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This was posted on the Wizards board.

Ruzious wrote:The best way to answer your question is to reverse it. If Nene started his career with Phoenix and was now on New York, then yes - I think his stats would be very similar to what Amare has put up. Nene has not been given the opportunities that Amare has.

I think there is no comparison between the two offensively. Thoughts?

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1078033&start=690

Nene does not have the Amare's mobility and mid-range J as a scorer. Something that will not make Nene a 20ppg scorer in his NBA career.

nba_addict wrote:Nene does not have the Amare's mobility and mid-range J as a scorer. Something that will not make Nene a 20ppg scorer in his NBA career.

or aggressiveness

nba_addict wrote:Nene does not have the Amare's mobility and mid-range J as a scorer. Something that will not make Nene a 20ppg scorer in his NBA career.

Doesn't have the mobility? That's a joke. Mid-range game I would agree with you, but Nene could be a 20 PPG scorer, especially if he had Nash feeding him the ball and was the center point of an offense.

Amar'e is clearly the better offensive player.

If we're talking about pure offense than Amare's an all time great. It's a lot closer when you compare them overall.

Amare pretty easily. I like Nene though. I voted him as my western conference all-star C this year.


I'm starting to understand how efficiency stats work now. Nene is a mega-efficient player, but at a modest usage, at a modest volume, and in somewhat limited minutes. He's also only the second or third option on his team.

Stoudemire is simply an efficient player, but at a crazy usage, at elite volume, and in superstar minutes. He's the first option on his team. Obviously, Stoudemire is more valuable statistically.


This is why players like Horace Grant and Nene and Tyson Chandler have insanely good efficiency numbers such as offensive rating, offensive win shares, etc. They do their SIMPLE job at an elite level. The superstar offensive players like Jordan, Melo, and Nowitzki do a far more difficult job. Their main function is at a different level, as evidenced by their greater volume, usage, and overall responsibility (as seen from the eye test). Nene, Grant, and Chandler don't need to take the offensive risks that superstars take to carry their teams. The middle-job guys only need to play efficiently, stay within the scope of their skills, and play off the mega-stars.


Then we get into what enables Amar'e to be better offensively than Nene....Amar'e is a hybrid of Melo and Rip Hamilton plus height. Another way of looking at Amar'e's skills is that he is the power forward version of Michael Jordan AS A SCORER (not as good as Jordan, but in style, they actually have a lot in common). Nene is merely a very good offensive role player who can score reasonably in isolation every once in a while.

Amare is a much better offensive player

Nutty Nats Fan wrote:

nba_addict wrote:Nene does not have the Amare's mobility and mid-range J as a scorer. Something that will not make Nene a 20ppg scorer in his NBA career.

Doesn't have the mobility? That's a joke. Mid-range game I would agree with you, but Nene could be a 20 PPG scorer, especially if he had Nash feeding him the ball and was the center point of an offense.

Yes, Nene is mobile for a guy of his size whom I surmise is around 270-290 lbs. But he is nowhere near Amare's overall mobility. For instance you can see Amare occasionally drive to the basket from high post with the ball in his hands passing over at least two defenders (one from strong side and the other is a help defender). Nene cant do that and would need someone feed him the ball between the high post and basket for a finish.

In addition, Amare has one of the best hands, if not the best, among the power forwards/centers in todays NBA. Nene has to be set-up properly when attacking the basket. You can throw slighlty out of range pass to Amare and Amare will still figure out how to catch it and finish that ball even without dunking the ball.

You can build a franchise with Amare as the first option scorer. I doubt if you can do that with the same level of success making Nene as the first option scorer.

Like what I said, if Nene is a capable night-in night-out 20 ppg scorer, he should have done it regardless of who the PG is.

Does anyone think that George Karl is holding Nene back? That is what my buddy thinks.

tontoz wrote:Does anyone think that George Karl is holding Nene back? That is what my buddy thinks.

He is not holding Nene back. Nuggets game atm is best suited as it is. By feeding Nene constantly you would make Carmelo just a spotup shooter. Once they get rid of Carmelo see what they come up with.

Amare was better than Nene before Nash came to PHX

Amare is the better offensive player. Nene is the better defensive player.

Amare + Nene = Perhaps the best frontcourt tandem in the league

Amar'e is more well-rounded on offense than Nene. Amar'e has a nice midrange game and can still finish at the rim with the best of them.

WashWalshBallz wrote:Amare is the better offensive player. Nene is the better defensive player.

Amare + Nene = Perhaps the best frontcourt tandem in the league

Actually, best frontcourt tandem would be DIRK & Dwight.

Nene isn't even in the same universe offensively.


Besides Denver is a fast-paced team as well and always has been.

ChuckTheD wrote:If we're talking about pure offense than Amare's an all time great. It's a lot closer when you compare them overall.

Well lets not get carried away but yeah his jumper puts him head and shoulders above Nene.

not sure if cereal!!!

This is actually an interesting thought...

Nene has all kinds of power that Amare never had and has a semi-competent back-down game, which Amare really doesn't have developed so well. He's also freaky athletic and his mobility is absolutely not the problem. This is a guy who picks passing lanes like a guard, remember, and he's still a 14, 15 ppg scorer on very good efficiency. Like, led the league in TS% the last two seasons... and is currently posting 68.8% TS and ISN'T leading the league in TS, which is creepy.

He's overcome testicular cancer and an injury that saw him tear his ACL, sprain his MCL and tear the meniscus in his knee. Guy's a tough SOB. He's about as good a rebounder as Amare, which is to say that he underachieves given his size, power and athleticism, but w/e, there are worse things. It's a flaw, but not the biggest one given the other stuff he does.

15 ppg on 8.5 FGA/g is ridiculous, but it's not much new for Nene. He's developed some as a FT shooter and, contrary to popular belief, he actually has pretty good shooting ability from past the foul line (that's mostly new these last two seasons and this year). His big trouble is that he's inconsistent in the mid-range areas... where Amare is more consistent, but still not the most dominant shooting presence ever.

I'm inclined to agree that if Amare had ended up in Phoenix instead of Denver that his offensive game would look a LOT different, personally. He's a talented guy. I don't know that he'd match Amare, because Stoudemire's improvement as a shooter was absolutely remarkable and he's still a noticeably superior FT shooter, but it's not completely insane to think Nene could be a 20+ ppg scorer in that type of situation.