No i'm not. Shaq has lost his claim as the best center this season. If he can up his play in the playoffs then maybe but he's eroded. Yao's even the better defender
His defense has eroded, his stamina is gone. He's a liablity now, maybe he can dominate in the playoffs to show me never to question him. However Yao is number 1 at the moment.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Melo061 @ Mar 6 2006, 06:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>: Mavs fan i know you're a knowledgable user but on this you're wrong. Amare was going to blow up whether Nash came or not. Put any good PG on that team and you'll see Amare averaging the same amount of stats.Did you see the WCF for goodness sake?</div>Amare would be a very good player but Nash took him to the next level. No longer would Amare have to do everything off the dribble. All Amare had to do with Nash is slash, catch, and dunk. Amare probably average maybe about 4 less points without Nash and wouldn't be quite as efficient.
But Amare already put up 20-10 with Amare without Nash. Maybe he matured?Amare was going to blow up with or without Nash.
I think Amare was damn good without Nash- BUT Nash is the perfect PG (and D'Antoni is the perfect coach) for him.He definetly helps Amare stat-wise
This year Yao has been averaging about 20-10-1.5 a night and those are all career highs in points and rebounds per game. I will say it again and again, he is a good player, maybe he gets to about 24-11 who knows? But I do know that he will not be a top player on a top team and he will struggle to play more than 32-34 mins a game. Yao is in the perfect situation where all he has to do is complement TMac, but ask him to lead a team, it will be tough for that team to win. In regards to Yao V Camby, there is no set of stats that will prove Camby is better than Yao. I would take Amare though because he gives you 25-11-2 a night when healthy, for a good 40 or so minutes.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (KobeJames823 @ Mar 6 2006, 01:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>This year Yao has been averaging about 20-10-1.5 a night and those are all career highs in points and rebounds per game. I will say it again and again, he is a good player, maybe he gets to about 24-11 who knows? But I do know that he will not be a top player on a top team and he will struggle to play more than 32-34 mins a game. Yao is in the perfect situation where all he has to do is complement TMac, but ask him to lead a team, it will be tough for that team to win. In regards to Yao V Camby, there is no set of stats that will prove Camby is better than Yao. I would take Amare though because he gives you 25-11-2 a night when healthy, for a good 40 or so minutes.</div>I think that you are right about leadership at this point. He isn't ready- but there are alot of damn good players in this league not ready to lead a team- Amare, Brad, Camby all can't lead a team (at this point at least). He is the perfect complement to TMac- and this core should be damn good for many years.I still disagree on the minutes- he is still young, and is one of the hardest workers in the game today (JVG says hes the hardest worker he has ever coached)- as time goes by- that should go up.I still don't get how Amare's output in 38 minutes (11 rebounds- hah- its closer to 8) is more impressive to
