In the light of recent comparisons of the best centers in the league. I'm watching The Wizards against the Heat on TNT, and can't help to think to myself how far the mighty shaq has fallen since his MDP days. I know he's not healthy, but I can't believe how ineffective he is, even when he's only playing a partial role. I guess his retirement days are not far off. Unless Dwight develops a skillset that is similar to Yao's, I can envision a similar caeer path, considering that he started his nba career at an even earlier age.
funny how he brought his A game agaisnt Yao this season. as for dwight howard, he can never develop yao's skillset. yao's game revolves around shooting and dwight howard can't never be nearly as good a shooter yao is. but that doesn't matter. with or without a jumper, barring injuries, he'll have a better career than yao.
Shaq might be on the decline, but he might could sneak away with another title. Miami has pretty good young team, I didn't think Quinn, Cook, or Wright would be this good. Miami is team is like a bottom feeder eastern conference team with a lot of alot of young players, except they have Wade, Shaq, and Mourning on their team. Miami could be a team that send one of conference heavyweights home early.
Its incredibly difficult for me to envision Miami squeking past the the top 4 teams of the eastern conference. You technically only have one Superstar now and he's not even completely healthy. They just lost on their home floor aginst the Wizards w/o Arenas. There is too much catching up for them to get home court. So with those things in mind, I really wouldn't pin my hopes on the Heat this year.
Shaq isn't even sneaking up on the second round of the playoffs again. Then again, I wonder if Yao will do it even once in his career.
Shaq picks his spots because he can't bring it every game. By the end of the season, he won't have much gas left in the tank. Wade needs to get totally healthy for them to be any good, but like he said in the interview, he has good and bad days with his knee. The Heat also need to trade for a decent PG. I don't consider them a Finals contender. Riley has admitted he ruined this team by letting both Posey and Kapono leave. Posey is exactly the type of player they need. Boston says, "Thank you, Riles". The Heat played hard, competitive ball on their 2-2 western road trip and they started looking dangerous. It has to be very discouraging for them to have such a flat effort tonight at home against a team that doesn't play defense. Fuse, I'm sure Howard would love a similar career path to Shaq. And at age 35 going on 36, I doubt very much Yao is as good as Shaq is now.
every player declines, some more than others. Shaq was the baddest most dominating player in the league for 10+ years, 4 rings, knows how to step up. Dwight would be lucky to have a career like Shaq, as would anyone.
Yea. Arenas has won them some games, but lost them just as much i'd say. He's FG is atrocious last season for a star.
Ya Arenas may not be the best fit in Washington. Especially when Butler is so efficient all across the board, complete opposite of Arenas. They should build around Butler and S&T Arenas.
Agreed that this happens to everyone, and when big men decline, they tend to just go off a cliff. Happened to Dream, Ewing, everyone but Kareem pretty much. I wouldn't agree that he was the most dominant in the league for 10+ years. It was really more like 6 or 7. He was a terror all throughout, but he never beat any of the serious HOF types in the 90s and often got schooled by them. Remember how Utah swept his Lakers and made a joke of them in the playoffs? Twice? Once everyone retired (or became washed up) by the 1998 lockout, he cleaned up. Also, his defense was always lame compared to the great centers in league history. He never shut guys down on that end. Evan
To back up what I said above: 1 MVP 3 Second team All-Defense, no first team 1st Team Center All-NBA 8 times Phenomenal HOF guy, legend, but I would not say he was the league's most dominant player for 10+ years. He needed a few guys to step down, and was nearly Jordan-level dominant for about 4 years. Again, he was a beast just about his whole career. Evan
Numbers on which we'd all jump off a cliff if Yao had that kind of for his career. Shaq is done IMO. He should retire after this season and just cut his losses. This Miami team is going down. I'm worried for Dwyane Wade. He just doesn't look the same after that shoulder injury. Their roster is crap now anyway, other than Quinn and Dorrell Wright. But even Wright has disappointed. He had "The Next TMac" potential coming in, but after what? 3 years or so now, he hasn't really developed all far along IMO. But I digress. Fact is, Shaq is done. It's not that he coasts, his body just can't keep up anymore. Having a game predicated on an unholy combination of speed and power, his offensive game is a train wreck now other than the once or twice that he gets the ball deep without a double team. Most times he just sits with the ball, waits for the double to come, and kicks it back out.
True. Please don't take that as a "shot" at Shaq. I'm not disputing whether he was great or not, just whether he was the top guy in the league for a decade. Evan
It's expected... Father Time eventually catches up to you.. Hakeem sucked in Toronto Ewing sucked in Seattle/Orlando You can't be dominant forever...
