He's a very good team defender. He's a space eater, who works hard do to everything right. His problem is that he is a bad one on one defender due to a lack of quickness. Mourning was great at both. I also think we have to consider that Battier is on the downside. AB is a worse defender than Alston. And because we no longer had Yao, the team ran a lot more.
Zo and it isn't even close. Neither guy can be the #1 option on a Championship team but Zo was one of the best defenders in league history at the Center position. Also, Zo's offense was nearly as potent as Yao's (not sure why some of you think different).
Hmm, I wonder why leebigez conveniently omit the 2008-2009 season when Yao played the whole regular season and they went 53-29=64.6%. BTW, if it was that Denton-something guy who did this kind of "analysis," he'd be flamed to no end. Deke played a total of 619 minutes in 2007-2008. That's an average of 7.6 minutes over 82 games; and 96 minutes in 2008-2009, which is an average of about 1.2 minutes over 82 games. And in those two seasons, we were a top 5 defensive team. I love Deke. But please don't use him to diminish Yao's defensive impact.
Why dont u try this and u can use basketball-reference.com for your stats. Go and chart the games yao missed and see the minutes deke played. Check the opps% and ppg and tell me the difference. Its probably true the minutes avg out to 7.6 per game, but thats because rick decided it was best to replace yao when yao needed a break with landry. So when yao would need a breather, the layup drill will start. When he was forced to play deke when yao was out, the defense didnt slack off at all.
Am I the only one who thinks that people are forgetting the height difference between the two is a big factor? A better comparison would be Yao vs all the other big men out there at least 7'4.
Not to sound harsh, but that's just a lot of bulls**t. WTF is this whole "team defender" vs "man defender" thing anyway? It's the same type of stupid logic that has fans thinking Hayes can fill Yao's shoes on defense because he's a better "man defender", "post defender", and "PnR defender". In the end, Yao was the last line of defense some of the best defensive teams in Rockets history. We change coaches, we change guards, we changed forwards. The only player during all this stretch of top 5/top 10 defenses... Yao.
Also, when a player goes out, I believe the team has an advantage of surprise element when the league hasn't adjusted to or scouted enough of such 'new team' yet. IMO this surprise advantage will not last, then you can see the real strength of the new team vs. well-adjusted opponents. The rockets were winning in the beginning of this season too, seems to support this point.
If officiating was relatively fair and even, Yao hands down. The only way that teams could stop Yao was to have their bigs and double teaming guards assault Yao knowing that they will rarely be called for their borderline criminal acts.
I love how YOHs always examine Yao's deficiencies under magnifying glass. But since the topic is Yao vs Zo in turnovers, maybe we should call Zo a black Magic Johnson playing point center? TOs/36min before age 30 for Mourning and Yao: Code: year Zo Yao 1 3.2 2.6 2 3.6 2.7 3 3.0 2.9 4 3.5 2.7 5 3.5 3.7 6 3.3 3.2 7 2.9 3.3 8 2.8 9 3.3 Career-wise TOs: Code: Metric Zo Yao game 2.6 2.7 36min 3.1 3.0 TOV% 15.2 14.5 in P/O 16.6 15.0
I've never said zo was a good passer nor did i say yao wasnt a good defender. In fact, I've said many times yao is a really good post defender who struggles in space as expected. I'm looking at totality of both players both plus and minuses. Zo is probably the 4th best defender at the center spot in the history of the nba. Zo was also a very good offensive player.
Overall, it's pretty close. Zo was most likely 3rd best defensive center of the last 20 years (after Olajuwon and Mutombo), as I think he was pretty good on offense as well. Early in his career was far better than Yao's early career. He's 15x more athletic than Yao is, better timing and coordination. Though, I do think this matchup is almost push or favors Yao Ming. Even you go by health that does not favor Mourning much either, he had his bouts with injuries and physical conditions. In fact, I do not believe he ever played a full 82 game season. Even in their first season, I would not be surprised to see, that he missed more games than Yao. Yao Ming size makes up for lot of his shortcomings and gives him edge most teams cannot match. Again, teams did not prepare for Mourning in the same way they do for Yao Ming. Right now, I cannot think of one team that consistently goes one-on-one with him and he doesn't average at least 20+ ppg or 9+ rebs. He pretty much plays his best games against top level competition or players closer to his size (Shaq, Dwight, the Lakers, the Trailblazers, and others). It's funny that both players have similar skill set on offense, but Yao's causes much more trouble for alot of teams than what Mourning did (even his prime). Hell, I guess if I was standing 7,5-7,6 and being guarded by two guys, who could be anywhere from 6,8 to 7,0 feet tall, while I have a little quickness and good basketball moves. That's a good 5 to 8 inches over the opposition. That's alot, and I also weigh 300 pounds and fairly powerful lower body. That height and size edge counts for so much, I've seen plays where he can flip shots up without barely coming off the floor, while being double teamed. Also, Yao's not completely robotic (as some poster claim) or stiff, while he actually has pretty body control for someone his size or even comparison to Shawn Bradley, Manute Bol, and players who were bust walking into the draft but were drafted due to size, anyway. I think over time Yao might end up being a better player depending on how he does after this injury he is recovering. If he comes back and averages near 20-10 again or wins a title with this team or another franchise as a starter or all-star player. He's probably going to jump ahead of Mourning with better career numbers and really a more impressive and extended out peak. Which is very likely, because remember he is still 7,6 and weighs 300 pounds with post moves (and skill) that are not reliant upon athleticism. Mourning's body and career was probably more comparable to David Robinson, though not as tall, skilled, or quite as good. But, I know with David Robinson, once he had his first serious injury (the back injury). He lost that a certain quick step and deceptive speed and agility in his game. Still a good player, but not like he was. But, Mourning still had some of the explosiveness in his step even in his twilight years. I think he and Mutombo, along with Olajuwon and Shaq prove that a good center can still help in his twilight years.
Stats wise they are almost the same. Yao is slightly better offensive player and Zo is slightly better defensive player. You can compare them at basketball Reference. I think 1 post summed it up (this is accounting for the fact if none of them had injuries). It depends on the makeup of the team. However if nobody had an idea what they would have produced, most GM's may have simply selected Yao for his Size in the draft. But comparing 2 different players in different ERA, its probably not going to work well, as rules in the past vs today are much different for Big Men. I know lets compare Yao to DH.........its kind of Sad in this ERA you can only compare 2 Centers.........................Maybe Lopez and Bogut can step up and challenge DH.....
That didn't matter to Zo... He was the one player that didn't back down to Shaq and that's when Shaq was in his prime and not on the down side...
