Yao always dominated Dwight head to head. And I think it would still be the case now even though Dwight has improved offensively. Yao was one of the guys Dwight couldn't power through due to Yao's sheer size and lower body strength. Dwight would also be in foul trouble guarding Yao one on one since the Magic wouldn't help that much. Yao had the turnaround fade and the jumphook going against him. Such a soft touch. I'll miss the guy.
Dwight was a young player and Yao was in his prime when they played.. we never know how they would of faired prime vs prime.
LOL @ these guys comparing Howard to Okur. You're wrong about Dream's offense. Was he a great defender? Yes. Was he the greatest shot blocker of all time? Yes. But Dream could drop 50 points on you and he averaged 27-28 points in his prime. Dwight isn't even close. If you think defense is what carried Olajuwon, you miss the point where the REASON why Dream could carry a team while Dwight cannot is that he wasn't one-dimensional like Howard. It's an insult to characterize them both as these "similar players" whose defense "is more likely to win games than their offense" when you're talking about the most nimble offensive center in NBA history. The man averaged 33 points during the 95 championship run. Does that sound like someone whose defense is carrying their game? Or does that sound like a completely developed multifaceted center with no liabilities. Oh and by the way he was averaging 33 while playing against David Robinson and Shaq... 2 of the best centers of all time. Howard had some nice games en route to his 1st round exit but I tend to think that Hakeem would have managed more than 8 points against Jason Collins and Al Horford. It's difficult to comment on entirely speculative comments without any substantiation but I'm going to go out on a limb and state that if Marcus Camby can average 3.6 blocks in 2008 which is a 1 in 4 more than Howard's BEST season, the greatest and most athletic shot blocker of all time would still have more than "maybe slightly" more.
Howard does much more defensively than Camby does or any other player in the NBA does. If you disagree, you don't watch the Magic. You don't see that they have 4 below average defenders starting and they're a top 5 defense purely thanks to Dwight. Dwight is one of the best defensive players of all time
Appreciate the sentiment but you missed the part where I wasn't comparing Camby to Howard but Camby to Hakeem. Dude posted like Dream would average 2.2 block per game like Dwight due to the fact that it's impossible to get blocks now in the NBA. My bringing up Camby who had 3.6 just a couple years ago is highlighting a point that if a good defender like Camby can put up 3.6 then you can expect the greatest shot blocker in history to at least put up comparable numbers. And FWIT yeah Howard is much better than Camby, considering Camby is 37 but even into his mid 30s the numbers say that Camby was as good defensively as Howard is now in his prime. In 07 Camby had 10.2/1.1/3.6 compared to Dwight 10.1/1.4/2.4 DRB/STL/BLK.
You're comparing 10 yr+, early 30's Hakeem to 7 yr, mid 20's Dwight (who lets be honest due to that early beginning spent his first cpl years simply not physically ready for the nba as a 5), Do you really think it's beyond Dwight to average that per season? His offensive development improved his game by 3ppg despite probably copping more attention than he did last year. As fort he defensive orientation, as I said, statistically Hakeem's defense was usually always a greater influence than his offense, even moreso than Dwight's is mind you, it's was a statement, not a debate topic. Dwight has a lot of work to do to be comparable, does he have the potential? don't see why not. I was someone who felt prior to this year that Dwight was kinda boring and one dimensional, but his development this year was so extreme that I do believe he has that potential, it seems like it was never his lack of talent, it was his lack of relevant instruction. there were games where he'd score 40 points on 70% shooting, 80% from the free throw, something stupid like 6 blocks and 20 rebounds (think it was a Chicago game) and yet they still lost, sure Hakeem carried his team, but even Hakeem wasn't good enough to carry a team of passengers like that sad bunch in Orlando (and it's not like Hakeem didn't go through a similar period in his career of that very thing)
Yao Ming isn't "people", 7'6 300+ pound centers don't grow on trees even in the NBA. DH was still developing when he matched up with Yao Ming, and since his body was still filling out he couldn't do anything not just against Yao, but also against beefy guys like Hayes, Shaq and Perkins. Now DH is 25, and even then he's still not in his prime. So yeah, the head-to-head comparisons between Yao and DH were premature to begin with, and even if say Yao Ming won the first 4 seasons head-to-head, the next 15 or so is automatically won by Dwight since Yao is retired and can't play bball anymore. Its a TKO in DH's favor.
It's a misstatement is what that is. Dream led Houston in scoring in every game of the 95 Finals. Every game. And Clyde was on that team. It's an imbecilic statement to claim that Hakeem's defense was "a greater influence than his offense" whatever that even means. What took Olajuwon over the hump was precisely the fact that he was as dominant on offense (head to head versus the best centers) as he was on defense. That 2nd championship he basically won the 'chip head to head versus Robinson then Shaq who were probably the 2 best and most hyped players that season (Robinson being MVP and Shaq being the scoring leader). It's not an exaggeration to say simply that the championship was up for grabs for the best CENTER among the 3 that year. How did Olajuwon do it? Dream crushed both Shaq and Robinson on offense as well as defense. He put up 33 ppg in the playoffs versus 25.3 for Robinson and 25.8 for Shaq. He was the leading scorer in the playoffs. What series were you watching that year? Dwight has been in the league 7 years. What his ceiling is, is obviously speculative. What's stupid is to project on assumptions of him getting to 27 ppg "at some point" and declaring him comparable in any way to Hakeem. Especially since he hit 21 ppg four years ago and is still hovering near that number (including 1 year of decline). Right now he is one dimensional compared to Hakeem and unlike Hakeem has beenregularly dominated by his one real rival Yao Ming (while Hakeem pwned THREE HOF centers in their primes: Shaq, David Robinson and Ewing). In the unlikely event that Dwight ever gets there then it'll be a conversation but right now it's borderline ridiculous to make any comparison between the two.
