He is great at certain things. He is terrible at certain things. That does not equal a great center, nor the worst center. If he could control his extremities the way AB can, whoohoo, he'd be greater than great. He'd be more awesome than Hakeem. He'd be quicker than Jordon. But, alas, no. He's just Yao. Nothing more, nothing less.
We don't shoot the 3 very well lately so there is no defender that feels like he has to stay with his guy near the 3 pt line and he is free to collapse on Yao. We would have won the Lakers and Spurs game if we hit our 3's at a +45% clip. There is no way we are ogin far in the playoffs if it doesn't turn around by then.
I haven't read any interview against an opponent that guarded Yao that he is easy to stop. If Shaq admitted that he can't stop Yao straight up, so I guess I don't know the real definition of "easy." Take the flopping out of the game, and he can never be stop. I think there is a rule in the NBA handbook somewhere that if you cannot guard somebody, you flop and that is an automatic offensive foul...
dont forget the Jordan rule....breathe on him and its a foul... seriously though, every rockets fan know that if you front yao, that pretty much does it, and it doesnt matter if magic johnson was delivering it into the post... yao needs to work with deke in some private elbow sessions, and get his elbowism higher
I didn't say about 1 on 1 defense. Because if we talk about that, there is really no player in the NBA that can stop Yao Ming 1 on 1. Too big, too strong and has that beautiful touch. But I am talking about team defense. Late in games, it seems so easy to take Yao out of the game. It is usually fronting or sending another help side defender from the baseline.
Who said the refs will call the fouls? I know all the little cheap tricks. Also on offense I can just jump into him and he'll get fouled.
