RC, That depends on the status of your team, if you think you can win NOW then do it.....or are you building for the future....the Lakers had Shaq, what did they need Vlade for? DaDakota
Panda, first of all have u even seen ming play before, b/c from the games that i have seen i don't see what all the hype is about. He isn't going to get much stronger or gain a lot of weight since his frame is so small so i don't see him developing a inside game. Also how can you comparing ming to duncan. I wouldn't trade duncan for 2 mings. No way. Duncan and Shaq were the 2 most highly touted players coming into the draft in the 90's meaning no matter which team had the first pick they would select them, while ming was a big question mark, and only a few select teams who needed centers would have taken him. And btw on that vlade/kobe trade there is probably a one in a million chance something like that will ever happen again. Noway a talent like kobe drops that far ever again. In 1996 teams didn't take risks and drafted seasoned college players over raw material. If kobe was in the 2002 draft he goes top 3 no doubt. As for griffin, i don't see as much potential as there was in kobe. Kobe had the perfect sg frame, while griffin is a tweener, sf body, pf game, so it gonna be a bit more difficult for him to be a premier 4.
From the clips I've seen, Ming has post up moves, can dribble and pass, can shoot,(duh!) and can block NBA players. (Carter and Payton.) He also weighs 296, btw, which is almost the heaviest in C's except for Shaq. I believe he also gained a good deal of weight in a few years. I think I remember seeing him listed at 266 in an old article. (must have been very old.) He is a ? but he is already better than proabably half the starting C's. He may possibly beat out Cato as starter, despite missing training camp and one or two preseason games. Also, since Ming was from China, and not Duke, he didn't get as much exposure. He could very well posted the same numbers in college, then he wouldn't be such a question mark. Griffin is only 20,(which he just turned to,btw.) so his frame can still fill out. He's 6'11 which I would think is good for a PF. He may grow another inch, too. BTW, some would say he had a SF game since he had no postup move, but could shoot 3's. If he gets bigger, which he is determined to do, he should be a perfect PF, in frame. He already has shown a good game:Blocks like crazy, can shoot, rebounds, and has a turnaround which is ok. (needs some work though.) IMO, if anybody got a quadruple double again, both of these players could. Both get blocks, rebounds,points, and should get assists due to double teams. (Ming is suppose to be a good passer, btw.) I gotta go to sleep now. Talk more later today.
INrocket:You bet I've watched Yao's games. Yao was the consensus No.1 pick, not some leftover choices that team lack of centers pick. In many NBA experts' eyes he could've gone No.1 last year had he entered the draft. The same as Duncan, Yao is also one of the most highly touted prospects, if not more, in the last few years. One thing on Yao is that all his acclaimed "weaknesses" are either, fixable or too general to be legit, such as: 1.Adjusts to American culture and speaks better English. Fixable. 2.Adding more upper body strength. The catch here is no one said that without extra bulking up Yao can't play. It's a plus, not a condition. Fixable. 3.Can he stand the 82 game schedule? Can he be quick enough to adapt to NBA pace? General questions that can be asked to any prospects. 4. Will he be injury prone? No one knows and there is 7-5 players who's not injury prone, Shawn Bradley being one of them. No question to his skills, no question to his mentality. Rest assured, Yao is a fundamentally sound player like Duncan and he'll only get better. Griffin is another story that worths lengthy discussion. Maybe you don't see the specialness in Griffin and Yao like I do. I'll just make it short by saying, an unblockable sky hook of Yao and shot blocking title of Griffin warrant them a firm place on any NBA team.
I would give a shot on Ming and EG, with all do respect for Duncan we will be in a verge of financial problem after this season.
