Is Deke still a better defender than Yao this year?

Yao is definitely better than last year though he commits stupid fouls. I'd say they provide similar numbers on the defensive end, though each player's way of going about it is drastically different. I still think Deke is better than Yao defensively because of his long arms and vetern experience. Deke's positioning and timing is far better than Yao's which is amazing considering Deke weighs a lot less than Yao (harder to fight for position) and is far older (reaction time diminished).

 

Well if I am driving to the hole and have to go against Yao or Deke the choice is easy....Yao. Deke is still a better defender than Yao. You don't need stats or anything else to tell you that. Yao still tries to block way too many shots while the shooter still has the ball instead of jumping straight up in the air to get a piece of it. Even at this age Deke is still one hell of a defender. But those jump hooks he took last night were absolutely horrible. He does NOT need to be shooting the ball..........ever.

 

Deke is still better but physically Yao's more effective this year.

 

Maybe, but that's because Yao is harder to push around and is 7'5''. Yao's defensive positioning, instincts, and reaction time is all subpar compared to Deke. That being said Deke is probably better than 80% of the centers out there defensively, and Yao has improved a great deal.

 

Deke was better than Ben Wallace as a defensive player at the same age. He was four times NBA Defensive Player of the Year. The most recent one was only 2 years away from the time he joined the Rockets.

He can still be excellent defensively to play less than 10 mins per game. Geeze, I will even go out on a limb to say that if they only play 10 mins per game, Deke is still as good a defensive player as Ben Wallace now.

So it is really not a knock on Yao to say what we saw in the 10 mins defensive performance of Deke is better than the overall 35 mins defensive performance of Yao in a game even though their game statistics on 82games.com say otherwise.

But you are a fool if you think that we can trade Yao away and count on Deke to play 30 mins a game.

 

How can they play any defense at all when they're off court?

 

Right, especially the Centers.

 

Yes, Deke is a way better defender, he jumps up and challenges shots, whereas Yao stands still and gets fouls called on him.

It is his FOURTH year, he should know better by now.

DD

 

People say Deke's better, but I'll go with the stats on this one. I'm not generally one to trust the stats, but choujie seems to have covered all the bases. Yao takes too many fouls, but that doesn't mean his defense is worse for it. Just that he spends less time on the court.

In any case, Deke is still a good defender and a valuable bench player to have. Even if Yao is becoming more effective than him on D, I'm still very happy to have him. Most teams don't have any centers worth a lick. We can have good defense from the center position 48 minutes per game.

 

What games have you been watching.....

Guards are driving to the hole and scoring like a fat kid running to a candy store.

I saw Ivey drive on Yao like he was a waiter at Chili's showing him to the basket.

Deke at at age 65 and wearing depends is still a better defender than Yao.

T_Man

 

I'll go with Yao on the team defense. The Defense has been solid when he's in there, and when he comes out, they suck. He makes a huge impact. Deke has better timing, and in the better individual defender, but it feels like Yao is having a bigger impact. One major difference is Yao letting the guards like Head steal his rebound. Deke clobbers 'em if they try to take it.

 

I was starting to wonder if anyone else was noticing this too. Deke definitely looks a lot slower to me this year as well. Last year, it seemed that we would stop opponent scoring runs by bringing him in. This year, we seem to get leads with Yao and then quickly lose them when Deke comes in. The rebounding stats do seem to indicate what a lot of posters have said about Yao blocking out people and letting his team mates get the rebounds.

 

I think Yao is less effective defensively this year, but it's necessary to keep him out of foul trouble. He used to "show" a little more aggressively when defending the pick and roll last year. But, he picked up a lot of cheap fouls.

This year, he hangs back a couple of feet, so there is no physical contact, but the defensive pressure isn't as great. It seems to me that last year when he popped out, he would force the guard back the other direction, whereas this year the guard just continues around him.

And I think it helped only slightly with the foul situation.

 

Keep in mind that when Deke is on the court, it is less likely that all the other team's starters are also on the court.

 

I think it's hard to just compare their defense, but a little more easier to compare their impact.

Deke has lost a step, and Yao moved a step forward. The result is last year's Deke played defense so good that its impact may equal or surpass Yao's impact. This year my impression is Deke's impact on the game is nearly always lower than Yao's. The decline is not only in Deke's defense, but always his offense. His hook shots seem to be worse than last year. Still he's a pretty good backup.

 

Deke has a sharper elbow than Yao, so he is a better defender.