Wow. I'm getting good at this. Yao and Dwight Howard are two different players with primarily two different TEAM responsibilities. And comparing apples to oranges just makes a nice fruit salad at the end of the day. Dominance is subjective. Yao, in my mind, dominates as much as anybody in the NBA can and does. When you compromise your team defense to the extent that people do because of one guy, you're impacting the game in a lot of ways. Ways that couldn't be realized before Yao's teammates were good enough to punish another team for junk defense. Any defense comprised to so disrespect the other four guys on the floor in the NBA should be exposed. It's why a lot of teams and coaches don't like playing zones at this level. The players are, for the most part, very talented. And if you leave them unattended, they should hurt you. Sometimes, looking at the numbers, it seems to hold some weight to say that Howard is better than Yao because he is capable of some stunning individual performances. Just like some people counter with how Yao has a field day on the occasions he faces Howard. There isn't anybody in the league who considers Yao anything less than one of the toughest covers in the game. It's not important to me, really, which of the two of them is better. Just that Yao is plenty good enough as he is...
leebigez was suggesting that any player can easily get an uncontested shot against him whenever they like. Kevin Garnett is very tall, long arms, and he loves the turnaround jumpers. In that clip I posted, was that an uncontested jump shot? Or consider LaMarcus Aldridge, who has as high a release point as anyone and a very lethal turnaround jumper. How successful was he on post ups against Chuck Hayes this season? Sure, Chuck is undersized, and that works against him. But he does a great job at maxing out his strengths to make up for that.
My bad. I agree with that much. Opposing players don't consistently and easily get uncontested shots over him. If they get the ball away from the basket, Hayes usually makes up for his lack of length with good positioning and by using his strength to hold his position, keeping them away from their comfort zones. In general, despite lacking length, Hayes makes things difficult for most of the players he covers and does it better than most other post defenders in the league. I've never seen a player better at stripping balls. At the same time, there are times when opposing players get really easy shots over him on broken plays or putbacks when Hayes doesn't get a chance to body them up away from the basket. If a player gets the ball close in, Hayes can rarely do anything about it while players with length can naturally make things more difficult, even if they lack Hayes' defensive skill set. Overall, Hayes is a great situational player to have available off your bench.
Same goes for Howard. A healthy Howard still have not footwork, still gets owned against small physical defender, still can't score effectively when he doesn't get the ball inside the paint, he still can't make his FT and still have problems with fouls. Whats the point to name the weakness, all player have them. It doesn't mean they can't dominate. Healthy Yao put 25 a game a healthy Howard 20.6 is not like Yao is a bump. This was Dwight best statistical season vs Yao worst statistical season in the last 4 years. Is not a fear to compare them when one just have a great series and the other is recuperating from a foot injury. Why ppl didn't bring all this playoff stats when Howard was playing the Celtics.
Of the best big man. He probably wouldn't have if he had to face the Lakers in the second round to get there. Which is why I said let's see how he does against them first.
I love Yao, but I don't know how much better he's going to get. Howard has a bigger upside still. It's scary, but guys like him and Lebron are still getting better. Going back to the topic at hand, Yao is more of a finesse player while Howard is an athletic freak/brute. Just two different ways to get the same job done.
You know what dumb and racist about your comment? Your power comes from your core. Your power comes from your thighs and stomach area. The calfs have nothing to do with strength and to keep the racist thing going, most black people have bigger thighs. I'm a black man, but when you say heavy lower body by whites and they can lift more, that is just dumb. I guess you've never seen shaq's lower legs. What about Karl malone? jumping ability has everything to do with power and strength from your legs. I can show you plenty of white guys that can jump out the gym. Durvasa, I'm not saying that hayes isn't a good post defender, i'm just saying the guys that have success against him just get to a spot,turn and fire. You're not going to be able to back him down, he's too strong, but i've seen elton brand and hakeem warrick give him the business. Hakeem Warrick was just posting, turning and firing over the top.
