Better means more than one thing. Check the dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/better Better 1 : greater than half <for the better part of an hour> 2 : improved in health or mental attitude <feeling better> 3 : more attractive, favorable, or commendable <in better circumstances> 4 : more advantageous or effective <a better solution> 5 : improved in accuracy or performance <building a better engine>
They are both 2nd bananas. But if Yao is your 2nd banana, whether it's to T-Mac or to Kobe, your team will not go far with Yao on the bench. It will be Kobe and the Bynum show again, while Yao is rehabbing.
After reading this I'm pretty sure of 2 things. 1) My post flew right over your head and 2) you don't watch much basketball outside of the Rockets (and I'm not sure how much of that you watch either).
You can front Yao and he becomes a decoy on the court. Gasol has better hands, better feet, more lateral quickness and can go out and catch the ball and do something on the perimeter which makes it much harder to take him out of the game. A lot of things have to happen right for Yao on the offensive end for him to be truly dominant.
I hate this, because it's true....that and the fact he's never healthy. He's a Rocket, so I'm rooting for him...so let's kill the "you're not a fan" crap.
Dude the point of this thread was to ask the opinion if you think Yao is better than Gasol. You are already writing Yao out without seeing him even step on the court post surgery. With Yao's work ethic how do you know he cant return to a 20 10 guy or even a 16 8 guy. Yao brings an element to the game that doesnt show up in stat lines which is height. Gasol doesnt demand double teams. AND since Gasol is on the Lakers he get a lot of calls in favor of him. ANY Rocket fan knows Yao doesnt get **** called for him. Sure you can say Yao is the worst player in the league right now but I'll root for him. I hope he recovers. I hope we make the make the playoffs and I hope Yao dominates the crap out of Gasol.
Finally, cuddie, finally. Thanks. I guess you're kidding. If you aren't, it's a ridiculous statement that makes me understand many things... I never thought I would say this here, but Yao is terribly underrated by half of the forum.
... The usual discussion. Can you front Howard? No, because it's a suicide, beacuse he plays all the time next to a shooting PF situated at the 3 pt line. When a team is using two players to stop one, they're indirectly making things easier for the rest of your team, obvious. The rest of the team must take advantage of it, and in this situation the coach and the PG share big part of accountability: the initial positioning; the patience to end up doing what you want; the passing level of all your players; their knowledge of the game; the type of lineup you're playing with; the Yao's work in the lane, etc. Because this is a freaking team game, this is not the NBA Jam or the streetball challenge. Artest, Brooks, Scola, Wafer, all them benefited from fronting defense, in fact not all of them separately but united, the team. Because basketball it's not about stats and it's, again, a team game, Yao has the ability to raise the level of his team even not touching the ball. Something that Pau (a great player) will never be able to do as a first offensive option.
Underrated? Everytime there is a discussion on this board about yao, the first things out of the fan boys keyboard are cash cow and if healthy. Never about how easily he gets taken out the game by injury or a 6'8 small forward. Its always another player or coach fault when dealing with his shortcomings.He's a good player and thatts it. Never great, just good and its nothing wrong with that.
more like terrible overrated. so much hype for a guy who hasn't done anything yet but get out of the fist round 1 time and who is constantly injured to he fact that nobody knows how he will return to next season. im sure every poster in this thread would love for yao to come back and destroy the league but it's hard to remain optimistic.
nonsense. 'better' in my world includes availability. if you're god on court but can only play one game per season there will be tons of better options with less skill/ability. we're trying to win a championship, how can you process 'better players' without including health?
