & 13.9rpg v. the east. so again, pretty much similar stats v. both conferences (ESPN). both are exceptional players, but both have their strengths and weaknesses. yao's strength if his offensive skill; howard's strength is his overall game. whether or not you like to factor in injuries or not, but GAMES ARE STILL PLAYED. there's a reason guys like penny or grant hill ain't talked about despite being all-nba top 5 players when they did play. B/C THEY'RE INJURED. if yao wasn't injured all the time, it would help tremendously b/c his stamina or overall game might be better and things like that. i don't care if kobe bryant puts up 30 and 5 every year, but if he gets injured every year, he's not arguably the best player. to be considered better than another, you gotta play just as many games and BETTER than that other guy.
Yao has been what he is the last for the last four years a 22.5 PPG 10 RPG 2BPG (52FG% 86FT%) 34MPG. And yes Yao is slow, and he is not aggressive as we like and more fitness (just like Jabbar). But no toughness? soft? I don't call soft to a guy who play with a broken foot and get his but on the post 90% of the time and back players down even when he is been been murder, slap, push, and all kind of crap they do and he don't get reward like Howard with FT. I don't think how defender have to flop all the time when he is so soft of a player. And Houston since he came to the Rockets have been one of the best, defensive, rebounding teams in the NBA. And Yao is the only player to play Shaq one on one, and shooting down other so call best centers. Yao defense vs traditional center is top 3 in the NBA.
I watched it, and owning that massive softie Big Z is not saying much and owning that flopping panzy Anderson Varejao isn't saying much. Go back to arguing LeBron > Bird, you are probably better at that anyways. I'm sure you will find some Hollinger stats to prove Dwight > God. This post is too truthful to be posted here. But well done.
I'm talking about the people saying who howard played against in the east . Philly,Boston,and Cleveland. The numbers howard put up against those guys dwarf what yao did against the same guys.
let's be real. most of them aren't being objective. i don't care what yao does against howard. howard already has had 2 all-nba 1st teams. yao has ZERO and he has played 4-5 years longer. that should be enough. at some point, those achievements have to count for something right?
Like Vince Carter getting out of the 1st round while Tracy hasn't? Everything you are saying right now is a double standard and you are just being a hypocrite. You've been criticizing Yao all year long . Yao can't be a leader Yao won't lead us out of the 1st round Luis Scola was the guy who led us to the 2nd round Ron Artest was the MVP of the Lakers series with Yao You don't know when to stop do you?
vince carter is a bad example b/c he never made all-nba 1st teams or had the individual accomplishments tracy had. the iverson example you brought up was better b/c both individually and team-wise, he's done more than tracy. 1) shane batter is the leader of this team. i think you have seen all those ESPN clips that showed him motivating us before playoff games. 2) luis scola WAS the MVP of the first round and reg. season. shane battier said so, NOT ME. SHANE BATTIER SAID THOSE WORDS. 3) yao had 2 GREAT playoff games (both game 1s) and he played pretty good for us. i love for yao to play like that every game. PS - if you actually READ my posts, i raved about yao's game, heart, and fight after that game 1 v. the lakers and i thought that was the game that would change his career, and elevate his game to another level b/c there's his confidence had to be OFF THE CHARTS. i actually even started a thread about it. but yea, i just like to criticize yao but then there was that game 2. look, he's our best player now. when times got tough, we expect him to dominate straight up, REGARDLESS of what the opposing teams throw at yao. and we don't see that consistently in this past playoffs. that's how great players play. they overcome every and any defense thrown at them.
1. and who leads by example? That would be Yao 2. Link? Because last I heard he was talking about the regular season. Read your posts? Your posts are nothing but hate towards Yao just so you can secretly praise Tracy. All your posts have some type of relation to Tracy McGrady. Stop lying about saying you said nice things to him. You are just a Tracy only fan, so go back to Orlando or where ever you are from. Your kind is not wanted. You are a like the durvasa since all you do is use stats, but at least he uses Logic.
seriously kid, grow up. and it's funny you say that b/c all your posts relate to yao, and basically trashes mcgrady. at least i got love for yao. he's our best player. he's the nicest teammate ever. and he's a great representative for the rockets nationally and globally. there's no other player i want to represent the rockets. but we're talking yao's game. so please, try to be an adult and discuss rationally and stop posting childish stuff.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=willide01&p2=paulch01 You were saying? Fail.
