His game has always reminded me of a mix between Akeem and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I haven't seen enough of Walton to comment on that.
There's a very good reason for that. How many 39 year old guards/wing players similar to Jordan can you think of? There's John Stockton -- but his game was nothing like Jordan's. In Washington, Jordan was primarily a mid-range post up player / jump shooter. Obviously when you look at extreme cases where there simply aren't many comparables, you'll get weird results. Notice that his similarity scores with Karl Malone in those years is very low (760, 778).
Other than both being centers and playing for Houston, I can't see any similarities in their game. Two totally different players really.
In fairness, Dream started out at a much higher level of play (pretty much dominant from day 1 on both ends). Yao started out slower and had much more room for dramatic improvement from season to season than dream did.
it's just non-sense to compare Hakeem to Yao..!!! there aint a single similarity between the two.. .. Hakeem started out a great player, and ended his career as THE BEST PLAYER TO EVER PLAY THE GAME... (yes, better than MJ, Russell, Chamberlain...)... the dude had great mobility, great post up game, great fade-aways, great Rebounding, greatest shot blockin, greatest steals for a center, great D, Great Dunks, great clutch plays... Yao is just a young player who is still developing and will be a great player one day (he is great already and he is one of the best centers to play the game).. but Hakeem is THE BEST OF ALL TIME...
It's a statistical (per minute) comparison. Based on an overall per-minute statistical comparison, Akeem at age 25 was very similar to Yao at age 25. Stats-wise, Yao is a better offensive player, while Akeem was a much better defensive player. Code: Offensive Stats ================ FG FGA FT FTA ORB TO AST PTS Akeem (88) 10.1 19.6 5.4 7.8 4.3 3.4 2.3 25.6 Yao (06) 9.6 18.5 6.9 8.1 3 3 1.7 26.1 Code: Defensive Stats ================= DRB STL BLK PF Akeem (88) 9.3 2.3 3 4.6 Yao (06) 8.9 0.6 1.9 4
Some people in this thread need to chill out. It's a comparison between Yao and Dream based on stats. They're not talking about play-style or other intangibles. Now if I were to make a comparison for Yao, based on body-type, game, skills and such, it would be Kareem. Maybe in his rookie year I would have said Walton (I'm also tempted to say Sabonis, but when he was younger, he was explosive in a way that Yao couldn't even dream about), because of Yao's fancy passing. But he hasn't really exploited or worked on his passing skills as much the past three years.
And some people are totally dismissing the original poster's claim, when based on stats there's a lot of truth to this comparison.
I won't disagree. Just saying this thread has evolved into different issues and some of us are discussing that.
No one brings the gems like you do, Durvasa. Your research and analysis is always greatly appreciated. I'm a firm believer that the stats don't lie and it's all about results expecially when the Wins and Losses are at the end of the equation. I think it's quite undeniable that Yao's impact from game to game is very similar to, if not greater than, Hakeem's at age 25 especially on the offensive side. You can see it and feel it from the way Yao, and formerly Hakeem, puts pressure on the defensive interior. On a side note to Durvasa: Who are you looking at for the draft (Have you completed any efficiency / stat analysis of any of our potential draft picks)? Are you in fact Mr. Morey himself?
While we're throwing stats around... I thought this comparison would be pretty close, but I was wrong: Yao Ming is better than Tim Duncan.
You are definitely reaching here. The only conclusion that I can draw from the above stats is that Duncan is a better 3 point shooter. 40% is kinda amazing for a big man, isn't it?
I just don't see a valid comparison, not if you saw Akeem play at the time. Sure, you can break down statistics, and you can make an argument doing it, but it just doesn't show the player's impact during the season, IMO. I'll give you some "for instance's." Akeem averaged more minutes per game his first season, than Yao did this season, which was his best yet as far as endurance. Akeem went up in minutes per game every season after his rookie year, if you plotted a graph that averaged it out, until peaking during the first championship season, when he averaged 40+ mpg. During his second season, he had made such an impact as a player, that he pushed Ralph Sampson, an All-Star that was still pre-injury and in his prime, out of his natural position at the 5, forcing Ralph to play at the 4 spot. Pat Riley (and I've posted this a few times before), during the WC Finals series, wrote on his blackboard in the locker room, "Contain Akeem!!" Stopping him had become the focus of the defending champions, which was an awesome team, and heavily favored. I won't post a bunch of other stuff like that, because it's been done here so often, but if you're comparing Yao after the All-Star break this season, then I think you make a better case. They are/were still far different players, but watching Yao after the break was a joy, and his play simply the best at the center position in the league. Who would have thought that fixing a bad toe could have had such an impact? Or that such a rotten (literally!) toe could have affected Yao for so long, certainly before this season, and not been repaired already? Go figure. If Yao is really going to compare to Hakeem, he'll increase his minutes next season, play most of the games, and continue the very high level of play he achieved the latter part of this year. I look forward to it!
If I'm making superficial comparisons, I would go for an enhanced, bigger, chinese version of Brad Daugherty. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/daughbr01.html Good scorer, could score inside and outside, high FG%, decent rebounder, not a bruiser like shaq but could toss an elbow or create space when necessary. 5-time all star who was on the fringes of joining Robinson, Ewing, Olajuwon but unfortunately injuries derailed his career before he could do so. Yao's not as mobile as Daugherty though, but for his size he's on the same relative point on the curve.
Compare Yao and Brad Daugherty The only thing I wanna add is that Yao is a decent shot blocker but Daugherty is pretty bad in that. Compare Yao and Hakeem
Yao dosent have half the skills Sabas had in his prime. sabas could play the 2 guard, 3 spot and the PF and center. yes a 7'4 SG. his passing was phenominal.
