Provide at least one fact that tells me that Yao is in the same league as the KGs and Cambys of defenders. Yao might "shut down" guys like TD for a quarter. DPOY candidates like KG and Camby shut down players for entire games, all season long. Yao hasn't even once been considered for Second Defensive team. Not a bad defender, but you are crazy to think he's in the same league as KG and Camby.
Lets see, they all PF. Duncan don't do any better vs Amare than Yao and he is an elite defender. Vs Center like his position, he is pretty good. Player like KG get owns by strong center and PF and he is defensive player of the year. The are only a few defender capable to defend players out of their position.
They are all PFs, but that shouldn't make a difference. Guys like Battier that are elite defenders guard multiple positions. Really, what it comes down to is Yao cant guard guys on the wing while KG can't. If small ball didn't exist Yao would be a great defensive player, but because half of the league uses post players with range, Yao isn't as good a defender.
He can guard big guys out on the wing, something Yao can't do. I havn't seen Camby's game so he might be an overrated defender. But Camby being overrated on defense doesn't mean Yao is an elite defender. Replace all instances of me saying Camby with Tim Duncan. There's no doubt about the leetness of his defense.
Fine, I'm willing to admit I was wrong. I havn't seen any Nuggets games and I'm just going on the fact that he was DPOY. My point still stands. btw, funny I call you a homer? I dont understand the joke there. I'm not a nuggets homer.
Mcgrady is the worst defender in the nba. He cant guard anything. Also, he is not even trying, I always see offensive players run by him like water.
I don't think Yao is overrated or underrated as a defender.He can at times be decent, but what he has problems with is leverage. He can be consistently good if he watches deke and studies guys tendacies. He needs to stay down and get into balance. Someone brought uo camby as being overrated and all he does is block shots. Some of that is true, but he's ok when he's not overpowered. He also draw his share of charges and has good reactions away from the ball. Playing with Kaman in La will make him a better defender because he doesn't have to bang all the time against the centers. Now he can play against guys closer to his size, weight and strength. Back to yao, he is what he is. He's no hakeem, no russell, he's probably not as effective as eaton who won a couple of dpoy if I'm not mistaken, but he's what we have.
camby is an excellent overall defender. don't mind him, you don't win DPOY when all you do is block shots. the reason denver's D sucks is b/c of their pathetic perimeter defense that is led by iverson and melo (both play more D than my grandmother in her sleep). camby's D is even acknowledged by JVG, one of the best defensive minds of all time, when he anchored NY's defense all the way to the finals in 99 when patrick was out. dude was phenomenal.
when he's not trying, he's very sub-par. and a lot of fans pound him for that and rightfully so. but when he tries, he's one of the best at his position. so in no way is he the worst defender in the NBA. and he does try in the playoffs. you don't shut down big dog, billups, dirk, and harpring and say you're the worst defender in the NBA.
Don't get me wrong, one thing Yao has gotten really good at is keeping his guy from getting around him in the post. If Yao has to defend a guy in the post, you are safe. He's also pretty good at getting there to help the guy driving to the basket. But against fast post guys his only defense is to make them shoot over him. BTW, I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but lets compare him to Hakeem. Hakeem was probably on the same teir of defensive bigs as your Tim Duncans. But I don't think anyone would confuse Yao's defense for Hakeem's.
Now team can't play small ball with us anymore, Scola and Landry(if he come back) will make them pay. The only team that can hurt us a little is Utah and Rick play Yao on Brewer last time they played instead of dumb JVG playing a 80% healthy Yao on Boozer all the time. Other thing Yao don't get burn that much anymore in P&R since Rick change the way Yao defend, instead of Thibodeau making him chase guys all the way to the 3 point line, RA make them force the P&R to the baseline keeping Yao close to the rim and making the defense better while protecting the paint, even JVG give Adelman props for the defensive adjustment he made on Yao. Now there is not that many team that have a Center that can shoot jumpers with a great offensive PF next to him that can give Yao a problem. Teams that matter that can give Yao defensive problems SA No Lakers No Dallas No Hornets No Detroit No Sun No (Ty for trading Marion) Celtics (No with a healthy team Boston can't play small ball) 76ers No Orlando No Denver No Utah (the way Boozer sucked with his jumper and a healty Yao with this team No) There are not many teams that can give Yao a problem anymore with the NBA changing his style of run and gun to a Big team ball like Suns, Lakers, Clippers, 76ers, etc.
No team can play Warriors defense and just throw 3 guys at Yao daring anyone else to score anymore. But teams CAN force Yao to guard someone he isn't good at guarding as long as that guy can guard Yao at the other end (I'm not saying shut Yao down, just guard him). Agree. With the exception of Utah and Pheonix (specifically because Yao is the only one on the team who can guard Shaq, and Scola can't guard Amare.. perhaps Artest can), I agree. One thing to notice though is that in most of the matchups, Yao isn't guarding the star. Only against Utah, and thats the worst situation for Yao, and against Phx and Orlando. Yao isn't going to be guarding KG, he'll be on Perkins. He is going to guard Dalembert rather than Brand. Whatever scrub C in Detroit rather than Wallace.
No, but it does show you have a lack of knowledge on other teams Get over it Yao is an above average defender and is capable of being all defense, Just get over it.
Which I don't deny. With the exception of good teams like Spurs, Lakers, Celtics games that I watch a lot of. Get over what? The evidence supports my view. The people in this thread agree in general with me more than they do you (the question being is Yao as good a defender as Battier... your saying he's "above average" I might actually be inclined to agree with depending on what you consider average).
