did u see how he was treated in college? he was WAY bigger than everybody and whenever he touched them barely (guard or whoever) it was a foul. the NBA will let him play.
im still skeptical towards oden with his issues like his right hand and his foot/legs(?, somewhere it was mentioned that one leg/foot was longer/bigger than the other). i seriously doubt he's going to post up 20/10 stats in his first year. if he does thats all great and we'll have an even DEEPER western conference. with that said though against yao, if you compare oden to boozer (that jumper is horrible, probably not as bad as marion's though -_-) then yao would get seriously bull dozed over. take in mind that boozer is alot older and more polished than oden so i seriously doubt he, oden, will really put up much of a fight against yao in his first few seasons. we'll see how this turns out in a few years won't we?
YAO will still be the best center in a few years later,before YAO enter the NBA,his team won the champion only for they have YAO,he often play 40+20+ in that year.Oden will be a good center,but,i don't think he will be the best,at least in 5 years .
You should go watch some basketball before making comments like that. Yao would eat guys like Curry for breakfast. Did you not watch the games between the Rockets and Knicks? Yao DOMINATED, HUMILIATED, OWNED curry in every aspect. Yao had some ridiculous stats when playing against the Knicks. I remember the one game when Yao had 33pts 17 rebs and 7 blks vs Curry, and you say "i'd compare Yao to a guy like Eddy Curry". The last sentence alone shows that you know nothing about basketball. Take your hate elsewhere, your an embarrassment to this board.
Full disclosure: I'm an Ohio State alum. Having said that, remember the self-professed "experts" talking about Patrick Ewing's lack of offensive ability coming into the NBA? Ewing was known as a dominant defensive player, but his offensive abilities -- if you believed most of the draft gurus -- were underdeveloped. Kind of reminds me of what the "experts" are now saying about Oden. Just remember Ewing averaged 20.0 per game his rookie season, not too bad for a player allegedly without NBA-caliber offensive skills. Like Oden or not, recall what he did to Florida's vaunted frontline in the NCAA championship game. He dominated UF's frontline for most of the game. A couple of the blocks he had were unreal. And all 3 UF starters were picked in the 1st round (2 in the top 9), plus the backup center went in the 2nd round, so it's not like Oden was playing against stiffs. The bottom line is Oden is going to be one heck of a great pro, provided he stays healthy and doesn't let fame & fortune get to his head. It will be very interesting to watch how Oden trys to defend a player (Yao) who is bigger than him and is also a very, very skilled offensive player with a great shooting touch. I doubt if Oden has ever faced a player with Yao's size & skill. Remember the first few times Olajuwon faced Mark Eaton? Eaton had 2 speeds -- slow, and slower -- but at 7'-4" and 290, he was huge, much bigger than Olajuwon. Eaton's size alone caused some problems for (then) Akeem early in Olajuwon's career. With that in mind, I would expect Yao's size will cause some problems for Oden, at least early on. Yao's combination of size and skills will cause problems for years...
Oden(even Durant) could be another Ralph Sampson, in with a bang, out with a bang 8 yrs later....u just never know......... yes, RS played the 4 b/c Hakeem manned the 5, but still He was arguably the most heavily recruited (for both college and the NBA) basketball prospect of his generation. Sampson was a #1 overall draft pick in the 1983 NBA Draft, three-time NBA All-Star, and Rookie of the Year for the Houston Rockets. He finished his NBA career with the Washington Bullets in 1991-92 where he averaged two points per game
Using your line of commentary (calling it 'thinking' would be an aggregious mischaracterization of the word), the only reason Oden is better defensively than Yao (arguendo) is because he has superior lateral quickness, jumping ability, and great timing, most of it God-given ability. Yao wasn't blessed with the same physical abilities as Oden, so he has to be better at boring stuff like positioning and understanding angles, which only gets on Sportscenter if it involves billiards and Eva Mataya. I doubt even the most ardent Yao fan thinks he is the 2nd coming of Bill Russell. Yao will probably never lead the league in blocked shots or rebounding. Lateral quickness and timing are not his forte. That said, I don't think Van Gundy's defensive schemes allowed Yao the lattitude to achieve better blocked shot/defensive rebounding numbers. Too often he was asked to show hard on a pick and roll near the top of the key, which left him way out of position to block a shot or grab a rebound. Hopefully Adelmann will simplify Yao's defensive responsibilities and focus on maximizing his dominant offensive abilities. As far as Yao's lack of success in the playoffs, remember rule #1: playoffs are about match-ups. If a team doesn't have enough favorable match-ups against its opponent, there will be trouble (see Dallas v. Golden State). Name me 1 playoff series during Yao's tenure with the Rockets where Houston had more favorable match-ups than its opponent. With all due respect to Greg Oden, he has yet to play against NBA players in an NBA referee-officiated game. Every time Oden has stepped onto the court in the past, he was bigger and stronger than anyone else guarding him. That will change, starting this summer.
