I mean Boozer fronted him to death. Draymond would kill him and he wouldn't get foul calls. I'd love to see Kobe/Carter/T-Mac talent in current p***y perimeter defense era. Durant is kind of similiar but not explosive/flashy enough.
Wanted to highlight your comment about Yao's weight. Whether it would have made a difference regarding injuries is something we'll never know, but he did put on a heck of a lot of weight. If he came up today through the draft to the Rockets, I seriously doubt that we would handle him the way he was handled back then. We wouldn't encourage weight gain. Quite the opposite. We would work on making him quicker. Lean and mean, in my opinion. We'd place greater emphasis on his shots away from the basket, and a bit less on his post game. Yao could shoot over anyone. On defense, he wouldn't run out at shooters on the perimeter, like Capela is getting so good at doing. We would have to adjust to that, but he would be the Great Wall around the basket, blocking shots and rebounding. His presence in the post would impact opponent's shooting inside, just like he did back then, except that if he was leaner and lighter, Yao would be a bit quicker and might have gotten more blocked shots and gotten to more boards. That's my thought, at any rate. Fun summer speculation? Like Ralph Sampson, Yao will always be a Rockets "what if," and like Ralph, a "what if" that still plagues many of us.
Yao as an outside threat sounds nice in theory. When Adelman took over, that was the idea we all had. He could operate at the top of the key and shoot jumpers with his feathery touch or hit open cutters with his vaunted passing. It never worked. Yao is not an effective catch-and-shoot jumper shooter because (a) his release was too slow and (b) if the defender crowded him, he didn’t have the ability to make a play off the dribble. And he was never comfortable as a passer facing the basket either.
You’re being too critical. The game was played way differently then and he was never asked to spot up even when Adelman was around. He was most effective in the post and they kept him there. Especially because the high post was TMac’s favorite spot. If you’re looking for a modern comparison look at Jokic. Jokic doesn’t put it on the floor and his release isn’t much quicker. They’re about the same in terms of mobility. He’s a better passer and has better vision than Yao did. But the way Jokic has thrived on the offensive end, There’s no reason to doubt Yao couldnt do the same in a similar system.
Saying that he wouldn't be a great outside shooter is also a baseless claim. That fact is, he was not used enough and developed enough in that role to be judged on how effective he could be. Dirk Nowitzki shot 14-68 (.206) from 3 in his rookie year.
It’s a baseless claim if you think an entire career worth of evidence is comparable to a single season from a 20 year old rookie. Yao practiced outside jumpers (long twos) a ton. I disagree with your suggestion that he didn’t spend enough time developing that shot. It just wasn’t very effective in-game. There was ample evidence for this.
So a 10 shots sample size is more reliable than a 68 shots sample size? How do you know that? Free throw shooting is recognized as a good indicator of a player's shooting ability. Yao was a very good FT shooter. How do you know he couldn't shoot long shots if he was asked to develop that part of the game?
The pace of the NBA is slower than 10 years ago.....so you work it out Denver led the league in pace at 117 in 2008 New Orleans led the league at 102 this season
10 shots total attempted over a 486 game sample stretched over several seasons with multiple coaches and different teammates around him. Yes, the lack of attempts is a significant indicator. More significant is his shooting on long twos. The results were mediocre — sub 40% over his career with most of those being wide open and uncontested. There’s really no good evidence that he could have been an effective 3-point threat in this era. Yao’s work ethic was famous. He practiced shooting a ton. Not threes, but certainly long twos. I saw plenty of videos of this during his career. There was no lack of “development” in that regard. When Adelman came on board, playing Yao in the high post was the plan. We tried it for a while, but it didn’t work. He just wasn’t good enough at it in live games.
He would still have a role, but probably more of a 25-30 mpg role than a 35 mpg role. He probably wouldn't be a franchise player, and his team would be ready to play him much reduced minutes, or maybe even no minutes, in the wrong playoff matchup. He likely would also spend less time fighting in the post since post-ups are out of fashion-- more of a pick and roll + pick an pop screener. He didn't have the greatest hands for catching in traffic, but he did have "gravity" for sucking in the defense and can spread the floor with jump shot. Ironically, this might have prevented some of the injuries that shortened his career.
Double check your facts. According to basketball-reference, average pace is up 5 possessions per 48 minutes. 4 teams have a higher pace factor this year than that Denver team.
Yao wouldn't be useless, but he'd be less effective. Teams have become relentless about exploiting mismatches. Think about those Utah series where we had problems with Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur. Then think about how the Rockets attacked Rudy Gobert. Then think about how crazy the Rockets-Warriors series was in terms of exploiting mismatches. You have to beat the Warriors using the exact formula that we had - constant switching, no liabilities. Yao would be very intriguing on the offensive side of the ball, and would be an asset against the majority of the teams in the league, but a tough call overall. WIth the way the officiating and game-planning is today, this is a guard's game. It's why softies like CJ McCollum and Klay Thompson get so much love - in the 90's, those guys would be in the fetal position, and tough big-men like Otis Thorpe were game changers. The game shifts.
Everyone has their things to contribute. If we want to play fast no, but if we wanted to slow down the game and get consistent points then yes. He would have been great vs warriors when we couldn't buy a basket.
Yao's offense alone would be a huge plus factor even in compared to todays big man. It would be interesting to see. Ewing is about the same speed to Capela but like Yao, would destroy inside any of these big men today. He wouldn't even need to to be 1st or 2nd option.
I still don't think it's a good argument. Calvin Murphy played in an era of no 3pt shot until he was 31 years old. In the 4 seasons he played in the 3pt era, he took 72 shots and made 10 (.136). He was quoted to say that he did not like the 3pt shot and was never seriously try to develop it. I don't think you could argue that had Murphy played in today's NBA, he wouldn't be able to be a good 3pt threat based on his poor stats in that area. We just don't know. You can't use the lack of attempts to argue that a guy could not have been successful if he had the opportunity or motivation to try. Fair enough. That's probably the best argument for your view. Yao missed half of the games in Adelman's first two seasons. And Adelman's system notoriously needed a long time to develop. I am not sure if that's a fair way to judge whether Yao could have been more successful being used in the high post. Again, I would argue that he simply did not have enough opportunities to develop that part of the game in his career.
Yao played in an era where the 3-point shot was more valued and, in particular, there was recognition for the value of a range-shooting big man. Not like today, of course, but certainly closer to today than the late 70s and early 80s. But, sure, maybe Yao would have been a good 3-point shooter in this era. I just think he would have shown more of it during his career than he did, if it was really something he had in him.
