Good comparison. I think the salary each got is pretty close to what they're worth. Howard though I think has a big advantage that he can step out and hit 3's. Diaw rebounding stats are inflated since he is playing out of position. He gets more rebounds because of this but his team gets badly outrebounded on the average. Diaw is a little more versatile in that he can play 5 positions but Howard is a pure small forward and those are hard to find. I would take Howard for now but Diaw is the younger player so I might pick him in a few years.
I think easily Howard right now. He has really impressed me from when I watched him. He's a very good SF and very underrated in my opinion. He can do pretty much everything and outplayed Marion when their teams played. But once Boris Diaw gets a jump shot I think he will be better and have a better career. He improved so much as the season went on. He went from trying to lay it up and always getting blocked to dunking on Dirk at the end of the season. His has great potential. When he gets a consistent mid-range shot he will be so hard to stop. He'll be too quick for the big men of the league so he'll either drive past them or if they don't play close to him he'll take that shot. And if he plays against the guards he'll be too tall for them. And he has that great court visions so if the do a good job at defending him then he'll find the open man. His rebounding is pretty good. I know he played out of position but playing out of position also means he had to compete with all the big men in the league to get the rebounds. I really don't know about his D. He was decent all year but was mostly defending guys much bigger than him so I can't really judge his D very well right now. But mavs...guys who can play all positions for a team are a little harder to find than a pure small forward I think. I'm just glad they signed him. Sarver, even though he still cares a lot about the bottom line, showed that he also cares about winning a championship. Diaw is a big part of this team and him and Amare are a big part of this team's future. I'm so happy that we have him for 5 more years at a reasonable price compared to the outrageous contracts some players get.
I'm sorry, the only other person I can think of who's known to be able to play both PG and C effectively I believe was Magic Johnson.I'm NOT saying Diaw is that caliber, but I think right now there's actually a TON of SFs in the league right now and a player like Diaw is a bit more rare.
Pure small forwards. Not small forwards that are also shooting guards. A lot of small forwards tend to lean more towards the shooting guard or power forward. For example Stackhouse, Sprewell, Walker, Jamison, and etc. These players have some flaws at playing SF. Stackhouse and Sprewell lack rebounding and interior prescence and Walker and Jamison lack the foot speed. Yes Diaw is more rare but that doesn't mean a ton.
I'd go with Josh Howard definitely.He's been an oustanding performer for Dallas since he got here. Diaw had a great run in the playoffs, but other than that I don't think he's really proven himself. He has potential to be a great player though. My Pick - Josh Howard
