I just wish the CCP hadn't pushed him so hard and the Rockets had put some better players around him. He was fun to watch while it lasted.
Has nothing to do with weight, but the reason why he plays differently is that it's 20 years later and the style of play and players in the NBA is entirely different with its emphasis on pace,spacing.and shooting not to mention an entirely different skill set that Yao had vs. Jokic. Yao was slower and and not a great ball handler (good for 7-6, but not good in the way that you want him facing up 35 feet out) but very difficult to defend with his back to the basket. As for Yao shooting 3s? He's 2 for 10 lifetime? I don't doubt he'd try more in this era but i don't think FT% is really the same predictor in the NBA as people use when trying to project college 3 point performance to the pros. Vasilis Spanoulis was an 81% FT shooter for example.
Huh? The whole premise of the posts you replied to is if Yao Ming played in the current era with its emphasis of pace and 3 pt shooting so I dont get the first point of your post. Vassilis Spanoulis never played in NCAA and only 8 mpg in the NBA for 1 yr so again I dunno how your post aligns with your example. More importantly VSpan is 6'4 not 7'6. Being 7'6 means he doesnt need to break opponent ankles to get open cuz he is tall AF and can immediately take open shots once he gets the ball. Yao being 2/10 lifetime is again due to his coaches planting him in the paint all the time. Those 3s he took are desperation shots with shot clock about to expire or game about to end etc so obv they wont be good shots.
YOF we’re almost as delusional as a lin fans. Difference was Yao was actually an incredibly gifted basketball player unlike jerry scrub.
Yao in his prime was a monster. He was actually really mobile for a 7’6 300 plus pound man. The Shanghai shake was unstoppable. Great free throw shooter and an elite rim protector
Actually there's a through-line dating back to the early 2000's (see above) that holds that Yao's natural position was on the perimeter, but for the intervention of the evil Rockets and JVG who forced him to gain weight and ruined his true greatness, or that he's similar to Chet Holmgren despite not really having a remotely similar body type. These things weren't true then and aren't true in hindsight, Yao was a classic big man before he joined the Rockets, and became an even bigger man after he left. If you're asking how Yao would play now if you magically transported him to the present day, honestly look at howe even an all-time, elite defender like Rudy Gobert can be neturalized by 5-out, small ball lineups - I don't see him being any more effective in this era and probably, given that perimieter scoring efficiency is much higher now, his low post presenece is less valuable than it would have been regarding the trade offs (also the higher pace would have been a huge challenge for him given his durability). On the FT thing - like i said, some peopel think it's a useful predictor of college players who are shooting 20 foot 3's and projecting them out to 24 feet - I've yet to see anybody link it with being a good predictor of NBA three point shooting efficiency - it might be slightly correlated with it, I don't know, but, it's really quite a leap to take that as your sole piece of evidence and project 36-40% that he'd need today
You should’ve seen the dialogue I got into with this guy from The Dream Take. He was trying to tell me that Yao was a bum. I think he was going all Skip Bayless to drum up some interest in his next podcast. I was like this is insane. No way you actually believe this.
Yao was never unstoppable. He had 2 huge weaknesses that prevented him from being an all time great. Anyone who fronted him could just shut him down. And his pick and roll defense was atrocious. Eduardo Najera shut Yao Ming down. Once he got the ball he was basically unstoppable but getting him the ball was a real struggle.
If you time travel 310 lb., low post Yao into the modern day NBA he's obviously gonna be less effective than he was in the 2000's. Pace would be too much for him. But if he were a prospect developed for the modern day game, I think he's still an all star caliber player. Lighter, more mobile, and given more freedom on offense. Defensively he's probably average-ish. He was never a great lateral mover, and his wingspan was mediocre. You can point to Gobert as a big that gets played off the floor, but even the most mobile defensive big can't stay in front of a guard every possession. If your big is constantly getting switched, that's a scheme issue. Another reason why Gobert gets played off the floor is because he's unable to punish defenses or offer any spacing. Brook Lopez still gets heavy playoff minutes because he can knock down threes and isn't a disaster in the post. Also because he plays next to defensive skeleton key Giannis, but maybe someone like Jabari Smith offers the same versatility. I think modern Yao eats on offense and justifies staying on the floor. Yao exhibited elite shooting touch, and we've all heard about his free throw shooting leading to 3 point shooting. There have been multiple attempts at modeling free throw shooting in relation to NBA 3P%, but it generally circles back to just being part of a larger, unknown equation. But we know Yao had great dedication and work ethic, and his shooting form was clean, so I'm optimistic he'd be able to extend his range. I think being more mobile, having more range, and operating on the perimeter/high post also makes him less susceptible to fronting.
