What defensive impact??? Boozer used him as his own play toy... Yao is an ok defender and the center he matches up best against or an aging Shaq and a non-offensive Howard.... Other Big men gave him fits.... Deke at the age of 45 was a better defender than Yao.... Yao was a better offensive player than Deke... It is what it is...
You realize in his earlier matchups against Shaq, that he was still 22-27 ppg a player, who was still one of the best centers ever in the NBA.
Wow, never knew Juwan Howard, Rafer Alston, Jim Jackson, T-Mac, were all world class defenders. Obviously, if Yao sucked on defense, and we were consistently top 5 in defense during his tenure here, we must've had some really awesome defensive studs on our team to make up for his shortcomings.
Yao came into the league in 2002, by that time Shaq had already been in the league for 10 yrs... I would say that it took Yao at least 3 to 5 years to adjust and learn the NBA game which meant that Shaq was already on the down side of his career. There's a big difference between the Shaq that played his last year in LA and afterwards to the Dominating force that played in Orlando and tje early years of LA... I remember when Houston had to play LA and Hakeem got sick, Barkley stated that Hakeem had Shaq-itis...
Yeah called JVG ball.... Slow it down, grind it out, team defense..... Atalnta did the same with Mike Fratello.... Yao is no Hakeem, Deke or Ewing on defense....
Did you see how well Yao matched up against Shaq in his first two or three season? Who else in the NBA, during that period of time, gave Shaq fits like that one-on-one?
My bad you're right.... Yao is the best center that ever played the game... He could be Shaq with one hand behind his back, even when Shaq was in his prime. I truly apologize for the above statement.
So that's why we were #2 and #3 in defense the years Adelman came in. So in your mind there are two types of defenders(1) Among the best in NBA history (2) Scrub. Does this mean Scola sucks because he's not Duncan? Or that Brooks is a bum because he's not Stockton? Incredible logic. Incredible. Funny you mention Hakeem. Have you ever watched our games against the Sonics in the 90s?
I can agree on the last statement, but I have to disagree with everything else. How could you insult JVG, Yao MIng, and rest of the Rockets like that, and still call yourself a Rockets fan. OP (opponent) FG%, has absolutely nothing to do with pace or tempo, but with the efficiency of offense from opposing teams 01-02 (Rudy T): .464 02-03 (Yao's first year): .433 03-04 (JVG): .412 04-05 (T-Mac/Yao era begins): .423 05-06 (Injury riddled year): .429 06-07 (Battier's First year): .429 07-08 (Adelman/Morey era begins): .433 08-09 (The Championship Banner that Wasn't): .444 09-10 (Modern Rockets without Yao): .475 You do not see how those numbers are heavily skewed in Yao's favor. His ok and average defense has helped us reached pretty decent field goal numbers, almost bordering 40% (with alot of those games, being with teams in the solid 30s). http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2002.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2003.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2004.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2005.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2006.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2007.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2008.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2009.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2010.html
Now, you are just being silly and ridiculous. You are simply undermining Yao's competitiveness and achievements against quality competition. It does not make him the greatest player ever, and it is simply giving him more credit than what you are stating.
Hmmm... As I remember they played great team defense which was a left over from the JVG era and the prob was with the offense... Again, if a team basically pounds the ball down to the end of the 24 sec clock you are going to have a low scoring game.. Which in turn means that you on an AVERAGE you will have the lowest points allowed. RA is not a bad defensive coach but he's no JVG. RA's focus is on offense... Now RA started coaching the Rockets in 2007 in which he has missed a total of 76 games (almost an entire year). 2006 - 07 - 34 games 2007 - 08 - 27 games 2008 - 09 - 5 games Who was the center that replaced him Deke... You said that not me.... I said, have said and will say... Yao is an OK defender.. Not a great defender.. and as I stated above, Yao matches up great with a down sided Shaq and a non-offensive Howard... But not a quick center who can also shoot well from the outside. Yao is big, but he's very very slow. It is what it is... no more and no less... I have watched Hakeem and the Sonics.... Have you watched Hakeem and Phoenix... Have you watched Hakeem and San Antonio... Have you watched Hakeem and Denver... Have you watched Hakeem and New York...
You never answered my challenge. Why did we go from a top 5 defensive team to a mediocre defensive team after losing Yao? Don't give me that JVG stuff. The two seasons with Adelman and Yao, we were still a top defensive team. You said it's because of Deke. I debunked you by pointing out that Deke played a whopping 1.2 minutes a game when we were a top 5 defensive team. So, please give me some objective evidence why you think Yao is just a so-so defensive player.
