"The toughest player you've defended is … Yao Ming. It was like [there was] nothing I could do to affect his shot or anything, and that was a really tough spot for me because I know I'm a good defensive player. I'd have to say the only thing I could do was keep him far away from the rim. But I have to say I was dominated." pretty cool..there is also a blurb about chuck hayes but nothing interesting..lol http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=granderson/080416&sportCat=nba
I think many centers/forwards will say the same thing as Horford did. Yao IS really hard to defend because of his height. He has a great skillset but really there isn't much anyone can do except get a hand in his face and try to keep him out of the paint.
Yao is the most difficult one on one player in the league. I sincerely believe that. Give him the ball 10 feet from the basket with single coverage and you have a near automatic 2 points. The problem is when the mix and match type double teams come. I sincerely believe Adelman is going to find a way to help remedy that.
only 3 people can stop Yao: 1. Yao himself, by shooting fadeaways and not keeping the ball up 2. guard players (see: Luther Head)- throwing dumb entry passes 3. a referee- no explanation needed.. let's get out of the 1st round for him this year..and go to the finals, and get him back for the finals, and win a championship, then win another one next year, then a third one after it.. sigh...
yao is pretty much money once he gets the ball at a good position. problem is... can our guards pass it to him at that good position. the guards have to pass it to yao, and yao have do his move... in 3 seconds. strangely, horford saying that just reminded me how good we could have been with yao.
Why don't they all go to the basketball school of JVG? I thought JVG has devised a good plan to defend/contain Yao and it was even published by the media not long ago. If I remember correctly, someone has even started a thread on it.
you can't defend Yao 1on1, it was rediculous that Woodson had an undersized Horford defend Yao 1on1, and not even fronting him, If I remember correctly.
Don't really care. None of those guys are the one on one match up nightmare that Yao is. Maybe Duncan used to be but Kobe and Lebron are not. I don't believe any perimeter player is. I've seen Shane force Kobe into missing many, many shots in one on one coverage. I've seen Tmac/Battier do that to Lebron dozens of times. Having a dominant post player is much, much better than having a dominant perimeter guy. Now when facing a double team I believe all of those guys are much better at getting rid of the ball and then re-establishing themselves once the double team goes away.
Horford is saying that Yao is the toughest player to defend after he already has the ball in his hands. The best way to defend Yao is to prevent him from getting the ball. That's why fronting is about the only way to stop Yao.
Double teams kill him a lot too, when a guard or forward comes from behind him when he drops the ball to dribble. They come up from behind and slap it. One on one though, I'd say only Shaq had a chance of slowing him down.
Do it the Utah Jazz way and foul him on every possession and either force the ref to blow the whistle at every possession or let it happen so it won't ruin the flow of the game. Expect this in a playoff series vs the Jazz. But all the elbows to the back and constant hacking does a lot to hinder Yao since he has fatigue issues. Either that or front him with athletics forwards like the Warriors do and exploit mismatches on the offensive end by having perimeter oriented centers like Al Harrington shoot outside the paint and force Yao to commit or give the opponent a wide open look behind the 3 point line. In this aspect match Yao's point production on one end of the court and still let him dominate on the other end as well thus nullifying his contribution. Exploiting the PnR works wonders against Yao too. He's very similar to Shaq in that aspect since Yao prefers to glue himself in the paint more than dealing with any sort of lateral footwork to maintain good defensive position.
It's always good to have a player that can guarantee a double team, but how to keep him healthy for a whole season is an issue. As the way Yao is, half man half injury, Rockets need a solid backup center that can keep Yao's minutes around 30 - 35.
