This has been talked about and brought up to death, but I would like to get down to the bottom of this. Is Yao really a soft player like everyone said he is? I was one of the people who agreed that he was a soft player until my opinion had changed after replaying his game vs. the Suns and comparing them to Shaq of last night vs. the Suns. I'm not 100% sure if he is playing soft or not, but there are many factors that proves he's far from soft compared to the play of Shaq's game. Obviously I’ve used the same opponents(Suns) as an example for Yao and Shaq so I could give a fair assesment of each since both needed to guard Amare. Stats vs. Suns: Shaq- 38min, FG(16/20), FT(2/6), 11RB, 2AST, 4PF, 2BLK, 2TO 34pts. Amare- 40min, FG(13/19), FT(8/10), 7RB, 3TO, 0BLK, 34pts. Yao- 28min, FG(6/11), FT(2/2), 10RB, 0AST, 3PF, 1BLK, 0TO, 14pts. Amare- 37min, FG(5/15), FT(9/14), 9RB, 6TO, 1BLK, 19pts. After reviewing both games, both Shaq and Yao have a hard time getting in position for an entry pass. Both player were constantly being doubled and triple teamed, but the only diffrences here is that Yao would get fronted a lot more by Marion which is why Shaq nearly doubled the amount of touches compared to Yao. It also helped Shaq that his teammates(Jones,Wade) were better and more consistence at passing the ball to him. On few occasion, they were lobbying the ball to Shaq over double team or quickly pass the ball to him before a double or triple team is set up. Yao on the other hand, his teammates were trying to setup plays for him where the defense had already swarmed him. Its very frustrating to see this, b/c Yao was open long enough on several occasion for the pass right after running to the other end of the court but his teammates(Sura) always decide to take it to the hole himself or pass the ball around to get to T-Mac. Amare when goin up against Shaq did the right thing. Instead of taking it to Shaq, he calmly drained his shot from the perimeter. He was nearly perfect from the floor in the 1st half nailing his first 4 shots all from the perimeter. Shaq doesn’t even care to contest Amare’s shot. He was nearly 5 to 6 feet away from Amare and all he did was put both arm up. You would think if a guy is nailing his jumper, you would apply more pressure and get closer right? Well, Shaq just stood there and have Amare shoot jumpers all day. I think Shaq was trying to keep his distance so that he doesn’t get beat off the dribble knowing how quick Amare is. I didn’t believe that he had an outside game but trust me, he does now and it shows in that game. In Yao’s game against the Suns, Amare tried to attack him and take it to the hoop but that didn’t work. In his first possesion of the game, he quicky went baseline hoping to beat Yao to the rim, but Yao was right there in front of him keeping his ground and results in Amare’s first TO. Amare failed to do the same thing in the next few possesion, so he decided to shoot jumpers in which some were altered by Yao being up close and some just didn’t fall for him. Ok, so Amare had one dunk on Yao, but at least Yao tried to stay close to him to alter/block his shots. Shaq would’ve probally moved out of the way to prevent being posterized and we all know he have done that many times in his career. So why does soo many people kept saying that Yao doesn’t like contact and he shy away from it? Here’s more… Misconception #1. He doesn’t take it hard to the hoop. Just like Shaq last night, he doesn’t always need to dunk the ball every time. From what I’ve saw last night, Shaq did mostly lay ups with a few dunks here and there, but not every time he gets the ball down low like what most people think. Nothing wrong with not dunking the ball for either guy to conserve energy and reduce injury. Misconception #2. He takes too many fade-away/jumpers. Yao is not stupid and he knows people label him as soft, but that doesn’t mean he needs to stop doing fade-away jumpers. If you have a soft touch and is 7-5, you would have to use that to your advantages, besides just being in the low post all the time. This helps him to become a complete all around player which I think is the type of player he wants to become and not be one demensional. His shots are not falling for him right now but if he stops shooting them than he will never get them back. Obviously, you have to keep shooting to get his shot back. No one ever complain about his fade-away in his first year b/c he was able to knock them down and was one of his strenght. It has nothing to do with being soft. Believe it or not, Shaq tried several jumper of his own last night but missed them. Hey, if you can’t get position inside mind as well go out to the perimeter and that’s what I meant by Yao trying to become a complete player. This only help his game and could break down the oponents defense. Misconception #3. He slack off on defense. Do you guys ever see him run to the open man at the wings, jumping and putting his hand up b/c his guards/PFs left the man they sapposed to guard? I see this at least once a game. Shaq would’ve just stand there. Not only that, but the PF position are so poor on defense that Yao have to pick up the slack for them. That was the reason why he got burned a few time by Chris Milm in the Laker game. He was focusing too much on defense somewhere else other than his own. My main point here is that Yao isn’t much softer than Shaq given the fact that they played against the same team and guard the same person. From what I’ve seen from the vedios, Yao put more energy on defense and takes contact more then Shaq did, and he also hustles more on defense as well, all while playing 10 less minute. You could say Yao is all soft or whatever, but one is considered more of a man, if you could challenge every dunks, contest every shots and hustle on every opportunity on defense and not being afraid to get embarrassed or humiliated by your opponent. We all know very well, Yao usually get embarrassed sometimes, but he would always come back strong on the next play or the next game…I respect Yao for that more than I can say for the most dominate player ever in the NBA.
