But how would they fare against the Spurs, Nuggets, Lakers, and Hornets?? The Jazz as constructed are almost designed as the Anti-Rockets. If you change the Rockets, well sure the Jazz wont be as effective against them.
I cant stand these type "highlights" since its all because most of these players came straight from high school when other players of the past spent time in college. I hate the whole "youngest" to achieve thing, if anything it should be quickest to X points, X rebounds meaning the number of NBA games it took the player to achieve the milestone. That would be a far better measure at looking at these records. I mean i am sure LeBron was the youngest player to 5k points but does it make him a better scorer than Jordan if Jordan was 24 when he scored 5k and lebron was 22? I mean if Jordan was able to reach 5k points in 300 games and it took lebron 400 what is the better measure of that milestone? (all these numbers are totally arbitrary and i am using them to support my example)
"Don't believe the hype" - P.E. In people minds Howard is better because he avg. more points but how many shots he does take? He is a better player because he can dunk, because he can block and is a Superman. Personally I really like Howard, he will bully you anytime he gets the ball in the post but my humble opinion is that Yao is more quality center when it comes to team basketball. If you know anything about basketball you will appreciate the dominance of Yao Ming. Reason why Yao isn't the best on the ESPN is because he doesn't dunk, isn't athletic and certainly isn't Superman. Kobe, LeBron, Howard are NBA icons, get used to it and Lakers, Celtics, Knicks and Cavs are NBA team pets (read cash cows)
He is the youngest player because he entered from high school, that doesn't count in my mind. I hear people saying Kobe got Chamberlain as he scored as many points as Chamberlain when he was 29 but people tend to forget that Kobe was in the NBA since he was 17, which gives him more pro years. Same as Howard. But you know what matters at the end of the day...NBA title! So ind. rewards are nice but if you want to be remembered earn a damn ring.
The same... Howard would give them a team with speed that could get up and down the court; also they would be a like a brick wall on defense.
Maybe. But, it's not as clear cut as you make it out to be. I have my doubts that we would be in this position if we had Dwight instead of Yao. People look at pure numbers and conclude Dwight is a better center than Yao, which in reality may be the case, but it's not a video game where you can plug Dwight instead of Yao and automatically assume that the Rockets would be better because in my opinion I feel that the way the Rockets are currently constructed, we'd be a worse team with Dwight than Yao. The #1, #2, #3 option is Yao-Yao-Yao. Our offense starts with Yao Ming and ends with Yao Ming. Our offensive formula is quite simple really: dump it into Yao, force the double and triple teams, kick out and knock the open jumper. We'd been able to win games through Yao's ability to make everyone on the court better. You'd really understand this better if you focus on the other aspects of the game besides scoring. There's more to basketball than watching the player with the ball in his hands. Basketball is a chain reaction type game: one thing happens which leads to a domino effect of other things. Yao is essentially the engine that makes this whole machine run. Til this day, Dwight has not shown that he can carry the offensive burden that Yao has to carry daily. Watch more Magic games and watch more Rocket games and compare the two. The playing styles of both teams could not be more drastic. Only then will you refrain from making such an ignorant statement.
Oh defensively they would be the same, maybe even better. But the team would have trouble scoring as much since Yao is the focal point of the offense. Even if he doesnt shoot the most shots, he creates shots for other guys drawing double teams and making usually good passes out of them. Dwight isn't as formidable as Yao is on offense, so the team would ultimately fall off I think. I think the gains on D they get from Howard would be severely outweighed by what they would suffer on offense.
I agree with this, also. We wouldn't fair as well against Lakers and Hornets, who I think Yao gives alot of matchup problems, too. Also, I believe if those teams body -ed up on Howard and threw the same double and triple teams on him that Yao gets, the Rockets would still have trouble knocking down open shots (unlike Orlando) and would have center who couldn't score away from the basket and would have limited offense, since he also doesn't create open shots like Yao does. Some posters would like to think it would be a +++ situation, instead of trading one set of vulnerabilities for another set of short comings.
It's completely pointless to debate who is the better player: X or Y. What does that mean, anyhow: 1. If X and Y went one-on-one, who would win? They don't hand out the Larry O'Brien trophy for that, so who cares. 2. Who has the better statistics (perhaps PER)? PER is to a significant degree a function of their respective teammates and opponents, so there are too many variables to control for. 3. Who has won the most individual awards or recognition? Popularity contests don't equate to good basketball, ask the Spurs. So I'm glad that the people on this thread are asking more relevant questions like who would be a better fit for our team, because basketball is a team game and greatness is measured by championships, a metric in which both Yao and Dwight trail Shaq and Dream by a substantial margin.
I really like Yao, and I certainly think he can be legitimately called the "best center in the NBA", but so can Dwight. There is no direct measurement that can prove that one is better than the other, and it doesn't really matter anyways. I certainly don't think its fair to say that someone who claims Dwight is the best center in the NBA "doesn't even watch the games".
Yao is better than Howard now, maybe is worse in svrl years. If Rox meet Magic in POs, I believe rox can defeat them easily.
Yao is better on Offense than Howard,but Howard is better on defense than YAo. Howard is a more athletic player than YAo
Trade Yao for Howard and with the current players Houston will win the next 3 championships. Or: give a true PF an a SG to the Magic, with a coach who's not afraid to give Howard the ball (JVG), and they'll be champions. Who said that he can't be the go-to guy for the Magic? He's not because Orlando can't play any different with their roster. Guys, he is not yet 24 but already a monster, getting skilled and increasing every stat year after year. It is not a playstation game, it is just a superior overall player.
I personally do not like Skip Bayless, but when you look at his track record and the predictions that he has made, he is usually right. It does not matter what sport he is talking about he knows them all better than you think. We just all dislike him because he plays the antagonist role and pisses people off. I don't know why people expect ESPN to be in love with the rockets like we all are. They cover Kobe, Wade, and LeBron constantly because everyone wants to know how they are doing. The general public doesnt care about Yao and the Rockets, so they dont show it. I would love to see the rockets respected more on ESPN but we cant expect the respect until we earn it. We gotta win a series then TNT and ESPN will respect us. Finally
why try to make sense at all, while lebron was the youngest in history to have a game where he scored 28pts, 15rebs and also 9asts at the age of 21 years and 3 months and 10 days on cleveland's home court on a tuesday when it's full moon against a detroit team with a small forward named prince?
Yao is the more efficient offensive player but Howard is significantly better on the defensive end. For example, Howard does not get pulled from the game for a defensive stand late in games like Yao does. Since defense is half the game I would have to go with Howard. Defense is also why Hakeem is better than Kareem and others IMO.
the comparision of yao&dwright has lasted for centuries, sometimes it is more of a contest rather than a pure comparision. but yao is always the winner everytime he plays with dwright face to face, which gives yao an unreversable advantage in any comparision between him and dwright.
