It certainly did, especially after 2004 with the rule changes encouraging D'Antoni ball. Shaq, from that moment on, was pretty damn stifled. A 2006 Yao Ming in 2001 would have been NBA annihilation, IMO.
I'd also like to add that Yao Ming was becoming one of the best drop defenders of all time. Better than Gobert, better than Dwight, better than Shaq. He was the center version of Shane Battier on defense. The closest comparison on defense would be someone like Tim Duncan. (For his career, Lebron James shot 38.9% from the field against Yao, over a span of 11 games. He lost 8 of 11 games.)
Shaq used brute force to bully his way to the basket. Shaq was very difficult to officiate, similar to Giannis. Nobody was stronger than him. So defenders just pushed and hacked and sometimes gang hacked. He always complained about it. But he also used his size and strength to knock people down. So you don't really know who fouled who. My point was, players like Yao is unstoppable once they get the ball at their spot. So the defense's strategy is always trying to deny them the ball. Look at how they defended Harden in the playoffs. They tried to deny him the ball. He got frustrated at times. Perimeter players are harder to deny because they handle the ball themselves. Post players rely on teammates to get them the ball. When the defense is trying to prevent you from getting the ball, that means you are unstoppable with the ball. That also means that your teammates are more open when you are on the floor.
Oh you mean the Shaq that won a ring in Miami the next year? I don't think he was stifled at all. He was old and out of shape. Not the same player.
Oh you saw that huh? Yeah it was embarrassing though. Don’t disrespect Yao like that. Saying Yao is a bum is just going way too far. Kind of made me mad. I just didn’t want to give it too much of my energy.
Yes, it is fairly easy to deny post player the ball. Remember how Seattle used illegal defense to deny Hakeem? Yeah, even Hakeem had trouble against that. In Yao's era, that kind of defense was actually legal. You need the right strategy and personnel to count that. We didn't have the coaching nor the players to do that for Yao. Again, the only reason why the other team don't want you to have the ball is because you are UNSTOPPABLE.
If it was “soo easy” to deny Yao the ball, then why is he a HOFer with the 27th highest PER in NBA history? When he was averaging 25+ at his peak, before he got hurt, why didn’t those teams just front? Beating a team that fronts is not an individual effort. It is a team effort. Same as beating a zone. Even If you have Mike Jordan, the way to beat a zone is to pass the ball properly, end of story. Before Yao’s first major injury, we were starting to get it, and he was terrorizing the NBA. It had very little to do with Yao, and a whole lot to do with competent guard play and delicious Battier entry passes (a true art in itself)… If JVG would have had the foresight to throw another shooter out there instead of salivating over bruising power forwards, who knows how dominant Yao would have been?
Yao making Shaq and Alonzo look like children when he was at his absolute peak. They simply can't deal with him. That JVG spacing, lol.
Very very good . I was not a big fan of he rockets until 06/07 ish . yao might have been able to stay healthy if he had a more reserved ,modern approach with loss management. But , we will never know . we won game 1 Vs lakers with no tmac . I mean the rest of the team took them to game 7 after yao got hurt , nonetheless, he was very good . would be have limitations defensively today . Probably . But I’m sure better counters to fronting have also been developed , yao can shoot a bit , and he might be able to get offensive rebounds off missed 3’s . yao would make Jokić look like pryzbilla . Embiid is bigger than Dwight , but yao would still work him .
Yao’s NBA career is a big what if like Greg Oden’s. It makes you appreciate the longevity and continued excellence of players like Hakeem, Robinson, and Shaq.
Yeah, the all-star voting says more about his widespread popularity than his game. To his credit, he did eventually evolve into a legitimate all-star starter quality player. It took a few years.
I just remember the hype during Oden’s college career and rookie season. Yao Ming gave us several All-Star seasons.
To say Yao's impact was much more than basketball sounds cliche but it's so true. Because of Yao, millions of Chinese people AND American people had more positive thoughts about each other's country. Not geopolitical or economic or even military-related thoughts, but just normal human being thoughts about each other. That impact really can't be measured. And it's not just because he happened to be a Chinese person who's giant and good at basketball. He legitimately did a great job representing China in a way that doesn't bring shame on the country AND did a great job reaching out and assimilating/conducting himself in a manner that was respectful to America. He never said anything that was controversial, he never said anything that was unnecessary, he was the embodiment of building a common ground for both cultures, focusing on what we all can agree on - being a great human being who works hard and building up teammates.