Man you guys kill me with the "you call yourself a Rocket fan"... YES I AM A ROCKET FAN.... Not YOF or TOF... A ROF.... The truth is the truth.... Rockets had Joe Barely Cares and he Sucked on defense (offense at times also)... Lewis Lloyd was a heckuva offensive player but you could hear him in the upper deck hollering for help on defense.... Yao has his good points and his bad points... Yao is very good on offense, but he's ok on defense.. It is what it is... Not going to sit up here and argue with you... Now from the same reference that you gave you can see the points that were scored and were allowed on an average per game.. JVG is who he is.. Old school Riley under study from New York... Grind it on defense keep the game low... 01-02 (Rudy T): offense - 92.3 a game | defense - 97.2 02-03 (Yao's first year): offense - 93.8 a game | defense - 92.3 03-04 (JVG): offense - 89.8 a game | defense - 88.0 04-05 (T-Mac/Yao era begins): offense - 95.1 a game | defense - 91.0 05-06 (Injury riddled year): offense - 90.1 a game | defense - 91.7 06-07 (Battier's First year): offense - 97.0 a game | defense - 92.1 07-08 (Adelman/Morey era begins): offense - 96.7 a game | defense - 92.0 08-09 (The Championship Banner that Wasn't): offense - 98.4 a game | defense - 94.4 09-10 (Modern Rockets without Yao): offense - 102.4 a game | defense - 102.7
These are how many games Yao missed during each year.... 2006 - 07 - 34 games 2007 - 08 - 27 games 2008 - 09 - 5 games So in 2007-2008 Deke played a whooping 1.2 minutes... Sounds good to me... Now if I take Deke's entire minutes and divide them by 82 then WHAA LAA.. I get 1.2... AMAZING.... Said it before Stats don't tell the whole story.. Now it's been stated on multiple forms.. This team played without any so called major superstars and they did one helluva job. In the last 5 years when ever Yao went down you had another 7'0 center that could take his place and was a better defensive player than Yao. So YES it was because of Deke.. yao basically missed a half a season in one year and over a third another. This year they held there own with no center taller than 6'9 and they still held there own for a while...
I'm not saying it matters to Zo but it seems like people are forgetting on how height plays a great deal to this. IE: weight, speed, center of gravity, athleticism, overall strength and so on. You can argue all you want on their strengths and weakness but to me it's like arguing which is better, granny apple or fuji apple. The point is, though they play the same position, you can also include an argument for chuck hayes on his capability on defending other centers. There are just too many factors in which makes this whole comparison absurd.
I agree with you 100%.... But at the time Zo held his own when you had so many 7' footers are close to it.
Since you asked for it, i guess i will post it :grin: 05-06- He started 23 games and avg 23.3 mins per and put up 4.1ppg 7.6 rebs and 1.1 blks per game. When he didn't start, jvg played him 10 mins a game. The team struggled going 7-16. 06-07- He started 33 games and averaged 27 mins per and put up 5ppg 10.4 rebs 1.45blks and the team went 20-13. When he didn't start, adelman played him 9.4 mins per. 07-08- He started 25 games and averaged 20 mins per and put up 4.4 ppg and 6.6 rebs and 1.76 blks and the team went 18-7. When he didn't start, adelman played him 8mins a game. 08-09- Yao played 77 games and didn't need deke even if every time yao went out a layup drill occured. Now you can go to www.basketball-reference.com to check anything I posted, but its clear that if we had deke or someone else vs hayes, the defense wouldn't have fallen of. I've said mny,many times yao is a good defender especially in close proximity. Of course he struggles in space which is natural given his size. Zo was exceptional on all facets. He hedged the pnr and recovered. He was strong against guys posting up. He was a great weakside shotblocker and just defender of the paint.
So who's this "someone else"? Dwight Howard? Marcus Camby? Bring prime Hakeem into the future? No one said Deke is not a good defender. He was the best defensive player of this generation. So yeah, no kidding we would've had a great defense with him on the floor(assuming he could've played 35-40 mpg). What else are you going to tell me, that the Chicago offense ran well when Micheal Jordan was on the floor? Zo was a great defensive player. But those Miami defenses weren't better than Rockets defenses under Yao. On average they're about the same. And before anyone uses the "JVG" excuse, Zo played under JVG's tutor who freaking invented uglyball. And those Miami teams played thuggish defense, while the Rockets are at least played merely hard-nosed defense.
Under Van gundy McGrady for most part was a good defender. Jim Jackson has been a good defender all throughout his career. Deke was an anchor from the get go he came to houston. Infact everytime he started, the Rockets had a better defensive team instead of Yao starting. Rafer Alston was a terrefic on the ball defender.
