Could Shaq at his prime take this same team to the Finals?

Glad to see someone who comes here to talk about basketball rather than vent their anger only. There is nothing wrong with venting the anger. I do too and a fan site is supposed to be a place to vent the anger after a loss. But some people just get carried away, by both anger and obvious lack of BBall knowledge.

I have to admit I'm a Shaq hater - the only 2 years (out of last 15) that I didn't even watch the NBA finals were when Shaq & Kobe dominated. Kobe has a watchable game but Shaq? I remember that 2 years had the worst TV ratings for NBA finals since few people are interested in seeing Shaq bulldoze everyone for a dunk. Call Shaq dominant all you want, the league did have to change rules so that the games are more watchable.

 

Why don't you add that Kobe took up to 35% of the teams shots and shot a dismal 33% while not passing.

One of his most selfish moments in the league all the while Shaq was shooting over 60%.

DET was held below their season average in scoring so their defense was the key, and it wasnt Shaq that they stopped, they had a selfish primadonna killing his own team.

 

what point are you making? that shaq's game is unwatchable? hell yao's game is unwatchable with his stupid turnovers. shaq dominates yao and is still the best center in the league.

 

First- you're greatly exaggerating the talent - a lot of thsoe guys did nothing of significance or were on the downside/minimized when Shaq got there. AC freaking Green was a regular on the team when he won titles.

Second - you're underappreciating shaq's own performance in the playoffs which were at an extremely high level. Certainly higher than anything we're seeing fro Yao now.

Third, and most importantly - Yao's teammates are irrelevant to most of this discussion because for the most part (last night) he has been single covered by Okur and Millsap. And he still has trouble. That's what I'm concered about. It's not like the Jazz are collapsing 4 guys on Yao and his teammates can't bail the guy out - it's that Yao hasn't been good enough to make them do that in the first place. That's a high standard -but then Yao has set it for himself y being consistently good and sometimes great.

Sorry but single coverage on Shaq (or Hakeem or David or Ewing) would result in him taking Okur to school and then stealing his lunch money and then beating him up and recess and then giving him a swirlie just for good measure. You saw what Hakeem did to Robinson - and that was to one of the great defenders in history. Okur is nowhere close to that level.

Look - if Yao wants to be truly great, he has to impose his will on the games in May and June. Only a few players can do it, and thus far this year he has not been one.

 

I have to agree.

Since day one, people (fans, media, etc.) have had an unreal expectation of what Yao would become. Perhaps Rockets fans were spoiled by the likes of Moses and Hakeem, and were expecting Yao to be the next big man to terrorize the league for years to come. Perhaps the media was too preoccupied with the fact there was a noticeable dearth in great, fundamental, low-post big men and needed to tout him as the second coming of Wilt.

With these ridiculous expectations, we were asking for disappointment. Yao is physically limited. He doesn't have freakish strength. He's not particularly athletic. He's slow, and he doesn't have good leaping ability. Moreover, his sheer size reduces his stamina a great deal. He just doesn't have the physical tools to be the type of player where every coach in the league says to himself, "Alright, there's no way I can possibly stop this guy...on ANY night."

Yao is what he is. A hard-working, fundamentally sound, offensively gifted center with a great shooting touch, but an average finisher in traffic. He clogs the paint on defense and changes plenty of shots, but isn't exactly known for being an intimidating defensive stalwart. That's all. I have a hard time seeing him being much more considering the fact that he has obvious physical limitations.

Some of you need to stop putting this ridiculous onus on him just because you think he has the potential to be more. It's been 5 years already; I think he's more or less peaked. And frankly, I'll gladly take 25/9 production from our center position any day.

...Or if you think he should be doing more because he's our "franchise player." Well, out of all the "franchise players" in the league today, just how many of them are team-changing, once-in-a-lifetime, championship-caliber type players? I'm counting uh...two-ish. Hell...even the front-runner for this year's MVP award isn't one of those guys.

 

Interesting hypothesis! Four stars BTW, i voted "yes, they would do"

 

not w/ these moves. if a white boy like okur says your moves are predictable, something is wrong.

 

True insight!
IMHO, the expectation of media and fans was that Yao could reach 20+ and 10+ which was almost done by Yao, and I am quite sure Yao could easily reach that “bottom line” if he could stay healthy this season. I have no idea if yao has been in his prime or not, however, what I can make sure is that yao is able to improve his defense ability during this summer. Hopefully I am not wrong about that.
It is totally meaningless if anyone wanna compare yao with shap. As lots of guys have known, they are completely different type of center. I have to admit, btw i really hate to do that, yao is physically limited maybe due to his size. In this point, Amare is more athletic than yao that is obvious to us.
And I think some coaches said on some night that “alright, there’s no way I can possibly stop this guy”. The only thing we hope is that such comment comes out more frequently.

One more time, excellent post. Particularly last paragraph, I love it!! Bravo！

 

so true ....very true

 

**Totally Agree** but then you have to remember

Shaq (Prime) >>> Yao
Shaq (Prime) >>> Kobe or Tmac
Yao > Tmac

So I guess it all works out.

Thanks.

J

 

I didn't say anything about Shaq's indivdual performance, because it really didn't matter. Even though, he played with very talented supporting cast that should've been enough defense and scoring to beat any team in the league. When you got Kobe, Van Exel, Jones, Fox, and etc. as your supporting cast and you are the premier big man in the league your team should've won like 6 or 7 titles compared to 3 or 4.

Shaq did not always play against scrub centers, he played against the likes of Ostertag, Longley, and Nestrovic and while he did dominate at times, it still did not help his team win the series. In fact some of those teams that beat the Magic and Lakers were able to slow him down abit and keep from completely taking over.

Almost every player in the history of the has certain weaknesses, Shaq's were free throws, laziness, and durability over long season. Yao's is probably stamina, turnovers, and rebounding.


Let Yao's career come to complete halt before we come out with verdict on his effectiveness.

 

Yao needs to foul more because the refs aren't giving him any calls. He should know by now that they won't call all of them.

He needs to put some 300 lb fear into his defenders.

 

Yao will never ever dominate in Shaq's way. Long jumper off the PnR could be his unstoppable lethal weapon. Yao has better touch than Karl Malone who made tons of such shoot after the PnR with John Stockton.

 

Dumb thread. It's like asking whether Hakeem in his prime would make us instant title contenders.

Shaq in his prime was easily one of the top 5 centers ever. He had more dominance, aggression, quickness, size, mobility, defense, stamina, and better footwork than Yao has right now. The only thing Yao has on 1996-2000 Shaq was a better jump shot and better free throw shooting.

In other words, the answer is a resounding yes.

Not sure what the purpose of this thread is except to start trouble.

 

why is that meaningless? are you saying that just because they're playing different types of game, their performances can't be compared. by this logic, Shaq wasn't better than Shawn Bradley.

 

did u ever see shaq defending pick n rolls?

Boozer would score 50.

 

uh...no he wouldn't. i hated those laker teams. but they played teams with players better than carlos freaking boozer. they managed just fine.

 

Prime Shaq is the Best Center in the history.
So Yao should not feel shamed.

 

I really, really dislike these types of threads because its only real purpose is to put Yao down by comparing him to the all-time legends.

YOFs and TOFs are REALLY ruining the GARM. You can't even criticize Tracy or Ming anymore without guys popping up and claiming that you like one guy over the other, or that you've "shown your true colors". Right, I get a paycheck every 1st and 15th from Tracy, I can't bite the hand that feeds me!

It's hilarious how defensive people get about these two guys. Objectivity be damned, I guess...

 

There was no ZONE DEFENSE in Shaq's prime.