Sad to see Yao getting bashed and underrated on his own team's fan forum. I can't stand the mindless Kobe worship on Lakers forums, but jeez, show some more respect and appreciation. Outplayed by Okur in the playoffs? Yeah, that 11 ppg on scorching 0.354 FG% just killed us. Keep in mind that Okur was an All-Star replacement that year. Arguable as his "All-Star" status was, he was still a pretty good player who averaged way more than what Yao held him to. For God's sake, Yao put up 25 and 10 on this guy. His FG% of 0.44 wasn't good in that series...but Okur's supposedly stifling defense gave Yao 11 FTAs per game. Which Yao converted at an 88%. Yao's overall scoring efficiency in that series wasn't up to his regular season standard, but it was still good and well above league average. I wouldn't even say that Boozer outplayed Yao, considering his inability to get to the line and his whopping 2 (yes 2) blocks the entire series. The grass is always greener on the other side, and team championships always lead to overrating of the team's individual players. What has Gasol done that's sooo amazing over the last few seasons? I don't mean to bash him; he's of course been an excellent All-Star player. But about ~18 ppg in 37 minutes over the last few years? That's so amazingly impressive to you, when Yao puts up more in less minutes? Of course that's being very simplistic, there are a lot of other factors such as shooting efficiency, turnovers, rebounding, etc. I'm just saying that Gasol's numbers don't exactly jump out to me, and that an quick glance doesn't lead me to say that he's conclusively better than Yao. But let's go a bit deeper. Gasol's PER for the last three seasons has been 21.6 (24.0 for the 27 games after the trade to LA), 22.2, and 22.9. Yao's PER for the last three has been 22.5, 22.7, and an all-season injury. Gasol's +/- over the last two seasons has been +5.2 and +3.6. This score has been brought down by his apparent liability to the Lakers' defense when was on the floor. Yeah, so much for that defense and better mobility or whatever. His +/- for the Grizzlies in 2008 was +8.1, and his +/- for the Lakers after the 2008 trade was +9.1 though. Yao's +/- in the 2009 season was +11.0. His 2008 +/- was actually on the other end of the spectrum, at -2.2. But his substitute Mutombo also had a negative +/-, meaning it wasn't just a case of Yao playing badly. I remember that year being really crazy, with players getting injured all the time but the Rockets going on unbelievable (anomalous) winning streaks during some of those absences, including the historic 22 game winning streak. Yao's +/- in 2007 was +5.7. Wish the adjusted +/- (which filters out crap from teammates) was available, but based on the +/- that we have I'm not seeing Gasol's supposedly massive superiority either. Yao's injuries are a valid criticism, but Gasol hasn't exactly been an iron man either. It's when I see crap like Yao supposedly being outplayed by Okur that I get really annoyed. Let's stick to real analysis and not BS hyperbole. Give Yao the credit that he actually deserves.
I for one never said okur outplayed him, but you must acknowledge that when youre considered the best center in the game and they single cover you with okur, he shouldve been going off and he didnt. The last 2 games averaging 6 rebs and through the series having almost 4 to per game and 1 blk doesnt scream of dominance. Like i said earlier, its about how you want to build your team. I dont yao could play in the triangle or a passing offense. He's very limited in how and what you can do as a team. If it was some fantasy draft of gm's and theses were the 2nd options,it would be split bewteen the 2. Howard woild go before both as a number 1 option by a large margin.
Yao was unfortunate enough to have teamed up with TMac for 6 years who got the talent but never showed heart and consistency like Kobe has. But Nowitzki had Nash and Kidd, Gasol was nothing while in Grizz uniform until he teamed up with Kobe and the Lakers.
I don't think so. Yao is better than Gasol, and sounds crazy, but probably less soft than Gasol. Gasol is like a baby kitten sometimes. Then you move to the Yao and Howard talk. Last year in their head to head games..... Yao avg. 23.6ppg...10.4rpg...2.1bpg / Howard 12.2ppg 9.8rpg 1.7bpg
So i guess dalembert is better than yao according to ur head to head right? Go pull up yao v gasol in memphis while your at it.
What? <a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/rofl/Ti42/Smilies/ROFL.gif?o=15" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/Ti42/Smilies/ROFL.gif" border="0"></a> I'm not even going to acknowledge anything you say after this. I've read some of your posts and it's always the same dance.
