July 23, 2010

• <Yao Ming vs Rik Smits>
  
  
  Conclusion 1 : No “tall” men – those higher than 7-4 in NBA can win a championship.
  
  
  Conclusion 2 : Tall men have shorter NBA life than others, and depreciate much faster.
  
  
  Conclusion 3 : No tall men have ever been successful in NBA (with the known exception of Yao Ming)
  
  ———————–
  
  
  Here are the most famous tall men in the history of NBA :
  
  
  Bol (7-7), Muresan (also 7-7) and Bradley.  Can’t score at all.  Limited playing time.  No skills whatsoever.
  
  Ralph Sampson (7-4), one of the once twin towers of Houston (the other being Olajuwon) BEFORE his almost-career-ending injury
  
  
  The only famous tall man left on our list is Rik Smits.  Let me talk more about him.
  
  No many people would know him now, but he was once fairly famous. Not fully because of his skills – he can shot the ball pretty well (in comparison with other tall men) and his soft touch (interested parties can indeed watch this video to get a feel of his touch),  but also because of his famous or infamous teammate called Reggie Miller.
  
  But during Smits journey in NBA, he was NEVER a very true all star player.  All i can say is, he is a good player.
  
  According to NBA.com, these are Smits’ career statistics (figures in bracket in the first column was his age)
  

  CAREER AVERAGES                 REBOUNDS PER GAME     YEAR TEAM G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG  88-89 (22) IND 82 71 24.9 .517 .000 .722 2.30 3.80 6.10 .9 .45 1.84 1.59 3.80 11.7  89-90 (23) IND 82 82 29.3 .533 .000 .811 1.60 4.60 6.20 1.7 .55 2.06 1.74 4.00 15.5  90-91 (24) IND 76 38 22.2 .485 .000 .762 1.50 3.20 4.70 1.1 .32 1.46 1.13 3.20 10.9  91-92 (25) IND 74 55 23.9 .510 .000 .788 1.70 4.00 5.60 1.6 .39 1.35 1.76 3.10 13.8  92-93 (26) IND 81 81 25.6 .486 .000 .732 1.60 3.80 5.30 1.5 .33 .93 1.81 3.50 14.3  93-94 (27) IND 78 75 27.1 .534 .000 .793 1.70 4.50 6.20 2.0 .63 1.05 1.94 3.60 15.7  94-95 (28) IND 78 78 30.5 .526 .000 .753 2.50 5.20 7.70 1.4 .51 1.01 2.42 3.60 17.9  95-96 (29) IND 63 63 30.2 .521 .200 .788 1.90 5.00 6.90 1.7 .33 .71 2.54 3.60 18.5  96-97 (30) IND 52 52 29.2 .486 .250 .797 2.00 4.90 6.90 1.3 .42 1.13 2.42 3.40 17.1  97-98 (31) IND 73 69 28.6 .495 .000 .783 1.70 5.20 6.90 1.4 .55 1.21 1.84 3.30 16.7  98-99 (32) IND 49 49 25.9 .490 .000 .818 1.50 4.10 5.60 1.1 .37 1.06 1.53 3.20 14.9  99-00 (33) IND 79 79 23.4 .484 .000 .739 1.20 3.90 5.10 1.1 .25 1.27 1.37 3.20 12.9  Career 867 792 26.6 .507 .115 .773 1.80 4.30 6.10 1.4 .43 1.28 1.82 3.50 14.8  Playoff 104 96 26.4 .507 .250 .829 1.40 3.80 5.20 1.3 .49 .87 1.78 4.00 14.8  All-Star 1 0 21.0 .429 .000 1.000 2.00 5.00 7.00 4.0 .00 2.00 .00 3.00 10.0

  CAREER TOTALS

  
  There are several things worth mentioning :
  
  1. Except the second season (1989-90), Smits never played for all 82 games (even in the knockout season with 50 games, he only played 49). That said, out of a total 952 games, he played over 90% of them – which I guessed are the top amongst the tall men in NBA.
  
  2. But, if you will find that after the 1995-96 seasons, Smits’ score and number of games played decreased consistently. His highest scoring season happend when he was 29.  Actually, all of his playing statistics worsened since then (FG%, rebound, assist; but block shot statistics were still solid)
  
  3. On average, he never played over 31 mintues in all his seasons. Again, his playing time decreased since 28 or 29.
  
  
  
  And let’s look at Yao Ming’s statistics :
  
  

  CAREER SEASON AVERAGES

  Year	Team	G	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	OFF	DEF	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	PF	PPG
  02-03	HOU	82	72	29.0	0.498	0.500	0.811	2.4	5.8	8.2	1.7	0.4	1.8	2.11	2.80	13.5
  03-04	HOU	82	82	32.8	0.522	0.000	0.809	2.4	6.6	9.0	1.5	0.3	1.9	2.49	3.33	17.5
  04-05	HOU	80	80	30.6	0.552	0.000	0.783	2.6	5.8	8.4	0.8	0.4	2.0	2.45	3.72	18.3
  05-06	HOU	57	57	34.2	0.519	0.000	0.853	2.6	7.6	10.2	1.5	0.5	1.6	2.58	3.42	22.3
  06-07	HOU	48	48	33.8	0.516	0.000	0.862	2.1	7.3	9.4	2.0	0.4	2.0	3.48	3.31	25.0
  07-08	HOU	55	55	37.2	0.507	0.000	0.850	3.1	7.7	10.8	2.3	0.4	2.0	3.33	3.11	22.0
  08-09	HOU	77	77	33.6	0.548	1.000	0.866	2.6	7.2	9.9	1.8	0.4	2.0	3.04	3.34	19.7
  Career	–	481	471	32.7	0.525	0.200	0.832	2.5	6.7	9.3	1.6	0.4	1.9	2.71	3.29	19.1
  All-Star	–	6	6	13.3	0.500	0.000	0.667	1.0	3.0	4.0	1.3	0.2	0.3	0.50	1.33	7.0

  
  
  1. Yao Ming did not play in the last seaon (when he was 29) because of an injury.
  
  2. He never played all 82 games (except the second season, same as Smits). He only played 73% of the total game available (mainly because of the missed season). And you know what? According to Wikipedia, Yao’s life in name is characterised as “Initial years” and “Injury years”. So he is really plagued by injuries over the recent years.
  
  3. Actually, his scoring peak came much earlier than Smits – when he was 26.
  
  4. But Yao Ming is actually an All Star (7 times out of a total 7 season; selected but didn’t play in the last season). He also has Smits’ soft touch; can dribble. NBA second team (2 times); third team (3 times)
  
  5. Both Yao and Smits are foreign players.
  
  
  Conclusion : Yao Ming is only an upgraded version of Rik Smits. He will never win a champion, retire earlier than other NBA players, and he career peak should have passed.
  
  
  

  • 7:14 am
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