Exactly, if you can't outjump people and outrun people, you have to outsmart them. Yao isn't playing particularly smarter than other players, IMO. He is still committing silly fouls now and than and seems have trouble adjusting opponent's game plans. He has to think harder.
Another thing people keep forgetting when talking about Bird is that he is a SF at 6'9"(?). Most of the SF were below 6'7" in those days, he basically just looked over defenders, decided to shoot, or pass. Bird was a smart player, you can see that from how he shot the ball. You'll find the guy rarely jumped when shoot, which enabled a faster release, made it hard for a small defender to contest the his shots. Among today's shooters, Peja has the similar shooting motion.
I beg to differ .... Nash is one of th e top pg right now. He can certainly run a game paced to fit his primary tatget. Yao can run. Right now his running is just wasted. I saw many time he was the first Rox getting to the paint and hoping to get a pass for an easy one. And for jus the same many times I saw him empty handed. Shaq likes to run down the court and get in the paint immediately. He would be in a great position with usually only one guy guarding him. He usually got the ball for a dunk. But the Rox players, for some reason, do not like passing it to a deep in the paint Yao Ming.
Amare is Shaq-lite. Yao is Risk Smits-plus. That probably means they're somewhere in the same neighborhood of performance right now. We'll see which happens first: Amare develops actual skills, or Yao starts handling double teams.
Size can be overcome, but quickness and balance are what make the difference. That's usually the case. Hakeem was a perfect example. However Hakeem did have a nice shooting touch,great footwork and a array of moves. I'm not sure Amare has Hakeem's repetoire. Usually a couple of inches in height can be overcome w/quickness. But when there's a difference of 5' or more, thats significant. As it is, Amare has trouble scoring over Yao. If we remember, Mark Eaton used to give the Dream trouble as did Bradley occasionaly towards the end of Dreams career.
You've got to be kidding when you say "size doesn't matter"! Size means everything, not just in basketball..
Not taking anything away from Amare. He's a awesome inside player w/great physical skills. Imagine how he would do playing alongside Yao. But I think Yao has the ablility to make him teamates better cuz his height,court vision and nice touch.He has more of a effect on other teams play the Rockets. I rarely see teams play zone defense to take away Amare. Or doubling Amare when he doesn't have the ball.
You'll notice a lightblub on each of post. On the very far right there's a letter with an arrow pointing out of it. Click that to respond with a quote around that message.
You've got to be kidding when you say "size doesn't matter"! Size means everything, not just in basketball.. Exactly. U can't teach size. But of course the player has to have some ability.
man, i haven't seen an mfgarza post in a while. and how have you gone 4 and a half years without wanting to quote someone. to quote you click on the icon at the top of their post with the arrow coming out of it. or just do what everyone else said. man y'all were quick.
This is going too far now that you're comparing Amare to Shaq! Reminds me of people saying Eddie Curry being a baby shaq.
Even though I don't post often, I'm here almost daily. Usually I'll post if it's something that hasn't been said. I do quote other people, I just didn't know how to box the quotes, I'd just bold their quotes.