Hakeem couldn't carry his team alone, wasn't this why he only has 2 back-to-back rings in the end of his career despite playing more a decade as one of the best centers of all time? The guy was toiling in mediocrity for majority of his prime, and that's thanks to the twin towers collapsing due to injury and his guards getting busted for dope. DH isn't in Hakeem's stratosphere but in this watered down NBA he's practically his reincarnation, the underrated amazing defensive center who is playing on a crappy team. Hakeem averaged 28 pts in his prime but DH already had several 20-20 games, and that's in an offense that always features 4 other gunners and doesn't have a creating pg who can set him up for easy buckets. Did I mention he's only 25? Didn't Hakeem enter the NBA at age 23 or something? LOL, DH still has a lot of growing to do.
Oh yeah, DH's real rival was 5 years older than him and the head-tohead matchups they had happened when DH was in his early twenties, then retired due to injury when DH's finally grown up. What about Yao? He came in the league and got dominated by Shaq in his prime, do you then say that Yao can't even beat his real rival the 4 time champion MDE Shaq? LOL you crack me up. The matchup between Shaq and Hakeem happened in Shaq's rookie year, I don't really count that as owning. Hakeem owned Ewing (who was really overrated IMHO) but he "only" owned Robinson in the playoffs, if you look at the regular season matchups both of them beasted throughout their career.
Not to let facts get in the way but according to this article Dwight was 265 in 2008 (well before his last matchups with Yao) and according to his every own site, Dwight's playing weight is currently 265. And let's not deconstruct your statements with logic, but since we DQ Yao based on health and freeze his "prime" in 2008, you can't predict injuries and as long as we're prognosticating next year could well be Dwight's last and this very year could well be his "prime." In case the facetious escapes you, it's stupid to base arguments on completely baseless unverified projection. What we have logically are past samples where Yao owned Dwight during a time period when he statistically was very similar to what he is today. Yao owned a Dwight who was developed enough to get a team to the Finals. This is about the stupidest **** I've ever read on this site. This, ladies and gentlemen, are the people arguing the other side of the Yao-Dwight conversation.
94-95 was Shaq's THIRD year. And Hakeem spanked the **** out of Shaq. It's hard to believe that anyone who was actually alive during that period or saw the series has the misconception that it was Shaq's rookie season. Too much happened the previous 3 years with Shaq to be ignorant on this point. Who am I talking to here? How old are you? I don't even know what to say to blanket statements about Ewing "really overrated IMHO" without even an attempt at substantiation. Ewing nearly carried his team past Jordan in his very very prime (to the point that Jordan resorted to sabotaging Ewing's teammates) and is universally recognized as one of the best centers of all time both in college and the NBA. Yao was putting up 30 points on Shaq by 2004 and was outscoring him by his 2nd season. Are you trolling or are these real posts?
Are you really arguing that Hakeem's offense was his dominant side? really? I mean really? Superstars are typically two way players.... If you want an example of a great 2 way player whose offense was his stronger side, you need go no further than the guy who won the 6 rings either side of Hakeem's. I never said he was a one way player, i said his defense was his stronger side. You not knowing what that means, well it does say something I suppose. As for Dwight being 1 dimensional, you clearly didn't watch him much this year, his improvement on the offensive end was drastic this year, in the past he could be nullified pretty simply. Dwight averaged 27 and 15.5 in the playoffs against the team with the all nba third team center, the guy's team sucks, which is exactly what Hakeem had at the same point of his career, great stats, dominant performances on both ends, losing teams.
They won 3 playoff games over 5 years, 3 x 3-1's, swept once and didn't even make it once, and this was his early prime where he was probably the best center in the league, how is that not mediocrity?
Lol losing teams. Hakeem got to the NBA Finals his second year in the league. You still need to clarify what "a greater influence than his offense" means other than to say he wasn't Jordan. In EVERY Finals game in 94 and 95 Olajuwon was the high scorer for Houston. Every game. Even Jordan didn't carry that offensive load for the Bulls of being top scorer every Finals game. What possible meaning does your subjective statement that Olajuwon's defense was "a greater influence than his offense" mean in that context? Carrying the offensive load during 2 Finals runs seems to indicate an offensively dominant center? You're right that superstars are typically two way players... except for Dwight I guess who leans heavily to defense. Dwight isn't Dream. Dwight ain't even Shaq, who in his 2nd year was an offensive force scoring 29ppg and leading the league in scoring by his 3rd. Dwight is a guy who averaged 20.7/20.6/18.3 and 22.9 ppg in his 4th,5th,6th and 7th years in the league. Which is still less than Shaq put up his ROOKIE season and Dream put up by year 2. As for Hakeem not being able to "carry" a team as roz claims, Dream won in '94 with a team that featured only 1 other all-NBA player. And that dude was Sam Cassell who got that honor during a fluke season 10 years after that particular championship run. It's not like Hakeem coasted along in mediocrity and when he finally got a loaded team he went out and won. The Rockets were not favored in 94 or 95 they were underdogs, Hakeem won with lesser talent than Ewing's Knicks or Shaq and Penny's Magic. Claiming "mediocrity" out of ignorance of history is an embarrassment for this board.
Trolling is fun. But doing too much of it is not good for your health. <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x77ielPKfuo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Shut up troll.
