Yee of little faith!! Yao Ming is just on the cusp of his great years. When he is scoring over 30 a game will you still say the same thing? Hakeem was my hero Basketball Player in his day. A new day is dawning and a new great Rocket is about to emerge.
So Yao Ming is having 4.0 turnovers a game- just slightly worst than Hakeem in his 5th season of 3.44
In the 5th season it looks like a wash between Hakeem and Yao Yao has Pts, FG%, FT%, APG Hakeem has RBS. StPG, BlPG, TO
Today's centers are quicker, shorter and more athletic. That's because most of them would be PFs, 3 years ago. He has Amare, DHoward, Bosh, Okafor, BWallace, and Jermaine O'Neal.
Sorry, Tinman there is a suttle difference! You were talking about the situation as of Nov. I am talking about the situation as it is at present, halfway through December. Quite a different kettle of fish yet both are inter related.
Exactly, with Yao being the better scorer, that's why I said they were about a wash in levels at this time.
I don't think it's a wash. Yao's minimal scoring advantage over Hakeem does not make up for the big advantages in steals and blocks and rebounds. I can live with Yao not having steals like Hakeem. That was just too incredible and can't be expected of him. I'm okay with him on blocks too. Hakeem is the all-time leader so that's unfair too. Yao's average is already very good. However, I do expect him to have at least 11-12 rebounds. I don't think that's too much to ask. More rebounds and less turnovers and I'm happy.
I think the only real stat that should matter are the number of rings Yao will bring. In my mind, this is how he will be compared (and this is if he keeps up his dominance for the next 5-8 years): No Rings: Better than Ewing 1 Ring: Equal to D Robinson, Moses Malone 2 Rings: Slightly below of Dream 3 Rings: = Dream 4 Rings: Better than Dream and = to Shaq 5 Rings: Better than Shaq, = Kareem, less than Wilt and Bill Russel 6 Rings: Approaching Michael Jordan status 7 Rings: GOAT