Far better athlete is a reach? He is clearly a far better athlete than Yao, to even dispute that shows you are not being credible. Yao had great footwork in the post as well, so again wrong. Yao did nothing athletically like Embid.
Getting fronted was mostly under JVG's predictable simplistic low post offense. Under Rudy and later Adelman, Yao got the ball in multiple ways and spots. Yao in PnR really was unstoppable.
yao was a hall of fame low post scorer - true back to the basket big man as many have said... the human body, at his size, playing at that elite level... the NBA mileage AND playing for China year round was just too much - he didn't last. such a shame because he is a good dude - and a great player to root for
Diasgree. He dominated for 1 half against Portland in round 1 with Adelman as the coach. They shut him down in second half and every game after with the fronting defense. He only averaged 15.8 points thst series after going 9/9 in first half of game 1.
But we won the series. The other teammates were able to score better. Fronting alone wouldn't work. They had to keep a guy lurking behind. Without that, the lob pass would defeat the fronting. That's essentially semi-double teaming without the ball. When we could swing the ball quickly to the weak side, we were able to punish the lurking defensive big scheme. Having a shooting PF (Scola) also helped. Under JVG, we could not win without TMac on the floor. The offense pretty much was give the ball to TMac and let him create everything. Adalman was able to utilize Yao's gravity down low to create open looks for the whole team.
Rockets record book entering 2021-22. Hakeem and Harden has the two most, Yao is up there. Including some lesser known Rockets records. Rockets in an All-star game 1 Hakeem (12 times, 8 as a starter) 2 Yao (8, 8 as a starter) 3 Harden (7 times, 5 as a starter) All-rookie team (2003) All NBA 2004 - 3rd team 2006 - 3rd team 2007 - 2nd team 2008 - 3rd team 2009 - 2nd team # Hakeem and Harden tie with 6x 1st team All NBA. Hakeem has more overall with if adding 2nd and 3rd team. Rockets all decade team - for the 2000s 1970s Mike Newlin, Calvin Murphy, Evin Hayes, Rudy T., Moses Malone, 1980s John Lucas Jr. Rodney McCray, Ralph Sampson, Robert Reid, Hakeem 1990s Kenny Smith, Clyde Drexler, Robert Horry, Mario Ellie, Hakeem 2000s: Francis, McGrady, Battier, Scola, Yao Player of the week (6x) 2004.03.07 2006.02.26 2006.04.02 2006.11.12 2007.04.15 2007.11.11 # Harden got the most for Rockets, Hakeem #2, TMac #3 (1 more than Yao) Still Yao got some for the Rockets. Player of the month (2x) 2006.11 2008.01 Rookie of the month (2x) 2002.12 2003.02 # Ralph Sampson has the most 6x Rockets All-time Leaders. #6th most years with Rockets. (tie with Bullard and Harden for 9 years / 8 seasons). Harden can be counted higher (9 seasons, if counting the first 8 games of 20-21 season). #7th most points (9,247) - (avg 19.0 per game) #10th highest field goal % (.524) # Capela is highest at .634 #8th field goals made (3,380) #6th rebounds (4,494) #2nd blocks (920) #3rd block shot average (1.89 = 920 blocks in 486 games) #1 is Hakeem at 3.18, #2 Ralph at 1.92 #5th free throws made (2,485) Member of Rocket 40 pt club. 2004.02.22 - 41 pts 2004.12.20 - 40 pts Other First NBA player drafted #1 not played collegiately in the U.S. Played in 3 olympics (2000, 2004, 2008) Hall of Fame (2016) Rockets retired jersey #11
Yes, we won but the conversation was about Yao being unstoppable. 15.8 points in a series is not unstoppable. Fronting and double Shaq didn't ever work.
If the defense is fronting you, you have already done your job. You ARE dominating. After that, it is just getting the proper personnel to demolish that sort of defense, which we didn't have until we snagged Adelman/Battier/Artest/Scola, etc. Remember, JVG was trying to play Cato/Hayes/Bullshit next to Yao, and those defenders would cheat all game. RudyT had the right idea with EGriffin and optimal spacing. At that time JVG was an offensive moron, who needed his eyes opened whenever we got rod rammed by Steve Nash. We desperately needed a Robert Horry/Rasheed Wallace/Mentally healthy EGriffin33 next to Yao. Hakeem demanded similar attention his entire career, but it took us YEARS to get the right pieces around him to murder those double teams, zones, and fronts.
