Centers just aren't closers in today's NBA - too much is expected of Yao

They've won two fourth quarters against the most dominant home team and arguably the best defensive team in the league. Their strategy seems to be working just fine. You do whatever you need to do to win -- it's not about how many points your star player scores.

 

So who do you think is the best center in the league then right now? Yao or Dwight? When healthy as well?

So you are sticking with Dwight?

 

and not that i think Dwight is a closer anyway, but i should mention he fouled out of the first game and wa sin foul trouble this game as well...so he's not going to be too aggressive downt he stretch, specially when he's not a finesse player with moves that don't involve banging into a player.

 

No matter it's regular season or playoffs, Magic played fine without Howard. Lweis and Hedo are the real keys to their victory.

 

durvasa,

Can you pull up that post you made in the Dish about 4th quarter scorers?

I think this thread would be a great place for it.

 

Yes, there was such an article from Chinese media.
But this does not mean Yao spoke to the media about this incident. Actually there is nowhere in this article saying this information is from Yao.

 

Which is why Orlando is in the conference finals and we are not. They have Turk and Lewis, we have Artest and Brooks. Now who would you rather give the ball to at the end of the 4th quarter?

The fact is that centres are not good closers today, and we are making Yao be our #1 option, meaning we do not have good endings to 4th quarters.

 

If I remember it correctly, the article was an interview with Yao in a question-and-answer format, which means Yao spoke to a reporter directly about this. Yao was quoted as saying that he had had enough and he had to do something about Brooks, or something like that.

There was a thread on this BBS about it, but I don't have the search function.

 

Have you seen some of the other garbage from Sina posted around here?

I'm not saying that particular incident never happened, but if it was reported by Sina, it should be taken with a grain of salt the size of Mars. Sina makes HoopsHype look like the holy grail of basketball news.

 

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=4444294&postcount=290

 

Check out this data durvasa put together a while ago. It's pretty telling about what type of player plays the role of closer. It doesn't mean you have to be a perimeter player or that bigs can't close but it does paint a picture.

 

Dream,ewing,robinson,kareem,moses, or even zo didn't have the lomitations of these regardless of the rules. If howard could shoot 72% ft line and had kevin willis post game, he would be a closer. If yao had 38 mins per game stamina and dekezs footspeed and stregnth, he could be a closer.

 

durvasa, I had that question for you. Has Dwight completely surpassed Yao at this point? and I am talking about a 100% Yao Ming and a Yao Ming when healthy like putting injuries aside who would is the better player at this point according to you?

 

Me, too, but when the disparity between reports are so wide, it makes me wonder is it a case of Yao being misquoted by Sina, or is Yao really saying one thing to US reporters and another to his countrymen.

And personally, I'm interested in what Chinese posters think about this, and how much skepticism they have about such reports.

 

The Howard haters are hilarious, just hilarious. Anyone that watched the game tonight knows that Dwight was in foul trouble, 4 fouls going into the 4th, and was being doubled/tripled whenever he got the ball down low. The Cavs played Dwight straight up in game one and he dropped 30 points on them. The Magic have such great balance on offense that they hardly even have to run plays for Howard for him to get his 20 points per game.

The fact is Dwight is averaging 20 pts, 16 rebs, and 2.5 blocks per game and shooting over 60% in the playoffs, he has his team in the Conference Finals, and all we hear is that he has no post moves... ha. If Yao were averaging those numbers there would be people wanting to rename the MVP trophy after him. It's a riot.

 

I saw more than one Chinese poster scoffing at the "Yao has the highest IQ in the NBA" thread.

 

No, he's just partially surpassed him.

 

Centers ARENT GOOD in today's game, period. It has nothing to do with the position, but the talent that has entered the league. It's dwight, yao, shaq, and nobody else. Orland o is where they are because they surrounded a center who has limited offensive skills with good shooters, yao DOES NOT have limited offensive skills.

This is stupid, it's like saying black men just aren't good presidents when you just haven't had many who were president or who even ran to be president.

 

This is only true if you want to define the things Yao is good at as "skills" while the things Dwight is good at is just "raw talent". To me, it's sort of a pointless distinction. There are definitely things that Dwight Howrad can do on the offensive end that Yao can not do, and vice versa. They are each limited in their own way.

 

i agree, should have been more specific, howard's offensive skills limit him when it comes to becoming a closer....