Yao may dominate offensively, but he is not going to be a dominating player per se because he can't defend against the quicker and athletic Centers.
Well how many quicker and athletic centers have actually hurt Yao in his career? The league is so weak at the center position that Yao has rarely been exposed on defense. Well unless you count pick and roll coverage. But heck, a lot of centers aren't good at pnr defense. Shaq wasn't any good, kareem wasn't so great etc.
Case in point, he couldn't cover Okur at the 3 pt line, so he is left to defend Boozer, who destroyed him.
It's not Yao couldnt cover Okur at the 3 pt line. It's JVG didnt want Yao to leave the painted area to protect the basket. So, JVG left Jazz with the biggest mismatch in the whole series. What a joke!
Maybe if JVG had even thought about zone we could have won that series. But he never went to it, even for a second. Not even as a change of pace.
Well to be fair, Boozer destroyed everybody we put on him. Anyways, I'm beyond ready to see what Adelman institutes with Yao.
Boozer is not a center, nor is KG or Dirk. He has defended against Amare just fine in his career. He has problems with Duncan, but who doesn't? Duncan isn't exactly quick and athletic, he's just a great post player. More often than not, since Yao is so good offensively the other team finds that they can't guard him straight up with their "quick, athletic" center, and so go to their big stiffs, which gives Yao an easy defensive assignment.
Duncan is the one player who Yao should defend successfully but doesn't. And Yao has never defended Amare "just fine in his career." Amare has no problems dunking on Yao's head and getting him in foul trouble.
Yeah Stoudemire has no problems with Yao...if you forget the fact that he is ridiculously inefficient against Yao...that he can't stop Yao on defense. `Yao played great but he got a lot of easy baskets,'' Stoudemire said. ``We just stuck with it and played some hard defense against him. It's tough. He's 7-6 and I'm 6-9, trying to block his shots. He's already at the rim. I thought I did a pretty good job against him.'' http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2004031510 He did a good job alright in that game, he went 7-26from the field while Yao went 11-16, and had 29 and 19 with 6 blocks on the night.
Saying that Yao should be able to stop Duncan is like saying McGrady should be able to stop Kobe. I haven't seen much of McGrady stopping Kobe, even though they play the same style and have approximately the same physical tools. Yao has held Amare to 42% shooting in their head-to-head matchups. Even though Amare averages one more point than Yao in their matchups (19.2 to 18.2), if I'm a defender, I'll allow 19.2 on 42% shooting over 18.1 on 53% shooting any day, and this isn't even accounting for the fact that Amare played more minutes. For a center/PF, scoring 19.2 points on 42% shooting in 36 mpg is not especially good. Therefore, Yao has defended Amare just fine. By the way, Amare even averages more fouls in their H2H matchups (3.9 to 3.2), and Yao averages 2.6 blocks while Amare only manages 1.7.
Please do not spam with unrelated posts here, otherwise you will annoy a lot of fans. Your cooperation is appreciated.
Pryuen, ignore such comments. MOST here TRULY appreciate all your work. This is ONE of the few threads (out of maybe 200 threads) that talks about Yao. Johnty, what gives you the right to tell Pryuen or others what to post or not to post? If you could care less about Yao in the summer, why can't you stay out of this thread?
Ignore the troll. He (or she??) is someone almost every poster enjoys ridiculing/making fun of in YMM. He just completed his registration here on Clutchfan site, and tried to stalk/shadow me around......I think.
Thanks, pryuen! Yao is now in Europe. I have seen him in Germany, he watched the 1st match China vs Germany. Its unbelievable that he is so near from me!
Noway amare has more impact on the floor then what yao has. yao automaticly makes our interior defense as one of the best in the league. yao has to be the most UNDERRTAED INTERIOR DEFENSIVE PLAYER IN THE ENTIER LEAGUE . It's no coincidence since yao has been here, we've been one of the best 3 interior defensive teams. just last season we conceded the least amount of points in the paint. with all due respect to chuck, it was because of yao's presence. Amare dosent have anything nearly that much impact on defense. Now on offense, yao's offensive Arsenal far exceeds what amare brings. amare relies on he's atheletic ability to get by he's opponents. however if you triple team amare, he'll struggle to get out of it due to he's poor footwork and offensive skills in the lowpost. Yao however can and will kill you with he's immensly skilled footwork and offense skills in the low block. also yao is a terrefic passer who can hit an tammate even if he is tripled or doubled teamed. lets see there numbers Amare-20 points 9.6 boards 1.3 blocks 1 assist 78% free throw shooter 57% FG Yao-25 points 9.4 boards 2 blocks 2 assist 86% free throw shooter 51 FG. So how anyone can say amare has more impact on the floor with straight face is beyond me..
You know how the media people are. They don't usually watch full games, but just highlights. Whose highlights got shown more, Yao's or Amare's? Yao's jump shots vs. Amare's power dunks? You get the points. Furthermore, the numbers by Amare have to be discounted, in 2 ways: - Suns get 15% more shots per game than Rox, which means Amare's numbers should be discounted by 15% to be comparable to Yao's - Suns have Steve Nash, who drives and ditches better than anyone in the NBA today, and certainly at least 20% better than Alston. Amare gets a lot of freebees here, so discount another x% from Amare's number. In the end, I'd say Amare's number is more like 15-16 ppg if he is a Rox under JVG, compared to Yao's 25-26 ppg. But no, Yao is on the second NBA team, and Amare's the first. Great media perspective!!
Well whats even more dissapointing is that some of our own fans are saying amare is better. if you look at facts and numbers you can see that the opposite is the truth. what yao brings far exceeds anything amare brings. if i was starting a franchise i would pick yao over amare 10 times out of 10. no qualms or hesitations whatsoever
