B/R re-drafts 2002 draft class; picks Stoudemire over Yao at #1

Carlos Boozer ate Yao’s lunch in the playoffs.

 

Still take Yao over Amare, despite all the injuries.

 

Yao was a legendary player and id still take him, especially for his greatness as a person and as an international hero.

But he did get absolutely wrecked by Okur and Boozer flopping around. He was a match-up benefit and liability just simply due to his lack of mobility. It was an early indication of small ball effectiveness. And Stoudemire is viewed better than he was in retrospect because this is now the Era of smallball.

However he was great in 2005 and 2009 when our roster started to become more than Yao, Tmac and beer league scrubs and its a tragedy we didn't get to see more of him in the right chemistry. With mobile two way forwards supplementing him, he was free to dominate.

 

MDA would take Amar'e, I am sure now.

 

No thank you to Steve Francis, Cuttino and Amare. I'd still would have drafted Yao over Amare, imagine Yao ming keeping his slimmer building and adding less bulk while allowed to shoot 3 point shots. He'd be fantastic in the transition period where big men were more valued stretching the floor than inside the paint.

Yao's ultimate downfall was his country's obligation to playing basketball all year around, there are some players like Kobe and LeBron who can play 70-80 games during the season and then play another 20 games to the finals every year.

Yao had a significant injury and rushed to play for his country in the Beijing Olympics, which seemed similar to what Brandon Roy did when he rushed his knee injury rehab to participate in the playoffs. Both ended up playing faster short term but ended their careers way earlier than they were anticipated to.

 

Les takes the cash cow every time. The Chinese market made him richer than titles ever could. Les wins / won with Yao.

 

Mike D Antoni would pick Amare over Yao
Rudy T wouldn’t

 

Les would take Yao if he owned a hockey team
He only cares about Chinese money

 

Did Les sleep with your wife or something? You're painting the town red with the Les hate bro
Though agreed he deserves it

 

People really overrate yao on this board. The guy was always hurt. The reason you have to appreciate a guy like harden is he always plays.

 

I’m only stating the obvious because we have idiots who don’t know anything about Rockets history
Like when newbs thought we enjoyed having PIPPEN

 

Rudy played Yao as a modern center in retrospect

JVG and Ewing turned him into another Ewing

 

Mike D Antoni did take Amare

 

What isn't fair about it?

Sure, Yao played more all-star games, but being voted in by a billion people doesn't make one a better player! Before his injuries Amar'e had amazing numbers, and credit to him that he managed to come back and play as a contributor even after the injuries.

 

I don't have the numbers. But I think Yao and McGrady played in less than 50% of their games together as Rockets together. That's pretty sad.

 

Whoever thinks Pippen was a good thing needs to be banned

 

Just watching the 22 win streak special...man. Yao was special in so many ways. He's my second favourite Rocket all time. Absolute joy watching him develop into his final form and the dude was too nice and loyal for his own good.

 

They both were destined to have injury problems. They were talking about Amare's knees recently and a guy that worked with the Suns said it wouldn't be wise to give him a second contract because he had knee ligaments that looked like construction paper and all he had was injury issues when he went to New York.

I have always heard the docs knew Yao would have foot problems, but Les wanted that Chinese money.

 

I'd take Yao without injuries but with you got to go with Amare unfortunately.

Amare was better early. When Yao started looking like an MVP candidate injuries really destroyed him

Shaq was drafted in 92 - Yao in 02
Shaq won his first 'ship on 00. In 2010 Yao wasn't really playing.

They retired the same year.