Me and BrooksBall have been arguing for a while and he even told me to make a thread about this.... I say he is an above average passer and a pretty good one for a big guy. What say you?
He's a willing passer but seldom sees a play evolve before it happens. Add that to his high TO rate and he's slightly below average. He's not a black, but he's no Webber, Divac, Dream or even Shaq. Edit: I meant a "black hole"
Like everybody says Stats are half the story. I'm guessing you don't see the hockey assists I see every night then.
Important message to voters: When voting, realize that choosing average or below average does not equate with saying Yao is an average player. This is just one aspect of his overall game. Also remember that good passing big men are the likes of Brad Miller, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. Finally, don't forget all those telegraphed passes and turnovers that Yao commits over the course of a season because of his slow reaction time and extreme predictability when passing the ball. My opinion is that he is below average to average, at best, compared to other big men. He's awful compared to all players.
The other bigs I mentioned gets the same hockey assists plus get their numbers. There is no question Divac, Webber and Dream were better passers than Yao. The only one I mentioned that was even arguable is Shaq and I have to say Shaq is a better passer especially out of a double team.
I will say Yao Ming is just alright for his height. Yao should be judged differently due to his height. At 7 ft 6, he really isn't a very good passer. With his height, he should be able to easily see pass smaller defenders, and make a quick pass to his teammates. Not to mention, at his height, it really isn't necessary for him to lob the ball or throw the ball at an angle so that defenders can't steal it. Basically, Yao's height advantage should make him a good passer, other centers suffer from Yao's height advantage, so they would often need to jump and pass or lob the ball over defenders. However, Yao does not take advantage of it. Often times, I see him making low passes or bounce passes instead. For his height, his passes would go at a diagonal direction from high to low, prevent defenders from intercepting the ball mid-air, but Yao always fail to take advantage of it. His passes are always either too low or too high. So IMO Yao is just an average passer. He lacks court vision, but court vision is a natural thing. This is why McGrady does Rafer's job better than Rafer ever does his.
I'm been watching rocket's basketball since 1980 and have had season pass since it's inception. I even saw Yao's first game (preseason) in a rocket's uniform in San Antonio. Take the blinders off and see what everyone else in the world sees. He's average at best especially considering the attention he receives in the post.
