It's time for another round of "One on One", where we take too similar fantasy basketball players and compare and contrast the two based on the numbers.  Normally we don't do two "One on One's" back-to-back, but this one was requested by a reader. All statistics are based on the 2006-2007 season.
 

Today's matchup:  Yao Ming vs Dwight Howard
 

First off, and you'll probably hear me preaching about this a lot, when you're talking about anything fantasy, it's important to communicate how the scoring structure of your league works. For our purposes, I'm going to assume we're talking about rotisserie using Yahoo Fantasy Sport's default scoring system (why? because I think it's the best...that's why). The stat cats being points, rebounds, assists, 3's made, blocks, steals, fg%, ft% and to's.
 

In roto, you're looking to compare players stat-by-stat, since roto is really designed to level the playing field of statistics (for instance, by roto standards if a player gets about 2 steals per game, it's the equivalent in steals of a player scoring about 20-25 points per game).
 

So, let's compare stats.

Points per game:

Yao Ming 22.4
Dwight Howard 23.5

Rebounds per game:

Yao Ming 10.3

Dwight Howard 14.5
   

Assists per game:

Yao Ming 2.5

Dwight Howard 1.5
   

Blocks:

Yao Ming 2.1
Dwight Howard 2.7

Steals:

Yao Ming 0.6
Dwight Howard 0.8

3s made:

Yao Ming 0
Dwight Howard 0

FG% (and FG's attempted per game):

Yao Ming 51.6%/16.0 attempts
Dwight Howard 61.2%/13.4 attempts
 

FT% (and FT's attempted per game):

Yao Ming 85.6%/6.9 attempts

Dwight Howard 61.7%%/11.5 attempts
  

Turnovers:

Yao Ming 3.6
Dwight Howard 3.2
   

Games played in '07-'08:

Yao Ming 16
Dwight Howard 17
 

The Verdict:

Tie.  

I know, I know...calling this match up a tie is sort of a cop-out, but honestly, both are having great seasons and both have tremendous talent to improve upon.

Howard has a big advantage in boards, despite Yao's more than respectable double figure rebound average.  Howard also has a decent cushion in blocks this year, too, and has cut his turnovers down significantly.  The addition of Rashard Lewis and coach Stan Van Gundy may partially have something to do with that.  Lewis has taken much of the offensive pressure off of Howard with his outside shooting prowess, and Van Gundy doesn't force Howard to shoulder too much of the offense like Brian Hill did.  As a result, Howard is actually freer to score as a result of more easy baskets.  That gives him more energy to rebound, as well.

Yao Ming's biggest advantage over Howard is at the foul line.  Howard's improving, but his 61% shooting from the line can be a costly price at 11.5 attempts per game. He's like the new Shaquille O'Neal in that regard.