Could Yao Ming make the All-Defensive Team this year?

No way in hell he gets in unless we somehow inch close to the lakers. The media uses stupid rules to decide these things and with everybody on Howard's tail I don't see him making the first team ever. Maybe someday he'll make the second, but I wouldn't put too much weight into it. It's all about popularity.

 

not after that gambling attempt on Billups

In all sincerity, he played an excellent defensive game today.

Nene shot (4-15), Yao blocked 3 shots in 30 minutes against an athletic team, and he changed shots again, he's one of the better defensive centers.

its not fair to ask him guys like Bosh, you wouldn't want chris paul to guard Shaq would you?

 

Speaking of limited, Mark Eaton won DPOY twice! Could he guard the pick and roll? How was his transition defense? Fact is - he impacted the game just due to his presence (wich Yao also does) and of course blocked a ton of shots (Yao's not there yet).

When Yao's not in the game, you can just see the other team licking their chops thinking it's going to be a lay up drill. When he's in there, you see much fewer attempts to penetrate. Except tonight - Denver really was bent on challenging Yao, but without a good result. Nene and Carmelo especially got on this macho kick but all they got was blocked or they blew layups. The biggest area I see Yao growing in is how he handles guard penetration. He doesn't seem to be biting on fakes so guards to drive in then dribble back out. Good stuff.

 

Yao had another great defensive game today. He's been doing his best Mark Eaton impersonation the last week or so.

 

A post 94 Ewing. Ewing was very athletic in his early days, but he started to slow down over the years. Strangely, he had injury problems early in his career, but then he became very healthy and barely miss games. That's why I don't think people should quite count out Bynum and Oden, yet. Even though, I doubt they will ever be as good as Patrick Ewing.

 

Patrick Ewing and Shaq do not have the defensive limitations that Yao had. Ewing was a superior on defense when compared to Yao...in transition, and in the post. He usually did not have to guard on the perimeter. Ewing was not as good as the Dream (but who was) but he was with out a doubt one of the better defenders in the game.

I don't think Shaq is a better defender than Ewing was but he is a far superior defensive rebounder to both Ewing and Yao. Like Ewing, Shaq had the athletic ability to get back in transition defense (not so much anymore) and could step out on the perimeter and still get back into the post (which Yao can't).

The big thing that gives both Ewing and Shaq substantial defensive advantages over Yao was their athleticism. Yao has also been an average defensive rebounder at best with a career best 7.7 defensive rebounds in his best season. Both Shaq and Ewing were averaging 8 or 9 defensive rebounds a game during their peek years.

This is not a knock on Yao because I think he is a good defender based on his athleticism but he is certainly not in the class of either Ewing or Shaq when they were in their primes.

 

I was watching Mo and Kareem in the day. I certainly watched both Ewing and Shaq when they were in there primes and I watched them both against Dream.

If you really think Yao is as good as those guys on defense then I think you should have watched those guys. Here is a question for you how many times a year does Bill Worrell have to say some scrub is a bad match up for Yao? You never heard that with Shaq or Ewing when they were in there prime.

Yao is good defensive player but he is clearly not an All NBA Defensive team type of player. If you think I am hitting below the belt it is only because you want people to blindly agree with you with out any objectivity. If you want a thread for a Yao love fest then I have no problem with that but if you want a real discussion on Yao as a defensive player then be prepared for the truth.

Yao has zero transition defense. Yao has zero perimeter defense. Yao is an average defensive rebounder at best. Yao is a good low post defender and he seems to be getting a lot of his athletic ability back that he seemed to have lost earlier in the year due to the broken foot and other injuries. There is good and bad...that is just a fact.

 

He's not there yet, give him some gamestapes from 84-98 where Hakeem block some shots and we'll see Yao swatting some shots.

 

Its not like it happens once or twice a year. It has happened many times this year. That is a fact.

Yao IS eligible for the defensive awards....but when you have so many games this year where players like Hakeem Warwik or Andre Blatche have looked like all world offensive players it kind of makes it hard to justify being on the All Defensive team. But hey...maybe it will happen.

The fact that you don't want my opinion just proves you are not interested in honest conversation but instead you just want a thread where a bunch of posters will agree with you. Maybe you should title your threads "Dissenting Opinions Need Not Apply".

 

he won't make it. 1st team will be dwight + kg + lebron as the forwards/C
second team will be duncan + pierce + prince as forwards/C

 

mark eaton also averaged 3-5 blocks for the majority of his career until he declined.

yao, with a great string of shotblocking games as of late, is now at 1.9.

so that's a poor comparison.