Hindsight: Who would you have drafted in the '02 Draft?

Amare might play no defense but unfortunately Yao Ming hasn't played any offense or defense the past 2years and will never play in the NBA again. Amare has proven he can still put up monster numbers without Nash feeding him buckets and is still in his prime.

I love Yao, he is one of the best human beings the NBA has seen but I want basketball players on my team that can play basketball.

 

I was responding to a post before mine. Not making a general statement.

 

Yeah putting yao on the ssol suns would be a great thing; they would have gotten real far. That whole shaq thing worked out pretty darn well for them. The fact is the suns were a cheap shot away from getting to the nba finals and beating the cavs and winning championship playing bad defense. They made it to a few wcf as well. Even yao anchoring a pretty darn good defensive team made it out of the 1st round once.

The probability of yao ming working out was against him the day he got drafted. Based on all the other big men we have of yao's size, it was likely he was going to break down.

 

I loved Yao as a Rocket and have lots of respect for him as a human, but personally back in 02, I thought it was a mistake to draft him. I wanted Amare then and now.

 

Yao proved he can't win without good health and strong supporting cast.
Amare proved he can't win with good health and strong suporting cast.

Yao is not playing anymore.
Amare is not playing for the team which he was drafted anymore.

It seems to be a draw in terms of winning on the court.

Off the court, Yao wins by a mile.

 

Yao,no one else.

 

If you Yao in Phoenix and Amare in Houston, Yao would have advance to the playoffs in his first year, and probably he would have the Rookie of the Year Award instead of Amare.

I rather build a team around Yao, then build a team around Amare.

 

The best hindsight I see is actually playing a legit back up center we had wasting away on the bench all the back when the first foot problems started occuring...Deke!!

 

It seems my concept of hindsight is different then most posts so far (or at least different than the majority of posts so far), but how can anyone pick Yao over Amar'e?

Why would you take Yao, which thanks to hindsight, we know will play 8 season for the Rockets and only get to the second round of the playoffs once?

Amar'e on the Rockets is a total unknown. I would rather take a gamble on what could have been with Amar'e than reliving 8 seasons (9 years) of a failed Yao Ming era.