Is Yao already a better player than Duncan in the international competition?

Haven't seen yao play so i probably shouldn't say anything, but who else does he have asking for the ball. Duncan is on the team with a bunch of me-first players and when i have seen him (duncan) play he pretty much dominates. Also Duncan gets no calls

 

I wouldn't say that for now... the biggest reason for Yao and TD's performance difference (and TD is doing a good job IMO) so far, is that Yao has to shoulder all offensive load for CNT. replace them with each other, I do see a better stats for TD in CNT than Yao in team USA

 

TD in Yao's situation might have been more consistent and possibly more dominant because as much as I hate to say it, but China's outside shooting is better than the US's in this tournament. China's wasn't that great but it was decent but much better than US's by far. That has allowed Yao to have more operating room than Duncan. Duncan has been consistently doubled before the ball even gets to him. Yao has seem some of this but china has been able to hit enough outside shots to make defenses respect their shot and make the defense stretch a bit. Plus Yao has been getting a lot of points off of FT's which Duncan probably wouldn't hit as much. Tough call.

 

"TD was able to play one on one in most situations, while Yao was constantly going up 1 against 3.

I'd love to see how TD does when he is smothered by 3 defenders whenever he gets the ball inside the paint."

He does get smothered by 3 defenders whenever he gets the ball.

 

If Yao has Jordan's stanmina, then maybe.

 

Let me preface this by saying that Yao, even though I haven't seen many China games yet, is definitely having a better tournament than Duncan.

But this

is just plain wrong. Every single team that has played the US has played so far has played zone against them. Usually a 2-3. (though Spain played a 1-3-1, or so Doug Collins said)

Today Spain played man-to-man halfcourt defense against the US for one possession, the very first one, I suppose to catch the US off guard. I believe we scored on the first possession and they went right into the zone for everything after that.

 

US was like at 15% early in the tournament. They eventually just stopped shooting the 3 at all. Mid tourney they rarely shot the 3 and was very hesitant to shoot it so they stopped. US ended up improving to 29.7 while China ended up dropping to 29.1. China has way more attempts than US does and just the attempts and and a few good streaks of 3's will stretch the defense. Teams were leaving US players wide open on the 3 point line where as their whole teams were just sititng in the paint daring the US to shoot. Not until Angola and Spain did the US pick up their 3 pt percentage up past 25%.

 

I don't really agree or disagree on the topic, but I find it curious you say Yao is "more efficient" than Duncan in the Olympics vs the NBA. According to statistics, it is the other way around.

In the Olympics

Yao is shooting
55.5% FGs and 83.7% FTs for 1.62 points per shot
Duncan is shooting
63.5% FGs and 75% Fts for 1.71 points per shot

In the NBA Yao's FG% and points per shot were higher than Duncan's last year.

Further, Duncan as 12 assists and 14 TOs. Yao has 8 assists and 20 TOs. Duncan is getting smothered with packed in zones before he gets the ball, like Yao. The difference seems to be that when Yao gets the ball, he really needs to try to score more...thus, more FTs and TOs. When Duncan gets the ball and gets the double teams, Larry Brown wants him to pass it back out. Hence, more assists, less TOs and a lot less less FTs.

As an aside, in any league, I believe Yao has great shooting touch with range. But I also think Duncan has superior range.

imo, Duncan's only problem with international play is he's getting tic tac calls on defense, and has had to play many games with early foul trouble.

 

Yao is as good as Duncan at the moment. The only thing right now is he nis lacking is experiences in the NBA and need to work on his stamina.

 

It is very hard to compare.

I think TD is still a more consistent player than Yao is. Look at his stats, 15pts and 12rebs, no more and no less every game. And unlike Yao, TD doesn't need to carry the offense burden all by himself, there are so many scorers in Team USA that TD passes a lot when he gets doubled.

Yao's performance has always been upside down, just like the way he plays in NBA. Among all 6 games he played in this tournament, three were brilliant, two were sub par and the other one against Italy was terrible. Consistency is his biggest problem but he is definitely getting better. He has shown us determination, leadership and toughness in this tournament. I am very happy and hope he keeps it up in the coming NBA season.

 

By the way, Duncan is a horrible free thrower.

 

Yao looks to have great range for a center, out to about 16' seems his sweet spot, with 18' starting to be too far...at least he passes up those 18'ers above the FT line in the NBA a lot.

Duncan has shown many times in crucial points at the end of games that he can face up at 18' and just drain that shot if you leave him. He'll also take a dribble in to back you off then drain the 15-16'er. He's very good out to the elbow for sure. He's also extremely efficient in low post moves, so we don't see him go outside much except to take his man off the dribble. But at the ends of games, when everyone knows he's going to shoot, and they like to start him in the high post, that's when he range becomes apparent.

The go ahead, moving 19-20er with .04 left against the Laker's (the one before Fisher's miracle shot) was no fluke, imo. That was pure sweetness.

 

Yao needs a slasher to maximize his effectiveness. He has the height and vision to dump the ball to an open player when he got swarmed in the paint. He did that two times to his teammates under the basket for open dunks in the game against Serbia. It would make the other team think twice next time before they decide to triple-team him again.

 

Well since he can't make it onto the US team I know somebody.....