I've noticed alot of posts on this board stating that Yao is neither any good, doesn't fit with the team and/or will never become a dominant big man. It's even gotten to a point of posters actually wanting him traded, which is really sad IMO. I was curious about something so I researched it. I look at Yao as a player who came over, at a young age, making a HUGE leap (talent-wise) to the NBA. I compare it to an american phenom who makes the jump straight from highschool, because in both instances there was no callege training or maturation involved whats so ever. So, I thought about who is the last big man who was drafted right out of highschool, had a ton of hype, and was immediatley thrust into the starting lineup with many responsibilities on his shoulders. The answer... Kevin Garnett. This is an interesting comparison because of what is mentioned above, but also the fact that both players (at about the third season of thier careers) were/are percieved as under-achieveing players who lacked aggressiveness. Both were/are looked at as maybe not a player who could take thier team to a championship or at least be an MVP-caliber superstar. Anyway, here is how thier stats looked thier first three season in the league. <b>Yao</b> 29 MPG / 13.5 PPG / 8.2 RBG / 1.79 BPG 33 MPG / 17.5 PPG / 9.0 RBG / 1.90 BPG 32 MPG / 17.6 PPG / 8.0 RBG / 1.24 BPG <b>Garnett</b> 29 MPG / 10.4 PPG / 6.3 RBG / 1.64 BPG 39 MPG / 17.0 PPG / 8.0 RBG / 2.12 BPG 39 MPG / 18.5 PPG / 9.6 RBG / 1.83 BPG I know that Yao and Garnett's games play differently, but these stats show that Yao is on par with the current MVP's entrance into the league. Garnett exploded the next few seasons as he get even more accustomed to the league and the T'Wolves got better players to surround him as a whole. Same for Yao. Once he gets it, look out and it will only get better as the Rocket organization fills out this roster better over the next couple of seasons to go along side he and TMac. What I'm saying is, there is no reason to give up on Yao right now. A ton of people are commenting on how bad he is, yet he is still putting up comparable numbers to last season. Think about how the Wolves would be feeling now if they had traded Garnett during his third campaign, or how the Blazers feel about trading a young, budding star in J. O'Neal. Don't panick, stop hatin'. It will click one day and he will be real good center for years to come. It's only a matter of time.
I wouldn't trade Yao, but as you said there games are so different. Even if their stats are very similiar in the first few seasons, you could see that KG was going to dominate by his third year. With Yao it's still debatable.
I actually was thinking about this exact same comparison today and compared the 2's stats looking to make the same argument that you are making. I TOTALLY agree with you and am still perplexed with people saying they want to trade Yao. It is ludicrous but people are impatient so what can you do.
i agree also- ive always thought yao should be considered a high school type project. the one difference i find encouraging is that garnett was never defended as though he was shaq. yao gets this frequently and as a result his acclimation might be a little tougher...and if you factor in the current coaching staff...oh never mind...
yeah dugtzu I know what you mean..... and with the refs finally treating Yao much better against Philly who knows what can happen? Maybe CD finally realized he had that envelope of cash in his desk drawer and had forgotten to give it to the referee's unofficial union.
The only problem is that Kevin Garnett gets to rest over the summer and then work on his game the right way in the U.S As long as Yao has to go over to China every summer and play for his national team he's going to have problems getting better in the NBA. Eventually Yao is going to have some tough decisions to make about going back home.
Since you seem to love putting Yao down...this is another player from your "great source" that is supposedly similar to Yao: Moses Malone
Do you honestly think that Yao Ming and Moses Malone are similar players? Or Yao Ming and Kevin Garnett? Or even Yao Ming and Dino Radja? They're not, this is stupid. And if you think he's like Moses Malone, you're stupid too.
I just quoted something from the same source you first brought in. If you considered it stupid, why did you waste everybody's time by looking for something stupid and posting it here?
First, answer the question: Do you honestly think that Yao Ming and Moses Malone are similar players?
Right now Garnett > Malone Malone > Radja On Some Days.....Yao >>>>> Radja On Other........Well Shawn Bradley > Yao
They might be just as similar as Dino Radja and Yao Ming? Since that is what the source you quoted says...
He was pointing out that you could easily compare Yao to any player to make your case, positive or negative. This guy who started the thread wants to say that Yao will be great, so he compares him to a great player with similar stats his first 3 seasons even though they really are nothing alike. So sam went and looked up good ole Dino Radja who peaked after 3 seasons and was gone after his 4th. I don't know why you put quotation marks around "Great Source" as if Sam had said that and you were qouting him. He never said it was a "great source," did he? Why are you even harping on the source, that has nothing to do with anything. I think you know Sam has a valid point so since you don't really know how to attack him for that you've started making it about the source. And then when Sam said that this was stupid, you knew he was talking about the idea behind this thread, but again, you act like he said the website where he got his stats from was stupid. Edit* wow, this looks like it's personal, now I get it, you are mad he called you stupid.
Nah, it affects me about as much as if I was Yao Ming and he was Evan Eschmeyer saying that he is better than me. I did report his post, though, because his antics are getting old fast.
What's interesting is how few rebounds Garnett averaged his first 3 seasons. What happened? Seems like the conventional wisdom is that players don't really improve they're rebounding. Maybe there's still hope for Yao.
Garnett has all the physical tools, and teammates also did a good job boxing out for him. I think Yao's potential in rebounding is limited, although 10 rbs/game is not out of reach.
Part of the impatience has to do with Yao's age also. He started in this league a couple years older than the average player. If he's going to be a long term project (like take another 3 years to reach max potential), then you might only get a window of 3 years where he can play at his maximum abilities.
Um, Yao was born 9/20/80 His first NBA game was sometime late October/early November 2002, which would make him 22, about the time the average player probably starts. KG, Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo are not average players. But I guess that's the point - we don't want Yao to be an average player either.
