Don't mean to pick more nits, and no offense is intended, but Larry Bird did not average 12 rebounds his rookie year. You have to go even further back, actually. Last rookie to do it was one Lew Alcindor in 69-70.
Griffin in his rookie season is already better than Yao in all of his seasons combined. :grin: I can't decide if that's either a testament to Blake's greatness or Yao's underachievement.
Uh... they're different players. That's like saying you can't decide if Jordan being better than Clyde Drexler is a testament to Jordan's greatness or Clyde's underachievement. It's simply not a coherent comparison.
Worse. Amare is averaging 2.4 blks this year, and has never averaged less than 1. With all his athleticism, it's pathetic that Blake can't block one shot per game.
Griffin is a PF, and Amare is playing C in New York. Griffin starts next to a pretty good shot-blocker and space clogger in DeAndre Jordan. He doesn't have to block a lot of shots to play good defense.
I hate those "statistics." They're simply picking out certain numbers out of a stat line and equating greatness with them. Tim Duncan had a better rookie year with 21/12/2 blks and shooting 55% from the field. Shaq had a much better rookie year with 24/14/3.5 blks. Instead, we're given some gawdy stat where you have to go back >30 years to find a similarly talented player, when in reality it's the rarity of a certain combination of numbers.
Playing next to a space clogging center doesn't mean you can't get blocks. In fact, it allows Blake to roam for weak side help like Ben Wallace used to do when Rasheed was the anchor down low. Blake just doesn't seem interested on the defensive end. He might be able to develop into a defensive minded player, but as of now, he's playing on 1.5 ends of the court.
Lol, now this is just for fun... Two totally different players with different skillsets...but Two things I feel Yao never seemed to "get" or improve on. 1. The "I surrender" hands raising after fouling somebody before the foul was called...if it was gonna get called. 2. Lowering himself to his opponents level DD, you were spot on with this one... I wonder if Clippers would have accepted that proposal.
If you're playing next to someone who's already got the rim-protector role covered, the value of added shot-blocking reduces substantially. Take the Rockets. Chuck Hayes was a phenomenal defender playing next to Yao Ming, because in that role he didn't have to protect the rim. It didn't matter that he didn't block shots. But now that he's playing next to Luis Scola, his inability to change shots at the rim is a much bigger deal.
It was pointed out in the other thread, but almost certainly not. It was merely a week later that it became publicly known Yao would miss the entire following season with a career-threatening, foot-altering surgery. He would haven't even passed the medical.
I wouldn't say the value of additional shot blocking is substantially reduced. It's more that the lack of additional shot blocking is adequately masked. Having two shot blockers as opposed to one adds substantial value to a team's overall defense. Having two shot blockers rotating defensively is far better than one. The Pistons had the two Wallaces. The Celtics have Perkins and Garnett. The early Spurs team had David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
So was Charles Oakley not an elite defender? Otis Thorpe? Shot blocking helps, but I think there is "diminishing returns". The real value in blocking shots come from intimidation around the basket. How much intimidation is really needed, though? I think you can be an elite defender at PF without blocking shots, if you play great position defense and you have a shot-blocking center behind you.
