Simple question Seeing Yao's production lately, and his attitude especially on defense, do you think Amare is better than Yao? The guy's season last year was phenomenal, and he totally wrecked havoc in the playoiffs. But with him already missing 71 games more than Yao due to various injuries, and the fact that it looks like his rebounding numbers have peaked at 9 a game, does anyone still think Amare is better than Yao? I see Yao as someone you can build an offense around (provided you find people who can shoot), while I see Amare as a more physical version of Stro who was lucky enough to get a good PG on his team. Look at his stats when Marbury was on the team versus after he left (yes I know it was his rookie year, but Nash undoubtedly was responsible for Amare's offensive jump)
It's kind of unfair to make the comparison right now, since Amare hasn't played in nearly a year and Yao is currently in the best stretch of his career. We'll have a better picture of where they are relative to eachother next season.
Come on. This is a no-brainer. Amare's been out for 9 months and probably the whole year. Yao has exploded his game despite being the focus of the defense. And this is a Rockets board ferchrissakes. What kind of answer do you expect.
You mean was, microfracture surgery is no joke. Hope he comes back better than ever but there are questions. Yao's toe surgery aside, he has been remarkably durable and while there are no guarantees, my bet is that he has a Kareem Abdul Jabbar type of career.
I don't know about this. Last year, Yao's conterparts shot 47.8%, Amare's conterparts shot 52%. This year Yao's conerparts shot 44.7%. That doesn't include all those altered shots by opponent guards and swingmen.
also on defending PnR. I feel Amare can do much better than YAO. YAO almost got killed last night by DAL PnR
That's still better than Amare, who did play D at all last year. The entire suns team didn't play D last year. This year, they are much better defensively WITHOUT Amare.
I wouldn't trade Yao for anyone in the league right now, including Lebron James. But then again I wouldn't have ever traded Hakeem for MJ either. I grew up with Malone, Sampson and Hakeem and I loved it. A team that revolves around a great center is Houston Rockets basketball as far as I'm concerned and Yao is turning into the greatest center in the league before our eyes. He's also an iron man, physically, mentally and emotionally. We're about to be eliminated from the playoffs after starting the season with a roster that inspired the most excitement in recent history. I feel like I should be upset about that, but all I see are blue skies ahead.
Every team has its tradion. Houston, great center. But yao and amare, amare is more exciting to watch. For team yao is more valuable.
Ask Stro if that's the case. He is 10 times quicker than Yao too, but his PNR defense is worse than Yao. Not to mention in the paint, Yao's presence is and will always be much bigger than Amare.
Incomplete. We don't know how Amare comes back from the injury. Better ask the question at the end of next season where a more objective conclusion can be reached.
Every player 7 feet or under in NBA is faster than Yao except maybe Juwan, and many of them with high basket IQs. That doesn't make them better defenders than Yao. In fact, as a center, clogging the lane and protect post is more important than defending outside jumpers. In that sense, size is more important than pure speed. To be honest, even last year when Amare was a monster offensively, I still liked Yao more, because of the double team he drew and the defensive impact he had. I don't believe Amare would have performed as well on offense if he didn't have Nash to feed him the ball or he spent as much energey on defense or he was getting double teamed like Yao.