Not impressed with howard getting to the finals being in the rupaul conference of the league. Howard wouldn't have as much success as he's had if he played in the west.
Easier road to the championship that's why. The eastern team only has to play one hard series all playoffs, which is in the finals. Western teams have to battle all playoffs.
Howard opened my eyes in this series. He's a damn beast. Yao is as skilled as they come, but he doesn't do a lot of things that Howard does. D12 rebounds like a beast, blocks a ton of shots and alters a ton more. He's stronger and way more athletic so he can finish anything around the ring. I think that for a lot of people, this year's playoffs have cemented Howard as the best center in the league. Sorry, Yao.
And yet, he's in the finals, besting the league's best defensive team with 40 pts for 14-21 shooting. Keep drinking the kool aid
Howard is a beast. He's won me over as a fan. Dude is a monster on the court, and a comedian off. Go Magic, beat the Fakers! ......and for next year...... GO Rockets!
Yet Denver tip toed to the western conference finals without a scratch. Spurs were fairies this year, Hornets were nothing but embarrassing and the Mavs defined the the term 0 D. Portland gave us a good fight but really? We only had to control one guy to win that series. The East was better than the West this year.
Here we go with the racist card. Man this country is full of sensitive people. So if I said black girls have bigger asses that white girls in average I'm a racist? Or that Eastern Europeans are taller than North Korean in averages then I'm racist. People suppose to have equal rights, not equal DNA.
Count me a fan too. DH was phenomenal in this series. I know DH is a different kind of player than Yao, and of course, the Magic personnel is different from the Rox, and yes, the Eastern conference is different from the West, yada yada yada, but boy, I can't help think: WOW, could this be the start of a multi-year dynasty in Orlando? While it was premature to a fault back in the mid 90s, it was the similar feeling I had when Orlando had Shaq, Penny, Anderson, etc. If DH's stock is still going higher... wow, sky's the limit for this Orlando team. With Yao, I DO wonder whether for all the personnel changes we make and have made, that he has fundamentally peaked. And if so, it puts more onus on us to get EVEN better at the other positions... particularly in the way of a single player (possibly small forward) who is a beast at rebounding AND scoring. Why rebounding? b/c even though Yao will grab his fair share of bounds, it's not in the same statistical league as a DH. And if indeed, you surround a DH or a Yao with 3 point shooters, it's always nice to get a little bit more rebounding prowess down low. Between DH and Yao, I'd say that's advantage: DH. theSAGE
Meh the top teams in the East are (arguably) better than the top teams in the West. Orlando, Boston, and Cleveland are better than LA, Denver, and whoever else.
You'd have to define "strong" in this case. I'm not saying that Howard doesn't have the strong lower body, but I don't agree with your automatic association of "strength" and "ability to explode off the ground." Now, I don't know about you, but I define strength in basketball to be ability to hold your position in the post (for a low post player, that is). A part of that is upper body, of course. But, more importantly, strength in the post correlates with a strong lower body. And, to hold your position in the post, it's not about one's explosiveness. Explosiveness can be measured by the percentage of fast twitch fibers in a muscle group. These muscle fibers contract quickly and generates a large force, but tire quickly. Therefore, they are crucial in actions such as jumping or sprinting. Holding a position in the post, however, would be more the job of the slow-twitch fibers, which don't generate as powerful a force, but can be sustained for much longer times. Now, I personally think that Howard's got a strong lower body, but that has nothing to do with his 40 inch vertical.
The problem with your analysis is that you're looking at specific matchups. Sure, we did well against Portland, but that's because we match up well against them. And Laker fans were rooting for us to beat Portland b/c the Lakers match up much better against us than they do against Portland. If you look at the league as a whole during the regular season, the western conference is superior to the east. Look at the records. If the 9th seeded Phoenix team were placed in the east, they'd be the #4 seed.
