I think that Yao Ming will emerge as one of the league's better defenders in the coming years. Really, his presence is always felt, and if you look at opposing Cs numbers against our team, the numbers are eye-popping. Once he gains slightly more strength, some more respect from refs, and a better understanding of help defense and man defense, I think he can be right up there. The most important thing for him to gain is strength and some quickness. At the moment however, I'd have to go with Cat. Posey is an offensive liability, while Cat also uses his offense to wear his man out. Yes, Posey was great towards the end of the season, but the points he gets doesn't put any strain on his defender. Just transition points and spot-up shooting. Cuttino makes his man really work on offense and defense. Those long arms help him out too.
posey is good at defense away from the ball playing the passing lanes, mobley and hawkins are the best on the ball defenders we have.
Steve Francis??? You put stevie ahead of cat and cato? And Posey isn't the greatest at one on one, he's got nice off the ball d though. I'd have to go with Hawkins and Cat with Cato at third, then Posey.
Totally agreed with you, Sane. There's a reason yao get whopping 1 vote for all defensive team. At least people remember him. Although Yao's not the best defender yet on the team, he's got a great presence in the middle, if he did not block shots, he altered tons of shot attempts by guys trying to drive. Here's my ordered list: Cat Yao Hawkins Cato Posey EG Worst defender on Rox: Glenn Rice
Nachbar and Rice for worse defender...but yeah....Rice is older and slower...so Rice is the worst defender! He's just horrible....useless actually. Only good for making 3's... And makes as much as JKidd.
Totally disagree w/ u there. Cat IS the best Rockets 1 on 1 defender, and this has nothing to do w/ a big man waiting to block shots for his mistakes. If Cat was averaging lots of steals, u could say that 'yeah, he is good, but he can gamble w/ a big man like Yao'. But thats not the case, he is just good at staying w/ the defender, and using his feet well. Also, Cato is NOT a very good 1 on 1 defender. He is excellent at help defense, yeah. but on his own man, he fouls a lot more than he blocks.
Cat is our best 1-1 defender hands down no matter how much you hate him. But our best all around defender is probably Yao with his helpout D. Stevie's probably the best defender in the league for opposing point guards every night.
For those of you who voted for Hawk. I think he's an overrated defender. His skinny weak frame really doesn't help him much against bigger guards and normally struggles because of that fact. He's a tweener defensively, too slow to guard the 1 and 2, but too thin and weak to guard the 3. He just flops too damn much.
Now I'm not agreeing that Steve is one of the better defensive players on the team, but let me ask you a question, how many point guards can truly keep other point guards in front of them on defense. It has to be the hardest on ball position to defend in the league. Besides Gary Payton, I don't think there are any.
