For that matter, best in the league? Suns have been starting him at Center as of late. So my friend says.. I completely DISAGREE and I think Amare is a jacka$$ and a ball hog but if you look purely at stats, he is clearly doing better thus far. Yao 19.3 pts, 8.3 rebs, 1.4blks, .6 steals, 1 assist, 2.7 TOs, 51% FG, 74% FT Amare 24.8 pts, 9.3 rebs, 1.8 blks, 1 steal, .8 assist, 2.2 TOs, 53% FG, 83% FT Shaq 18.5 pts, 10.3 rebs, 2.5 blks, .2 steals, 2.3 assists, 3.3 Tos, 53% FG, 39% FT When compared to Yao, he is currently leading in 7 out of the 8 categories. Yao is only better with .2 assists!
Well if you look at the phoenix schedule amare is yet to go up against a premier center. out of the entire scheduel the only decent center he went up against was ziggy at Cleveland. ziggies stats 32 8-15 1-1 7-9 1 5 6 1 5 0 2 2 24 torched When we see amare post up yao or shaq and come off ahead then we can consider him as a good center...
Some things to remember: Numbers don't tell everything It's too early in the season. Yao started the season with an injury and our team is just beginning to gel. And look at Yao's last two games. The Suns have had a MUCH lighter schedule - it's easy to put up numbers when you play against creampuff teams like Chicago, Atlanta, New Jersey... .... patience.... the Suns have played against ONE western team (Kings) and lost. Rockets started with one of the toughest schedules in the NBA. It's just too early. -- droxford
Amare at center reminds me a lot of Seattle playing Kemp at center. He can probably do pretty good because of his athleticism against all but 5 or 6 centers in the league, but he is going to have some major mismatches come playoff time.
You gotta be kidding me. Amare is a better center than Yao? look how Amares plays. Single coverage, high tempo, and fast breaks. That's how he scores. During the seaosn, he can get away with that. But, mark my words, the Suns is just poor man's Kings at best.
That sig is fantastic. But actually it was one of the mods that edited Amed's post to say that, because Amed's real words weren't all that friendly. Edit: Found that thread. So it was a post by Amed with a big assist by keeley: http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=1589139#post1589139
Amare is a great player... at least offensively. He has the edge production-wise so far. Yao brings more to the table defensively and hasn't been playing close to his potential yet. So yeah, too early to say.
Yao started the season poorly and if you used his stats in the lsat 4 games, it will be a totally different picture. Also it's still early in the season. Let's get back to the topic after the PO is over.
if you watch the suns games, you have to credit nash for getting amare the ball at the right time. Amare IS doing very well this year, much from his own merit, but there is no question that Nash is making a lot of his teammates much better.
Amare is playing center this year, so far at least. I don't like Amare's personality, his game is one dimentional, although he is really good in that dimension. But so far, I have to say he is a better center than Yao. He's playing better than Shaq even. However, there are 82 games in a season. Brad miller and Damp(aka second best center in the league) are both capable of having a "best center" strech for a couple of weeks. Especially when you play some weak teams. The comparison to Shawn Camp is an excellent one. We'll see how Amare plays against the big boyz. We'll see if he could handle half court games in playoffs.
I just checked phx schedual. lol They played 6 games so far, killed 4 of the worse teams in the league. Lost to 2 ok teams with good centers. lol I don't think they'll keep Amare at center.
Amare might be a jackass, but he's not a ball hog. He only shoots some 15 shots a game. In fact, that might be too little. Someone of his caliber (and Yao also), should be shooting 18-20 shots per game. Amare is probably not a better center, but he's a better basketball player, right now, at least. I mean he scores just as well as Yao (if not better), and it's easier getting him the ball. Plus, you can have a more flexible offense with Amare. You can do a run and gun, or you can do slow down, half-court. With Yao, you're pretty much stuck with the half-court offense.
I don't think his game is one dimensional. I mean, if anything, he can do more things offensively than Yao can. He has a pretty good post game, he can face up and drive (something Yao cannot do), and he has a decent mid range jumper. The only thing he probably doesn't do as well as Yao is passing. But just in terms of pure offense, Amare has a more flexible repertoire.
Let's wait till they play each other. If I remember correctly, Yao had the upper hand in last season's matchups.
Who are these "premier" centers you mention? I can think of only 3 or 4 centers in the NBA worth much, muchless be called "premier".
Ain't that the truth. Sorry, but the stats don't entirely capture how other teams must adjust to a giant in the middle.
