What stat is not silly? The ones that prove your point? Aren't you using stats to claim that Z is close to Yao? I think that means a good big man is more important than a good small man. BTW, when you want to say who is better, are you asking who's better NOW, THIS SEASON, or CAREER? It can be argued that Miller has a comparable good season to Kobe's. But everybody knows he's not better than Kobe for career. Anyway, this is not the first time someone compares Yao to a good but not great player and ask who's better. My answer is always: Who commands special treatment by opposing defense?
Basketball wise Yao is a better post player and post defender. His basketball skill and court vision are extrordinary for a human being of his size. He is younger and haven't had any major injure that will hinder his career. He is the first center since Hakem to have Shaq play some serious defense. And he has the desire and potential to beome one of the great Cs in the history of basketball. Personality wise he is such a refresh personality to NBA and has top 10 interview skill in all sports. Marketing wise he fits perfectly NBA's internation expansion plan. He is No 1 pick that usually caught everyone's attention during his rookie season. He has 1.3 billion on his back which have corporates willing to enter into Chinese market all over him. He comes from Communist China that is still a mystery country in lot of American's mind.
you are way underestimating the rockets if you think that or overestimating the suns and cavs. i dont want to go down the whole roster for each team, but the rockets clearly have a much better roster talent-wise. if you don't believe that then i dunno what to say.
thats how i feel but i guess i am just looking to have a discussion about this and see how others feel.
Z as a rookie was better than yao as a rookie, he carried his team to the playoffs and was getting big rebounding and scoring numbers, Yao still hasn't totaly took over the team like Z did in clev. But the things that makes yao better than ilgauskas are: potential(height and not peaked yet), injuries, and youth
i should have just combined all this into one post but i was too lazy....anyhow good points overall in the thread i am just discussing this thing rather than the usual overdramatic type stuff that goes on here. just trying to have a discussion about what exactly makes yao better than z. like i've said i feel he is clearly better but even though i feel that way the numbers don't show that yao is CLEARLY better.
I'm not sure why there's even a debate. Yao is THE BEST player on a team with a 39-27 record in the WEST. Z is the THIRD option on a team with a 31-36 record in the EAST. To think that they would have the same impact on the floor is, to put it mildly, mind boggling.
This is off the thread subject, but for those of you bashing the Cavs, I really like what that franchise has done in the past 12 months. I also think if they had their current roster for the entire season, they would probably be sitting in the 4-seed in the eastern conference right now. Lebron James has lived up to the hype, Boozer is an emerging star at power forward, and then the team goes out and trades Darius Miles for Jeff McInnis who is proving he is among the top point guards in the league now that he is no longer sharing time with Damon Stoudamire averaging 8.6 assists since being traded to Cleveland last month while averaging only 1.6 turnovers. Earlier in the season they took advantage of Danny Ainge by shipping Ricky Davis and Chris Mihm to Boston for solid role players Tony Battie and Eric Williams. None of this is even mentioning the hiring of Paul Silas who for whatever reason is still not regarded as one of the top coaches in the league (for the record, he has now been the coach of two teams in the Hornets and the Cavs that have vastly improved in Silas' first year as coach. The turnaround was more impressive with the Hornets because no one was expecting anything from the Hornets that first year in which I believe they got the 4th seed in the playoffs in a much stronger eastern conference back then). Look, I get it. They're in the eastern conference, but the organization is building a very solid team and all the parts seem to fit perfectly to me. A lot of GM's could take some notes from the moves the Cavs franchise has made in the past year. This team will be a player next year in the eastern conference. Hell, the way they've been playing since the all star break, they might end up being a player in the east this year.
Um, Houston is better than Cleveland talent wise, but the difference is not nearly as big as you make it out to be. East or not, there's a reason they started winning. With out the two centers: McInnis << Steve Lebron >> Cat Williams < JJ Boozer > Cato Bench: slight advantage Houston Silas < JVG on D Silas > JVG on O Does signing JJ help the team, yes. But merely replaces losing Posey. Signing AGriff, Pike who doesn't play is not going to help this team too much by any stretch of the imagination. There's a reason they call them role players. Yet Houston is probably going to outpace last year's record and Yao is putting up much better numbers than last year, while Z's team, with only SLIGHTLY less talent, has a worse record in the east. That pretty much sums up who the better player is.
sorry robbie, this is the dumbest question ever! it's like asking if Cato is as good as Ming. Cato has so many holes in his game just like Z. how can you even compare the two.
