vs. the All Time Greats Chamberlian- YES Jabbar- YES Russell- YES Mikan- YES Unseld- YES Walton- YES Malone- YES Ewing- YES Robinson- YES Olajuwon- YES Shaq- HELL YES Again, I am not talking about scoring but PURE SHOOTING. I dont think anyone of those guys has the soft touch of Yao. Thoughts?
the closest would be smits...but yao is still better shooter...heck, yao is a better shooter than our guards
yea...you must have missed those few years in the NBA where Sabonis was hitting from 3-point land like a guard.
Duncan and J'Neal are PFs. Plus, how can you can those guys good shooters when Duncan cant even hit 70% of his FTs adn J'Oneal is barely at that level? As for Sabonis, unfortunately we didnt see him here in his prime so he didnt seem as effective with his shot. But my post is moreso comparing Yao with the greats. There are lots of stragglers that were great shooters like Jack Sikma (led league in FT%). But amongst the ALL-Star type centers, Yao seems to be ahead.
Duncan and JOneil could play center if they wanted.. and they spend time there depending on matchups. J
Most centers in "the old days" weren't shooters nor were they expected to be. They manned the paint, battled down low and were enforcers. Most people don't consider being a good FT shooter as part of being a good shooter. It's usually FG shooting you refer to when you say "a good shooter".
Sabonis and Bill Lambier (Lame Beer) were threats from 3-point land. Unless Yao can hit the three ball he is not up with those two guys as a shooter IMO.
Are you looking at FG % or how accurate they are from more than 10' Y'all are forgetting Manute Bol. He could really light it up from the 3 point arc. Also in older eras wouldn't players like Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett be playing center? I think if we counted them that would really skew things. I'll wait until Yao plays a few more years before saying something like that.
Yao Ming can hit threes, he just doesn't ever take them in games -- during warmups, he usually throws up one or two and makes them -- he made one last night. I don't think he'd be the best shooter -- Sabonis was GREAT and so was Sikma.
I wonder if the Yao's shooting touch will still be there if his upper body is bulked up too much due to conditioning/stamina training. Kobe did it and his shooting hasn't really been hurt by it.
Ming has a great shooting touch, the best on the team in my opinion. And while I never liked Kareem, his sky hook was awesome, he seldom missed with that shot.
You can't say you just want to compare Yao on "pure shooting only" (not scoring) and then turnaround and say you don't want to compare him with other good shooters but not great players. If Yao is just a good shooter, then he's not among the greats yet. Anyway, great shooting big men are plenty. People like Nowitzki and Garnett are good shooters. They are 7-footers and would be centers in the old days. Even if you want just centers, Sabonis was probably the greatest, even after he got bad knees.
