Should the Rockets have taken Amare Stoudemire with the first pick?

[Dash]

Serious question. As much as I hate to admit it, Yao has had 5 straight injury prone seasons, 4 of which were season ending, which does not help your team in the long run if are never out there on the court during the playoffs. Now Amare has had his fair share of injuries but no where near the extent that Yao has faced. Would things have been differently with Amare or more of the same, if not worse? How would a duo of Amare/Tracy McGrady have faired? We've never seen Amare play at a high level so could he have led us to the second round like Yao did in 2009?

[moeroadkill]

well i guess if you knew that yao would have all these problems the smart pick would be amare. or you take boozer then that way jazz dont have him and you get out of the first round

[YugoRocketsFan]

well i guess if you knew that yao would have all these problems the smart pick would be amare. or you take boozer then that way jazz dont have him and you get out of the first round

 

We made it past the first round in 08-09.

[moeroadkill]

i was just talking about with yao and tmac, they lost to jazz twice in the first round

[Newman]

Off the court, Yao had a far greater effect to Houston than Amare would ever have.

 

On the court, considering when Yao joined Mobley and Francis would have been the starters, Amare wouldn't have been in an environment where he would get touches and do what he do now. Amare and T-Mac wouldn't have been any better than Yao and T-Mac had they both been healthy. Yao make his teammates' job easier, I am not sure whether Amare does the same every single game.