I don't remember, but I'll take your words that it happened and Amare had a great game. You really shouldn't use 1 game to prove a point. I don't even know how to respond to it....Can I claim Cato is a good shooter? I can come up with at least 10 games(9 more than 1)in which Cato shoots better than 60%. This is probably directed at me. I have watched Amare play, although not too much. Maybe a combined 8 quarters this season, against many different teams. From what I have seen, he does not get doubled/tripled that much. His style of play requires the defender to depend on weakside help, but that is very different than double/triple teaming with an intention to get the ball out of your hands. In other words, if Amare beats his defender, and weakside help comes to challenge his shot, that really is different from the double team yao/shaq/duncan/kobe see all game. He could have been doubled/tripled, I just haven't seen it. I personally don't think he needs to be doubled in a set play.
He's averaging 27 pts a game. If he can consistantly continue to score like this, he will demand a double team.
I hoped I'd never say this but Amare IS better than Yao right now...and probably will be in the future. Yao's lack of stamina b/c of his size and slow-footedness will hamper any chance of him being one of the greats. If Yao could play at least 36 mins. a game he could at least have comparable stats, but from what he says and JVG says, he'll never be able to do that...and that's just depressing. I thought someday that Yao would AT LEAST be able to play 3/4 of a game, but he just can't consistently. Terrible. What's even more depressing is that Yao is YOUNG! Imagine what he'll be like when he's in his 30's.
I watched most of the Suns vs Lakers game last night. Amare plays very aggressive near basket. I am not sure if he is just that good, or it is because opponents were afraid of being posterized, but nobody seem to be able to stop him from dunking the basketball. Of course, Nash's bullet passes to Amare right when he is in position make the defense hard to stop Amare. However, I think this has more to do with lack of scouting/preparation than with Amare's ability. Teams are still obviously more worried about Nash's penetration than denying Amare's ball. I don't remember another instance of one player can be dominate by simply knowing how to dunk near the basket, except Shaq. But Amare obviously is no Shaq. He is no where near Shaq's strength/weight/height to power over people. Amare is obviously playing much better than Yao right now. But is he already a better center than Yao? Not so sure yet. If he can keep up the scoring even with opponents defense is geared to stop him, then yes. He will sure to be MVP this season he can keep the stats up even if opponents tried to deny him the ball aggressively, by either aggresive fronting/double-triple/teaming, always a defender on him to deny the path to basket for easy dunks. I haven't seen any offensive weapons from Amare when not facing basket. Regardless of the debate on Amare, Suns basketball is sure 1000% more fun to watch than Rockets! No wonder nobody fill the seats on Toyota Center. Nash got to the best free agent signing of the summer. He is making the Suns playing like Marvericks two seasons ago, but with a more atheletic teams and an atheletic center in Amare who can also block shots/rebounds. Among all the teams in the west, Suns look most dangerous, right next to San Antonio.
DaDakota, explain, "will not let the players play the game." I'm interested in what you mean. Please. I'd like to hear this. Because to me, it seems like you have created this in your mind and you're confusing it with what's really happening on the court. All you say is true about Amare and Yao. But the fact is, we have Yao, and he's a Rocket. As long as he keeps improving.
It is much harder to deny Amare the ball like they do to Yao. Amare is still playing PF's game at center position. He is strong, quick and mobile. There were very few low post moves in his game, most of his offense is face the basket and PnR. Lakers had to play zone to stop him in the end. But what impressed me the most was his consistent aggressiveness around the basket, the determination with the ball and going strong in every possession. We never see that from Yao on a regular basis. I believe skills can be taught and developed, Karl Malone developed his midrange jumper after playing in NBA for several years. And don't forget Amare is only 21years old compared to Yao's 24, so I am afraid Amare could have more potential also.
Amare is great. But if we had a Steve Nash on Rockets, Yao would have looked better. Those passes by Nash are just amazing, and nobody can leave Nash open like they do to Ward.
I agree with David S. Let's say Amare is better, but Yao is still our boy. How about we discuss how to realisitically tap Yao's potential (not change him into another Shaq or Hakeem)? I think that should be good enough for a couple of rings.
at the end of the day, yao will prevail. through 10 games, amare has a statistical advantage, and his team is winning more games. through 82 and a playoff run, i would wager that though yao will be comparable statistically, and his team will have more wins.
I beliebe you are underestimating Nash. Nash can play slow too, a lot sick passes are generated by his penetration. More important, he can shoot open jumpers, not only fastbreak points.
I think that it is clear that Amare Stoudemire is and will likely always be a better NBA player than Yao Ming because of his much more superior athletic abilities and much more aggressive personality. However, like someone pointed out, Yao is a Rocket; Amare is not. It is most likely that Yao will remain a Rocket for another decade or so. People need to accept Yao Ming for who he is--a very good player who's got great size and solid skills but is limited athletically and soft mentally. I believe that we Rockets fans shouldn't too dissapointed in Yao Ming--we could've had someone like Kwame Brown with that No. 1 pick (I don't think that we would have drafted Amare with the No.1 overall pick even if Yao wasn't on board...nobody was THAT high on Amare back then). In fact I believe that we can and will build a winner here in Houston if we add the right pieces around Tmac and Yao. Overall, my point is that threads like this are rather pointless. We should not discuss whether our players are not as good as players on other teams. What we should focus on now is how to best utilize the players that we have and make this team play better.
I agree, we fans should accept Yao for what he is. Yao is a decent big man in a league with few big men. Comparing Yao to other superstar players in the league is pointless becasue we all know that Yao will never become a dominant player in the league. Yao will never become a franchise player and should never have an offense revovle around him and as soon a JVG realizes that and changes his offensive approach the Rockets can start winning consistently.
There is no way they're going to be statistically comparable at the end of the season. As long as Yao continues to only score 10 points every other game, he'll never catch up to Amare - not even close.
Any day i would take a 6'8 guy whose offensive repertoire are dunks and power moves but scores 28 ppg, 9 rpg, 2 bpg and shoots better than 50% than a 7'6 guy who doesnt how good he is because he lacks the drive to become the best and averaged 18 ppg 8 rpg and even with his size average just more than a block per game, Ok he shoots better than 50%. Amare all the way . By the way, im not a suns fan, im a big rockets fan. My all time fave player is the dream. yao sucks
