https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmnba/adonal-foyle-describes-what-it-was-like-defending-shaquille-oneal-yao-ming On defending Yao: "Yao presented a much more different challenge because he was soo tall and he had a good jumpshot so you had to honor his jumpshot. He was also skilled enough to get into the paint, and once he got his move going you couldn't stop him. You had to front him and keep the ball away from him Once he got the ball he had so many skills. He was so skilled down in the block, he could do so many things. I remember just pushing Yao and his upper body would move, but his legs were like tree trucks just planted into the paint. It would be so very hard to move. most of these guys you had to learn to play them early. This provided a very unique challenge because you would just be exhausted by the first quarter"
Defending one on one in the post against a guy that actually has skill is the hardest individual skill in basketball to learn. I couldn't even imagine trying to stop a guy that's 7'6" and has a fade away as one of his go to moves.
One on one, yes. Fortunately for the NBA, they can defend differently. Fronting Yao worked VERY WELL often for opposing teams. Now, at lot of this came down to JVG anemic offenses. Having to front and effectively soft double someone without the ball should make overall offense even better.... but the Rockets usually just got bogged down, spending 15 seconds trying to figure out a way to force it in there... That all said, Foyle's comments are spot on.
Personally, I'd rather defend somebody I can bait into taking a turnaround or fadeway than somebody I know is straight up going to run me over. But I understand the point Foyle was making.
Fronting Yao kinda shut him down in both the Portland and Lakers series. The team was able to capitalize a bit but it threw everyone off in the beginning. Man I wish Tmac didn't get injured or he was traded for VC
Rick Adelman did a great job finding ways to get the ball to Yao. If a team began fronting Yao, the guards would move the ball across the perimeter allowing Yao to repost on the other side.
With Scola on the team, Fronting Yao became a problem for other teams. Yao led the rockets to beat the Portland easily, and the rockets could beat the Lakers if Yao did not break his foot again.
Don't forget about the two Jazz series. It was so painful to see Yao playing against Okur and Boozer.
