No doubt on my mind Ming could only get better. No doubt on my mind that Ming's defense needs to be improved, but all these craps about him being a defensive liability is hogwash. If that is true, the whole team is a defensive liability with or without Ming. Our defense is average at best. How many time did we see the opposing players blew by our guards and forwards and letting Ming to cover their asses. I saw too many freaking guards running at or a 6' 9" forwards flying at Ming in the paint. A good defensive team dont expose their center to that kind of abuse. Not that many centers in the league could do better in situations like that. By no means I proclaim MING is the greatest player on earth. But if you were complaining on people over-hyping him, then please dont under-rating him also. Could someone provide some real stats here to prove that our defense really suffered when Ming was in the games. If not, please shut up on these defensive liability craps.
Opposing players seem to all agree that Ming is a formidable foe in the middle, very intimdating...even when he is not blocking shots, he changed alot of shots.
I agree he changed shots on drives. But opponents are not afraid to shoot their jump shots directly over him. In fact, everyone seems to want to do so. He really needs to get that arm fully extended. 6'3 guards swishing 18-20-footers right over him is kinda preposterous. Until he swats some of those down, it will keep happening.
Yao Ming should not be swatting 18-20 foot jump shots, he should be down low waiting to help out if needed. I think he has been coming out to the perimeter too much on defense. He needs to stay down low where he feels comfortable.
There's no reason to panic over Yao Ming's defense. It seems that lots of these foreign players have troubble adjusting to the NBA style. Look at Pao Gasol. That guy's defense is a big problem. And look at how easy it was to score on Dallas last year, even though their PF is a really quick and athletic 7 footer. His defense is going to take some time to come around, hopefully he's doing some strength training.
I totally agree. Since everyone seems to like the Shaq comparisons... how many 18-20 foot jump shots does he swat?
