[Chron Blog] Yao's not great, but he doesn't have to be

If this is NOT a joke, it's not Soloman who is the racist.

 

This is the ONLY part of Soloman's post that's accurate. Yao is not a top 10 center in the history of the NBA right now. And I'd assume that pretty much every Rockets homer will acknowledge that.

However, the rest of the post is crap. The fact that he points to Okur blocking Yao's shot as an indication of his non-greatness. The fact that he says "statistics be damned" only to use stats 2 sentences later. The fact that somehow 25/9/2 is not a dominant season.

I'm also very amazed at just how underrated Yao is as a defender even in Houston. It's as if everyone equates defense with gambling by playing the passing lane or sweeping across the paint for a block. True hard-nosed defense, on the other hand, gets no respect, even if Yao anchors the interior of one of a top 3 defense in the league.

 

As much as I love the Dream, he and the other centers of the past
like Ewing, Robinson, O'Neal (till recently) Moses, Kareem and Walton
because of one rule change:

Illegal Defense and the zone.

Though George and the Sonics played it (illegally!) it truly allows much
less room to operate for the post-playing big man. Imagine the spacing
that Yao would have if that double team was not allowed until he got the ball and made a move. We would be shooting 20 free throws a game against Phoenix. The NBA and the Colangelo's made a concerted effort to destroy the effectiveness of the back to the basket big man (maybe because we knocked out Phoenix with the dream so many times!).

Its like comparing apples and oranges.

 

KG is regarded as one of the Best Power Fowards of all time Believe me there is proof, that alot of writers and analysts do not like foreign players;but things are changing for the better

 

It always amazes me that people are not capable of simple intelligent conversation. King didn't say anything bad about Yao. He simply expressed an opinion (it wasn't out of thin air...he was responding to Lopez's blog on Yao's greatness). He backed it up pretty well. Immediately people resort to name calling and not dealing with the argument itself.

The bottom line is that the best centers of all time were dominant on both ends of the floor. Yao is dominant on one side and adequate on the other. Therefore, he's not a top ten center of all time. He is the best currently and could become top ten of all time, if he become more consistent on defense. He needs to up his rpg's and shot blocks. If he never does that, then he's still great, just not one of the very best of all time. I swear some of you guys have never seen Hakeem play. If you had, you wouldn't be reacting with silly emotionally charged named calling. You would simply know that he (King) is right.

 

Yao is not among the greatest of all time...yet. He has yet to get there, and he dominates (most nights) in a league that is fairly weak at the center position these days.

I think when he wins in the post season, plays like he did before his injury, and sustains this for a few seasons, then he has to be considered a few years down the road.

 

Yao's defense is adequate. The Rocket's play great team defense and Yao is able to get the job done. He is however a liability on the pick in roll. And he is not capable of the shut down defense of other greats (Hakeem). After all, did you see what Carlos Boozer did to him? I feel Yao will continue to improve on defense, but will never be a great defender. I would love to be wrong however.

 

Who is this moron called Jerome Solomon, and why is he being allowed to deface the Chronicle Sports section?

 

This point needs repeating in bold.

There's no telling what Yao's numbers would look like without zone D allowing triple-teams on him WITHOUT the ball.

 

Nate Thurmond and Bill Walton!?
Yao, comon, at least u can beat those guys

 

You are clueless. That's all I can say - freakin' clueless

 

what you said about yao to improve is impossible.
quickness is a gift, you cannot train for that.
yao is a center and rox doesn't have a backup pg who can pass as good as tmac, so yao cannot win w/o tmac.
yao is not good at passing, look at his hands. they are too small. this won't change.
not good rebounder, again slowness + small hands + cannot jump.

this is not yao's fault. yao is already very gifted, he is tall, good jump shooter, good free throw shooter. But all history great centers? forget about it. those greatest make their noise immediately after they joined the league. none of them start 20-10 seasons after 4 years.

 

I have watched plenty of games Hakeem played. Do I think Yao is currently better than Hakeem? The answer is no.

If his comments coming at a different time, be it offseason or in the middle of regular season, I would not call him a troll.

In the middle of heated series with Jazz, when Rockets are fighting for their live, what he is doing is at the same level as back stabing.

 

The same thing could be said of Russel on the offensive end.

DDD

 

Yao is dominant in what is a weak center-oriented world. But I think by dominant they mean a top player at any position - can they dominant a game and will the outcome of a game.

This means like Hakeem did - just spinning and turning and finding a way to make a shot no matter what the defense did. Or blocking John Starks 3-pointer. Think about that. Hakeem ran out and blocked John Starks 3-pointer sealing our first ring.

Not sure Yao will ever do stuff like that. His game is dependent on the way defensives play him to a larger degree then other players. The Jordan rules couldn't stop Jordan. But you can stop Yao with a double team. Not Hakeem though.

So in that regard - I don't think of Yao as one of the top ten, but he's certainly a very good center - and who knows, he's exceeded my expectations, so maybe he will prove me wrong again.

 

The zone defenses were implemented to encourage more versitle players - including centers. We had trouble with Seattle because they were unique in the way they played Hakeem plus the fact that we didn't have a power-forward that year they crunched us.

 

Yao is great already - he's just not one of the all-time greats in history.

And yeah, you are being way too harsh on the guy. The rebounding and dunking are fair points, but everything else is kinda just over-the-top.

 

I think this is a REALLY key point for those who point to zone defense as a reason why Yao is playing in a tougher era. Of course, the reverse argument that there are few if any decent big men today makes it easier for him to dominate could be made as well.

But, the Jordan rule is a great point. During that era, hand checking was allowed. Big guards could push offensive players all over the floor - same was true in the post where, at that time, you could extend your arm and keep your hand on a guy's back.

Jordan not only overcame that obstacale, he absolutely ran over it. Olajuwon MURDERED guys who would try to push him around.

To add to that, expansion has made the NBA weaker overall. There are guys starting for bad teams that may not have been good enough to make a team in the 80's. The competition on a night-in-night-out basis is just not as great in today's league as it was at that time simply because of the sheer numbers of players needed to fill out all the NBA rosters.

Like I said, Yao is fantatsic and he may yet become one of the NBA greats, but for every argument you can make about the way the game is played today, there are arguments to be made that today's game is not as difficult as it was 25 years ago. The bottom line is that great players figure out how to dominate no matter what the competition. Yao is starting to do that and he's on pace to continue for years to come. If he does, he'll deserve mention among some of the great players at his position. Until then, he's not there yet.

 

Totally..
and anyone who doesn't recognize this is not qualified to be a sports writer