You're either undervaluing Scola, Artest and Alston's time here or you're really overvaluing Beverly, Ariza, and DMo.
Yao right before the tibial plateau fracture was a dominant force. T-Mac's first year in Houston he still had some of his trademark explosiveness from his Orlando days. At their primes and injury free I would choose Yao and T-Mac over H2. It wasn't the 80's or 90's but was a different league back then. Yao would be shooting a lot more flagrant free throws playing in today's touch foul league. He got hacked a lot! Howard is a better defender and rebounder than Yao was though Yao was more dominant offensively. Harden vs Orlando (young and healthy) T-Mac I would choose T-Mac all day. Especially in this touch foul era.
This is one of my all-time favorite posts!! I already spoke my piece on Yao. On TMac: he would settle for jumpers all day! Never going for contact to try to draw a foul and manufacture offense, like Harden is so supreme at.
Its pretty crazy how similar those role players are but now that the current team has Lawson then that team would win
Not as a Rocket. McGrady had 4 seasons in Houston where he played more than 60 games. Here's how those seasons stack up against Harden's first 3 seasons here: Min/Game - McGrady - 37.8 Harden 37.7 (Minutes are basically even). FGA/Game - McGrady - 20.83 Harden 17.29 (McGrady shot the ball more) FG% - McGrady - 42.34% Harden - 44.39%(Harden had a slightly better FG%). 3PT% - McGrady - 31.75% Harden - 37% (Harden much better 3pt shooter) Reb/Game - McGrady 5.76 Harden - 5.09 (McGrady better rebounder) Ast/Game - McGrady 5.79 Harden - 6.32 (Harden more assists) FT% - McGrady 73.15% Harden - 85.79% (Harden much better FT shooter). EFG% - McGrady 46.25% Harden - 51.42 (Harden more efficient). PTS/Gm - McGrady 24.14 Harden - 26.25 So Harden shoots less, scores more, assists more and is much more efficient from the field and is a better 3pt shooter and a better FT shooter. Of all those categories, the only 1 that is an advantage to McGrady is rebounding and it's a difference of 0.67/game.
If we are talking about both teams being in their prime and healthy......Yao and Tmac win this matchup.
Has to be Tmac and Yao just. A shame injuries ruined them Yao outweighs Dwight on offensive but not defensive. Tmac edges Harden on defense and they compare similarly on offense.
I think the point about Yao's pick and roll defense is definitely something to consider when talking about who would win if they played 2-on-2. Harden and Howard could pick and roll Yao & T-mac to death. Also Harden's offense might actually make up for the lack of Howard's, but I think I'd still give Yao & Tracy the edge.
either clutchfans or rockets fans should know better on this one. a prime healthy tmac took a crappy ass team to the playoffs with virutally no help. when yao stopped being soft he was one of hte most dominant bigs since the 2000s. remember tmac shut down a young dirk in the playoffs. i love harden and howard but this is a no brainer. a healthy yao and tmac would've won at least one ring, in 09. then the 22 win streak season
If we are talking about a fantasy land where both T-mac and Yao were healthy at the same time, it's not even close, Yao was too big for Dwight (he's giving up like 8-10 inches in height depending on how thick his shoes are) and Tmac was amazing for the 4 or 5 hours he was healthy while a Rocket.
I'm not sure how it's not even close if assuming health. Harden is more efficient than McGrady ever was, and he is still only 25. He has improved every season up to this point, so it is reasonable to expect him to get even better (is that physically possible?). McGrady was probably a better defender than Harden, but they both suffered from the whole lack of attention span (or energy) on that end. I'd probably take healthy Yao over healthy Howard, but it's not as easy of a choice as everyone else is making it out to be. Howard is one of the best rim protectors and rebounders in the last 20 years, and while Yao was dominant offensively, teams would front him and we often had no answer. You aren't getting much out of Yao if you can't feed him the ball, where as with Howard, you are still getting some dominant defense and rebounding.