Not that it really matters, but Phoenix was playing the second of a back to back against us. Against Miami, they had a day off. Miami also had a day off before the Phoenix game. I think, although the Phoenix Suns are young, you have to factor the back to back in there slightly.
#1 Shaq is number 1 or 2 in the league in dunks so it doesnt matter if he had a few layups last night. Besides Shaq is on the downside of his career. In his prime, Shaq dunked whenever he was even close to the basket. Yao has been getting better recently in this aspect this season. We have see a lot less missed layups this season because he has finished better around the basket this season. #2 I dont think this is a Misconception at all. Infact i think many people here think he needs to take more jumpers. If he can start to hit his jump shot again then the pick and rolls between him and T-mac would be unstopable. One thing he needs to improve on is not rushing his shots. Sometimes it seems like he is afraid he will have a TO that he just catches and shoots the ball in the post without trying to back his opponent in. #3 I dont think people think that he slacks off on defense but rather that he is often too slow on defense. He often has trouble getting back and stoping opposing guards from getting lay-ups. He also has alot of trouble guarding players whne they take him away from the basket. He has gotten better since the beginning of the season in not picking up stupid fouls on defense. The reason I feel many people around here, including myself, feel that Yao is still kinda "soft" is because he doenst always insert his will on both ends of the court. He often seems too passive and that bothers me more than any thing else. He is not nearly as soft as he use to be but i would not even put him in the same sentence as Shaq when comparing their toughness.
Great post. I particularly agree with you about Yao's willingness to try and block every shot, even though he knows he will get posterized occcasionally.
Good post NOIZE! Yao haters & doubters will never be fair to Yao so we'll just have to live with the labelling and names calling!
Well, it's a better question to ask than "Is Yao really hard?" I don't think I'd want to be the one to come anywhere near the vicinity of even thinking about that one.
Soft or not is about Perception of whether you want to and can hurt somebody in your way. Once people have labeled you as soft, it is difficult to get rid of it unless you do the following: On defense, you have to knock somebody down at least once every 2 weeks, break someone's rib/wrist once every season. The intention is to hurt somebody challenging you, of course you should NEVER admit it. You will get flagrant fouls, but if you can consistently do that, people will not call you soft. Fans love blood, you got to show blood. On offense, you have to elbow somebody once in a while, knocking somebody out of the game if he plays too close to you. Again, fans love blood, they want to see it happen. Yao is afraid of hurting people, therefore he is soft. He has to hurt somebody during the play of the action in order not to be called soft. Malone did this all the time and nobody called him soft. Both Duncan and D. Robinson are great players and are both called soft because they never hurt anybody consistently. There is a reason NFL is ranked #1 in professional sports. Professional wrestling is upcoming. Fans love blood.
Well, people call Spurs as a soft team. Duncan is the centerpiece of that team. Barkely called Duncan soft. So which part of Shaq is not soft? Shaq knocks people down, elbows defenders and dunk. Duncan shoot jumpers, lots of them, he is soft.
If Shaq gets the ball with one foot in the lane, he's gonna dunk the ball. If Yao gets the ball in the same position, you might very well see him turnaround and shoot a jumper off the glass. Shaq takes it strong to the basket all game long, whether 2 guys are hanging on him or 3. Yao goes up soft, and sometimes simply disappears on the offensive end. You'll NEVER see Shaq disappear, unless he's sitting on the bench getting a breather.
Yes, he is really really really really really soft. Case close and there is no need for more response to this thread.
Duncan is a soft player, but he is a two-time MVP. Being soft is not a real problem for Yao, he needs to improve his all-round game and reduce TOs. I always have faith in Yao. Great post, noize!
Nice analysis Noize...we may or may not agree with each of your conclusions, but it's refreshing to see someone state their case and back it up...not always the case on this bbs.
Yao is kind of soft or "too nice". Jon Barry was on some local (I live in Los Angeles) radio show recently. He said that Yao does not have a mean streak. Yao knows that he should be holding the ball above his head to lessen the strips but is loathe to do so since he elbowed Cory Maguette in the mug once doing that. Yao was also in CD's office for an hour defending Tyron Lue after the trade. Yao was basically saying that it was his fault that Tyron was not making entry passes to him. In a team meating after the Suns loss-JVG told Yao that when he is being guarded by one-on-one by someone like Marion and not getting the ball, that he should call timeout and yell at his teammates. If true, I think that Barry's comments speak volumes about Yao's character as a person (especially the Tyron Lue part). But it is still frustrating nonetheless that he can't be more of a selfish brute on the court. (I hate it when he "defers" rebounds to teammates. I know it doesn't hurt the team but a little ego about his statistics may make him more agreesive overall).
No, I saw him get hit by guard that try to dunk over him so many time and he still don't shake. So if he soft he would let them in but he challenge every attempt. Yet, something he lose but he is not soft..
