With Lebron having 25/7/7, and BigZ's average comparable to Yao's, what's the main difference (if any) between the Cavaliers and Rockets. Team chemistry (so credit to JVG), role players, or something else?
Difference is that The Cavs dont play any kind of defense. Conversly we are one of the Primere defensive outfits in the whole League.
And Bron cant really "takeover" many games yet.. I have only seen about 1-2 games when he forced his will on the game to take them over...
Difference is: Tmac > Lebron Yao > Big Z Howard < Gooden Also TMac and Yao both have the ability to step it up big and really dominates inside and outside. Lebron is getting there, not consistently though.
Big Z may have similar stats to Yao's. But he's much worse defensively and does not usually draw double-teams. Put Yao in the Cav's line-up and they'll be much better.
Bill Walton was on the Jim Rome Show the other day and talked about how teams (Sixers, etc) are gearing up for one good run at a championship the next couple of years before Yao & LeBron take over the league. These two teams could very well be the new rivalry for the future, like the Lakers & Celtics were in the '80's. The only thing is that "Big Z" is getting up there in age and could very easily go back to his multitude of foot injuries. It will be fun to watch.
Nice analysis by Walton but he's forgetting the Spurs, that team is poised to be championship contenders for the rest of the decade. They've got every key player on that team locked up to long contracts. They may very well be our Detroit Pistons foil when the Bulls had to overcome them on their way to 6 rings.
Yao is better than Z. Was, is and always will be. TMac is slightly better than Lebron. I really really like Lebron but the reason I give TMac the edge is that he has done it before. He carried a team. Also, for all the talk before this season about TMac not playing D, that's bull. He gets the edge on Lebron on that point too. Whether that will change in the future, I don't know. But whatever advantage Lebron gets over TMac will be more than offset by the advantage Yao has over Z, who will be going into semi-retirement (assuming injury doesn't get him first) by the time Yao hits his prime... assuming of course that he re-signs with the Cavs this offseason. I don't know why Gooden and JHoward is in this argument. Both are role players and both are easily replaceable. I thought the Boozer incident last season showed that. But... Gooden is a better rebounder, plays very slightly better D but is much younger. JHoward's advantage is that he has a better offensive game. Other noteworthy mentions are Jeff McInnis. Man that guy doesn't get enough credit. On our side, the same can be said about Bob Sura. As for the teams overall, the Cavs role players are younger, so that's to their advantage. But our role players are better. I mean, who would you rather have coming off the bench? Mike James (when Sura gets healthy), Jon Barry and Deke or Ira Newble, the tractor or Lucious Harris (the only guy on their bench I don't mind is Jiri Welsch)? Also, we also happen to play D. Coaching is a wash. Overall we are better. Our core (TMac + Yao) is better than theirs (Lebron + Z, if you can call Z the core). Our core also happen to be able to stay together longer. Our role players are older but easily replaceable and better. And we play D. So... advantage Rockets.
LeBron makes Z look good... I don't think Z can avg that much w/o LeBron. On the other hand, Yao can easily do that himself. McGrady's better than LBJ at the moment, but in years to come LBJ's gonna be #1 in the league. But we're always gonna be better than those stinky Cavs!! Hands down, Roxs > Cavs therefore McMing > LBJZ Go Rockets!
Z averaged about 17 and 8 without LeBron but of course LeBron is going to improve Z's game..no doubt in my mind
Big Z doesn't rebound "much better" than Yao. He's rebounding well in this stretch of games, but all of his season marks are about the same, and even slightly worse than Yao's career rebounding.
Are you okay? Yao averages 8.4 RPG Big Z averages 8.4 RPG also Yao --> 18.7 PPG Big Z -> 17.4 PPG I dare say Big Z is better defensiveat least a wash. Z average's 2.1 blocks per game while Yaop average's 1.9.
