I never said Yao only gets more tired when he takes more shots by virtue of taking more shots. It's not the shot attempts that tire him. Look, Yao could be in a gym all by himself and shoot 100 times without getting tired. The issue is what Yao has to do before hand to get those shot attempts. If that's what we're considering, your evidence isn't much of a counter argument at all. It would only serve as good counter argument if we faced the same opponent every game, they always defend Yao the same way, and therefore Yao expends the same energy per shot attempt in every game. But we know that isn't the case. Sometimes Yao faces small teams or teams decide to play him single coverage most of the game. And these things have a direct impact on how easy it is for Yao to get off a shot. If Yao shoots 20 times in a game, is it because he worked that much harder to get off those shots? Or is it because the other team made it easier for him to get off those shots? Without knowing that, we can't say that the shots attempts reflects how much energy he expended. Really, you have no idea?
By "fairly mainstream" I meant "not nonsensical" or "not fringe", rather than "majority". Even throwing out those voters that put him 1st or 2nd (which doesn't make much sense to me, but whatever), there were still 9 out of 16 experts that had him ahead of Hakeem. So your position that Hakeem is far better than Shaq "and its not close" is a little out there.
badgerfan isn't a kid, and he backs up his opinions with good knowledge about the game and some decent arguments, not blind player worship.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. There's a bunch of us here on this board who can disagree but do so politely and by relying on our knowledge of the game. Some of the new posters would do well by learning from our example.
I've got a guess as to why Yao takes more shots but it doesn't have to be just one factor--it could be many and my guess is that it is. Sometimes the coach yells at the team on the sidelines and tells them to feed Yao. Sometimes the flow of the offense is such that he's getting more shots--i.e. if he's getting double or triple teamed all night and the other Rockets are knocking down shots it's a good idea to keep exploiting that. Sometimes Yao's determined not to be stopped and he's wrestling his way into position. Sometimes the other Rockets forget about Yao. Etc. Of course in any experiment the more variables you have the tougher it is to figure out which ones are truly significant.
Everything you mentioned there could definitely be a factor. But I also think how the other team defends us is a significant factor -- much more so than it would be for a player like Shaq or Hakeem. I just believe it's very difficult to make Yao into a dominant presence on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, I don't think he's built for it. I'm not suggesting that's a testable hypothesis or anything -- just my gut feeling based on observation. We should take full advantage of him when the matchups work in that favor. But I think forcing the ball into him play after play can be a counter-productive strategy in a lot of games as well.
The reason I feel it's counter productive is that the Rockets are supposed to be running a motion offense. That said because Yao draws the double team you still want to feed him. Get the double team, find the open guy and you win.
