Over/under by whom? Fans in general, fans in China, fans in the US, Rockets fans only, coaches, writers....? It's not an easy question. Generally, fans in China tend to over rate, a large segment of Rockets' fans under rate and the media is all over the place depending on whether they are trying to justify their previous position.
People don't give him room to breathe, I feel really bad for him. I had to stay away from the GARM for a bit during the losing streak because he was getting KILLED here-- getting all the blame when he was pretty much the majority of the offense even with double and triple teams. If Tracy has a bad game, he has an off night, he's injured etc... If Yao has a bad game--he's the worst center in the league, trade him , he's soft, he sucks etc... I don't think people who trash Yao here have any idea how badly he gets beat up night in and night out. The refs give him zero respect, he is getting mugged out there, I mean look at the poor guy's face and arms! To still average 20 points with the treatment he gets,(physical and verbal ) he's definitely got my respect.
Both. Yao is overrated because expectations of him are too high. People expect him to be a dominating player along the lines of Duncan or O'Neal, a post player who can pretty much carry his team by himself at times. That overrates him because people put his potential way too high. However, he doesn't regularly meet those expectations and is ceaselessly bashed for it. So he's underrated. If I had to pick between the two I'd have to go with underrated because pretty much all you hear from Yao is "why doesn't he do better?" and "he's not a dominant player." That's pretty ludicrous for a guy that is putting up pretty much the same averages as J O'Neal.
As far as the media goes, Yao went from extremely overrated to quite underrated the past two years. At first, he was the next great center. Now the media never gives him a break. Every sports journalist out there has written at least an article about how soft he is, equating him to Rik Smits....who almost only did catch and shoots and was a poor rebounder. At the very least, Yao's capable of creating his own shot in the post and is an average rebounder. Right now, Yao's a good center...no more, no less. Bashing him is just the "in vogue" thing to do these days. Even the self-professed YOFs have taken to bashing him. I really have no idea why.
In general, Yao's potential is overrated. In his fourth season, more and more ppl realize that Yao probably will never become the player they hoped. But since the initial expection is so high, a lot of people are disappointed so they under-rate Yao's current contribution a little bit. Overall, I will say Yao's is a rich man's Rik Smits. He is better than Smits, but still at the same level: a good center but nowhere near great.
The results of this poll are probably a good indication of how underrated/overrated he is on this board. The percentage of people that say he's underrated are probably more inclined to overrate him. The percentage of people that say he's overrated are more inclined to underrate him. Right now it's close to 50/50, so I would say he's rated just about right.
I'd like to see a list of 10 centers playing in the league right now who are better than Yao. Hell, even 5. He's no Dream, and he may never be, but he is good enough.
he's one of the best #1 picks to come out in recent years(aside from LBJ).. he's better than bogut, olowokandi, kwame brown, even okafor and k-mart.. i would say only elton brand is on the same caliber as yao ming.. yao is FAR from being a BUST..
Under-rated but his expectations are too high. He will never be close to "Shaq-like". He will avg 20-10 really soon and I am perfectly satisfied with that.
Well when he came into the league there were many naysayers on Yao, the biggest being Dick Vitale. Vitale predicted Yao would be a bust and the Rox would regret not taking the college player of the year Jay Williams, well I bet Chicago would be happy as hell right now if the Rox had selected Williams and they had Yao. So I for one am happy Yao is a Rox because conventional wisdom that year was to select Williams and wouldn't this team be really be in a pickle if we had had picked Williams.
A work in progress, and still getting better. Underated by national media, correctky rated by the observant Clutch Fans.
IMHO, you were not clear. Your question was ... "Do the people here at clutchfans believe Yao Ming is over/under-rated?" If you wanted to know only how CFans regarded Yao, you should have asked... "Do you feel Yao is over or under rated by (or at) Clutch Fans?" These two sentences do not have the same meaning.
Neither...Yao is Yao...what you see over several games is what he is and what you get. He is not an Akeem, nor a Malone, but he has his own game with his own gifts that make him a valuable asset.
