Assuming Yao comes back to the court as great as he was when he left the court, who is the better player right now? Dwight or Yao. I know, there's a been a bunch of these in the past... but since Howard has been showing some dominating performances in these playoffs, I thought there was need to redo a poll on what people think now. Just want to see if there's a bigger margin between Yao and Dwight now than there was before.
I going with Dwight Howard , i am Magic fan of course i would choose him . You are posting about Yao in a Rockets forum , is there really a doubt who Rockets fans will chose .
Although the Magic are steamrolling through the 'offs, his supporting cast has been doing most of the heavy lifting. Dwight STILL does not have a great offensive game. Defensively, he is leaps and bounds above every other C in the game, just because of his freakish athleticism. But he seems to make no improvements to his offensive game at all; like Oden, Howard relies on dunks and layups, set up by teammates. Yao, OTOH, can create a shot for himself. If both players were perfectly healthy, I would pick Yao over Howard in a heartbeat. Yao's O > Howard's O Yao's D < Howard's D
1. points per game? not much of a diff...... 2. Well how important is Yao's O when he is in a suit at the end of the bench.
Can you provide sufficient proof of these "dominating performances" in the playoffs? I haven't seen any of them. Even in the last game, his numbers were good, but that was more a result of the Hawks giving up. He needs to take advantage of his youth, healthy, and athleticism and develop a damn offense game! One injury that takes away his athleticism/explosiveness (a la T-Mac) and it is tough to see him really being dominant considering he lacks an offense game and makes lots of silly fouls on defense. I still don't understand why he isn't dominating the game like a young Shaq, especially considering his best competition is either injured (Yao), old (Shaq), or inexperienced (Lopez).
Well I meant to say dominating impact, it's not really about the numbers. These last 3 games, he's had great games against the Hawks. The numbers except for game 2 have been his season averages but his impact has been huge in all of these playoffs. He didn't play well against Charlotte because of foul trouble (some of it legit, some of it not) and Charlotte's game plan to shut him down.
Did you read my post at all? Dwight can't always create great shots for himself. How much of the PPG is the defender more scared of the three ball than Dwight? You have to take alley-oops, etc into account. Yao's O is good when he is perfectly healthy. READ: perfectly healthy.
The difference between Howard's defense and Yao's defense is much much greater than the difference between Howard's offense and Yao's offense. Dwight will continue to improve on the offensive end.. I don't think Yao can really improve much more on the defensive end.
Foul on You needs to stop being a bonehead in the playoffs though. If he plays well, and the supporting cast continues to play well, might as well hand them the trophy now.
Yao. I am not concerned. . . . this time next year they both will be heading for the finals and Dwight will get the EWING treatment Rocket River
There's always this argument: Yao > Dwight (H-2-H) Dwight > all other C's (H-2-H) All other C's > Yao (neutralized by fronting)
Is there even a question right NOW Yao is injured right now while Dwight is dominating in the playoffs. We don't even know if Yao will return and play well. Its like people comparing Tmac to kobe/lebron/wade when Tmacs injured. So as of right now Dwight is better and if Yao had stayed healthy i would maybe favor yao
Sorry for the double post i forgot to read if yao comes back as great as he was before in the original post. If thats the question than its a toss up
Look guys I love Yao and all but lets look at reality here. Dwight has not hit his ceiling yet. He is still going to get better from here on out for probably a couple more years. Yao on the other hand has already peaked and unfortunately is probably on the downside of his career. Offensively Yao is better that Dwight but defensively it really isn’t getting close. As it stands right now, I would take Dwight and I think he is/will be the better player next year. Its not like I don’t like Yao, but in reality Yao is probably on the decline.
Yao. He has a post game, a decent mid range-ish jumper, and down the stretch when he gets fouled...he is a excellent free throw shooter. Dwight, pretty much the opposite. A very good defensive player, but unless he catches the ball really close to the basket he is useless sometimes. No post game and shoots FT's Shaq status. In addition, the Magic don't even go to him a lot of times late in the fourth..why? Yep.
dwight has a greater impact on the game than yao at this point of their careers. plus, yao is coming back from major surgery. there is no guarantee that he can play 35 minutes per game next year. his minutes and production might be limited.
