How good was Yao when he actually played on the court?

Most post players in NBA never sees a fronting because they can be stopped from behind by the right defender.There is no need to take the risk fronting him. You only do that to certain players because they are too dominant that you can't defend them straight up.

Somehow it becomes a shortcoming for Yao in some fans' eyes just because his stats is down when he wa fronted, never mind how it is helping his teammates to get more because of that.

 

no player could stop Yao one on one

 

It makes limited players less effective. Go watch the 94 finals with dream. They fronted and still couldn't stop him. A team could never front shaq. Frronting worked against yao because he had limited mobility and couldn't seal his man. When a player fronts you, you're taught to basically turn your back to his back, seal, on ball reversal, and its layup city. You don't fight the position, you release,seal,and release. Basketball 101.

Meh, I never said all the players of past are superior to todays players. I like all the eras I witnessed. When mentioned yao v daughtery, I'm simply stating yao, like brad are good centers, not great. The difference is brad played in the golden age of great centers and yao didn't and he still isn't the best of his era. Shaq was the best in yaos first half and howard was the best in his last half. No 1st team all nba on his resume'. Those have gone to shaq,amare,and howard. 1 2nd rd appearence. I don't equate that to being dominant. The team won as much in the regular season without you than with you. When robinson missed half the season, they had one of the worse records in the league. Again, good player, not great.

 

I know Yao retired and it's supposed to be all good thoughts and all, but I could have sworn that people around here were b****ing constantly about teammates' inability to get Yao the ball in simple post position all the time. It was a hot topic in the Portland series even. It had people calling for Rudy's head early on. Are we pretending now that every elite big man had that same problem?

I think I can predict the response to my question - "20/10, I guess you know more than NBA coaches?"

 

What? I think Dream did well under Fitch and Chaney also.
That 86 team was pretty good.

you mean he just reached his prime under Rudy and that they finally rebuilt the team after the 86 team was dismantled by bad luck and drugs.

 

Forgot who your talking to? According to some, dream didn't become great until the mvp season. Nevermind the 20ppg 14rebs and 4 blks season. Forget about being defensive mvp before then. Forget about his 2nd yr going to the finals.

 

there are obviously some people who took the cliff notes or youtube version of the dream, and there are some of us who watched in real time.

 

I never said I don't have time to waste writing worthless stuff on a fan board. I just said (in an entirely different thread) that I don't pretend it's of any importance at all...or that it's somehow "productive," as if management is checking in here for ideas on personnel moves.

I'm just tired of the personal insults. It's freaking basketball talk and we have people calling one another out here like our mothers have been insulted.

 

Or, like our intelligence have been insulted.

 

Not the case. Teams aren't using fronting because offensive bigman is athletic enough to turn and jump to finish the alleyoop play that is beating the fronting every single time. Yao wasn't that much athletic after he became tough center and not a jellybean as he was in his first couple of years

 

keep up the fine work.

 

I repeat - no way. he's just turning and he's trying to finish the alley oop play

 

That's how fronting should be beaten by a center

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Yao just wasn't that fast and that athletic to catch and finish it

 

Teams fronting Yao had nothing to do with his decline. Injuries were what kept Yao from becoming a sure-fire Hall of Famer.

 

Who said he was top 5 of all time? He was not as good as Olajuwon, Wilt, Malone, Miken, Pettit, Shaq, Kareem....

Could he have become that good? Maybe, probably not.

Just because he wasn't as good as Olajuwon doesn't mean that he wasn't a special player.

 

You are better than that...

 

This is really complicated question for me. first i really don't remember that stretch when yao was really dominant that people are talking about, not disputing it, just don't really remember how the rockets were. i've already forgotten, there was nothing memorable.

it seems like jvg actually may have dependend on yao too much, but when you're starting rafer, battier, and chuck at the same time, you're really a two man operation.

Yao was very effective with good players and good offensive coaching in 08-09, unfortunately that's the only time he really had a shot, and the team got the most out of him. but with adelman it was mainly the threat the facilitation and the defense. it was effective, but its not really superstar.

I do remember him having games when he couldn't be stopped, i also remember the games when the fronting defense really stymied the them.