Howard vs. Yao

2010 February 25

by rahat huq

Dwight Howard destroyed the Rockets last night, scoring 30 points on 11 of 11 shooting from the floor and grabbing 16 boards.

It felt very odd seeing Howard dominate the team as I had become accustomed to the complete opposite in recent years.

click to enlarge

Easy

Howard dominates smaller, weaker opponents, but has trouble with bigger centers like Yao.

Yao is the opposite. He even played pretty well against Shaq in prime. But he has trouble with smaller, faster guys.
DowJones

Unlike Howard, Yao's not athletic, just very very skilled, so he has problems, like shaq, of chasing small centers out 20 ft or 3pt line, just like shaq. However, unlike shaq, because yao's really skilled, he doesn't get killed AS MUCH on pick and rolls cuz he uses his length quite effectively in hedging situations.

What's your opinion on Yao if he was just 3 or 4 ft shorter and a few pounds lighter? MDE??
anonymous

By 3 or 4 ft... I presume you mean 3 or 4 in.... hehe
rahat_huq

Easy - sad thing is, its much more beneficial in today's game to be able to match up with smaller centers rather than big.

DowJones - No. Not at all. If Yao was just 7'3 he would be another average center. The irony of Yao is that while his height/size are the cause of his downfall (not being able to carry the weight, thus the foot issues), it's also the primary reason he's so effective. I don't think he would be much without his extraordinary height.
thirdcoastborn

When Yao fights and gets good position, nobody can stop him. Howard has improved alot but he is not a good free throw shooter, which is big at the end of games. Yao's game is much more polished, he has six more inches then Howard, is an excellent free throw shooter, and shoots from the field better.
Yoyo

and the sad thing was he only played 3 quarters too
Alituro

That's a tough one Rahat. Given that Yao is probably the best shooting center the game has ever seen besides Hakeem, if he were to retain those skills and gain some athleticism, speed and mobility by being a little smaller, I would think he'd be even more deadly. Right now, his height with arms is able to account for about 9" of leaping ability, roughly, over a 7' tall opponent if he were 7'3" then that would be cut to 4 or 5 inches, still an advantage, but even moreso of one were he more mobile and athletic, able to juke, jive, twist and chase blocks with more ease.
rahat_huq

i have to disagree with you there alituro because when you say he's the best shooting center the game has ever seen, you mean accuracy wise, not actual "shooting." contrary to popular belief, he's not really that great of a jump shooter and this was one of the big reasons the high post experiment failed in adelman's first year.

and the reason his overall accuracy is so high is primarily due to the height, IMHO. interesting debate though.