Hindsight: Who would you have drafted in the '02 Draft?

Just like Amare and Marbury.

 

Yao for sure. Amare had like 3 years of basketball experience before he was drafted. Yao is 7'6 skilled offensively and defensively...I think a half r****ded monkey could make the right decision on who to draft.

 

Yao Ming Baby!

 

yao Ming all the way!!! He made the Rockets the way they are!

Amare would have left us like he left the Suns even when the suns had one of the best point guards.

No other player is as loyal and great as Yao ming!! Like what Jeff Van Gundy said, if yao was healthy he would still be the best center in the league better than Dwight.

 

I would pick Yao again.

 

If you compare Yao to Amare in a pure vacuum, focusing on the individual impact each player brought on and off the court, it's Yao no question. Amare's never had to be the #1 horse on a championship contending team. And in the situations when Amare was the primary focus of the defenses without a playmaker like Nash feeding him easy buckets, he failed to have similar success as Yao. Yao dominated the game on both ends of the floor, something no one can say about Amare. Yao could turn a rag tag team into a competent playoff contender. Amare has not yet. So, I'll say Yao even with all the injuries.

 

Still yao I don't think van gundy would have done as well with amare and mc grady running the show.

 

02 class was weak

i would still pick yao

 

yaoming，that is no doubt that，remember him，he let you guys know about China

 

I'd rather roll the dice again with Yao than with with Amare. If we hadn't picked Yao, Tmac wouldn't have come to Houston and we'd be stuck with Francis, Mobley and Amare as the core players. LOL! I'll take the Yao-Mac moments over those three any day.

 

quite a weak draft class. so many of these people arent in the league anymore.

 

The thing that's makes Yao's retirement hurt even more is that Yao was still improving. At the time he went down, he was just gettin used to being aggressive, a facet of his game that he needed to improve on most. I couldn't even imagine how good Yao would be if he played all throughout his career.

 

I would have drafted the player who is the best nine years later.

But that's just me.

 

Still would take Yao

Knowing what we know now, his minutes should have been limited, and given more games off. As long as he was good to go by playoff time. We've seen what Mt. Mutombo did in Yao's absence, we could have easily bumped his minutes up and stayed competitive.

That was a really weak draft. The only other really good player taken was Stoudamire. I've never viewed him as a real difference maker. The Suns still got to the conference finals without him, and the Knicks were a .500 team.

When healthy Yao was a true difference maker.

 

Yao. He's the only future HOFer in that class.

 

Yao without a doubt. In hindsight we should have done more to limit his minutes and manage to tell China to back up off him.

 

Lets see amare has more 1st team all nba as a center than yao ming. Has been deep in the playoffs multiple times and most importantly is still playing. He has a higher playoff per than yao. He averaged 30-10 for a post season series. Yes he plays no defense but neither does half the nba. Objectively I don't know how this is close. I would have taken amare.

 

Nah, Id have drafted Matt Barnes.

















But seriously, Houston Rockets is a global franchise because of Yao. If it wasn't for Yao, the Rockets would have nowhere been as iconic as the Lakers or the Celtics.

 

Let's see. The game of basketball is consisted of 50% offense and 50% defense. Of the 50% defense, the most important positions for it are the Center and the Power Forward due to their impact inside the pain.

Amare is a PF.
Amare plays no defense.
Yao is a center.
Yao anchors top 5 defenses.

I think you might be underselling the defense aspect of the game just a teeny tiny bit here.

Oh, btw. I think Amare had just a few better teammates in Phoenix than Yao did in Houston. Shawn Marion, Steve Nash, and Joe Johnson probably wouldn't look too bad playing with Yao you know? At least better than T-Mac, Rafer, Jim Jackson, and Juwan Howard IMHO.