I can pull up youtube videos of Yao catching passes and getting boards, therefore your argument is obviously moot.
People said they regret drafting Yao because Yao didn't any championships for the Rockets. They also thought Amare is better than Yao. Excuse me, how many rings does Amare win?? ZERO same as Yao. ZERO. and Amare current team the Knicks are long way from wining one even pairing with another star Crymelo. Drafting Amare instead of Yao, the only difference will be the team would be more fun to watch. The reason will be the same. Failure to win championships and the frustration remains.
If I know then what will happen in the future, then yes, I regret it. But nobody knows what will happen in the future, so, NO, I don't regret it.
I find it useless to regret about drafting a player who had a good career just your team didn't win a title on his watch and some other "could have been" scenario exists. Whatever you do in a draft, especially with an early pick, there are always dozens of alternative draftees and probably hundreds of trade scenarios that could have happened. You picked a guy, he has had a good career, now likely cut short by injury. Move on. There are enough Eddie Griffin- and Darko Milicic-type busts out there for NBA fans to feel sorry about themselves over. No need to waste your regret on a player who actually was good for the team.
Not understanding the Jay Williams hate. Guy had a good rookie season and it was a freak motorcycle accident (which yes his dumb@ss should never have been doing) that ended his career. He could have easily been a Chris Paul or John Wall talent. Yao was not the problem. If we would have had Morey adding talent for peanuts like Scola, Brooks, Lowry, Bud, Ppat around him and T-mac instead of the absolute garbage that was out there.... Back then we had the center and all star wing just missing the role players. Now we have the role players and no center and all star wing. Damn frustrating.
Caron Butler probably would have been the best fit with the team we had. He has played very well since he was drafted and would have cut a game off the finals (4-1) if he hadn't blown out his patella tendon. When he is on the floor Dallas is a much tougher team.
It worked though. The Bulls were so bad, they were able to get Rose, later on. Rose led them to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Why not regret drafting Aaron Brooks? Marc Gasol was picked after him. There's really no use looking at the past. It's not like you can change it. Move on.
Dude, take off the homer glasses Amare has always been a better basketball player than Yao. Yao was fantastic, but Amare is just better. How many rings does Chris Paul have? The same amount as Deron Williams and Derek Rose. Weak Argument
amare wasn't going to go #1/2 that year. it was yao vs jay will. you take yao all day. you cannot predict injuries. it's part of the game.
I only voted yes because Amare was in the draft and also because Jay Williams suffered his motorbike accident in Chicago. If Houston drafted him, then no accident meaning he'd be still lighting it up today. I voted yes in hindsight though. There were no other good C's at the time (except Shaw and TD if you want to consider him a C). If we drafted Jay, could we have really traded of Francis for Shaq/TD? I don't think so. But still, Jay would have been better than Francis if not for his accident in chicago.
I really don't know if you can make the argument that Amare is a better player than Yao. It's definitely easy to become of a prisoner of the moment as Amare has definitely improved his game since Yao went down two years ago, and all we've seen is Amare playing well while Yao is on the sidelines. But, I really think from watching both players and seeing how much of an impact that have on both sides of the floor, Yao has been the better player. Amare has had the more complete and better team than Yao has ever had. Yet, Yao has shown that he can carry a team on his back and be the focal point of the team on the offensive and defensive end, while Amare has never had to do that in his entire career or had the success when he had to. Yao was a fantastic player, let's not lose sight of it. Statistics only tell half the story. In Yao's prime, he was an unstoppable player. I don't know if I could ever say the same for Amare EVER.
I do not regret drafting Yao because there wasn't any other good pick for Houston if they drafted 2-5th spot
Do I regret that we drafted one of the few great centers in the last 10 years? No. I'm upset that it didn't work out how we thought it would, but that's ridiculous to regret something that should have worked. It would be almost like Dolphins fans regretting Marino except that he wasn't as injury prone.
I'm curious how many of those who said "yes" will also say "yes" to a Regret drafting Akeem thread. If anything, Yao over Amare is a much lesser travesty, based on the logic of most here, than Akeem over Jordan. Jordan has Dream beat by 4 titles. Amare has Yao beat for 1 extra round of the playoffs(2nd round vs conference finals) Funny that people are lamenting a potential Amare/Cato/Francis/Mobley/Odom team. I bet the Spurs and the Laker fans are thanking the lord that the above super-team did not actually materialize.
