Yao is currently #6 in the league at 9.9 FT attempts per game. The league leader is only at 10.4. I know the season is still young, but that's pretty good for a big man, especially when you note that: Dream's high was 8.0 Ewing's high was 7.9 Kareem's high was 9.1 Shaq's high was 13.1 (and they fouled him intentionally) Robibson's high was 11.6 Duncan's high is 9.3 Iverson's high is 11.5 Jordan's high was 11.9 You guys get the point. If this number stays consistent for the season then two things must change: 1) All the talk about Yao not being a banger or aggressive should go out the window. 10 FTA's per game for a center in this zone era is impressive, especially considering how JVG slows the game down. 2) WE will have to stop crying about Yao not getting enough calls. Again, Shaq took more abuse than most and they sent him to the line intentionally, and his high is only at 13.1.
Never!! he gets hacked way too much and they do miss calls in every single game. i.e. nate robinson smacking him in the face but its ok cuz nate is a midget.
Nah, on that play, I agree with the no call, it was incidental contact after the play had been made. Is it a foul..yes, but not in the context of the situation. I am happy if they let that go and start calling the 2 hands in the back foul....Yao would CLEAN up on that. DD
I bet we won't see typical comment from Yao detractors (not talkin 'bout you) that "ain't a 7'6 supposed to be getting a lot more FT attempts than a 6'11?". Anything goes, right? Uh oh maybe not this time. As to your points, if Yao is fouled disproportionally more than his peers, he should get calls to the FT line accordingly. What I don't get is why there needs to be a cap on the number of foul calls rewarded to a particular player, unless of course NBA is to practice communism or some inverted affirmative action. Everything should be done by the rule book. We are not asking for favorable treatment of Yao, but only fair and impartial treatment.
Defensive 3 second violations are becoming more and more abundant in the NBA, and each violation results in a technical free throw for the other team. Since Yao is on the court roughly 75% of the game and a lot of the defensive 3 second violations happen because teams are trying to put defenders around him in particular, he is usually in the game when it's call. Being nearly a 90% free throw shooter, he takes every one of these technical free throws. I'd say he averages about 1.5 tech free throws per game while none of the other big guys in your list would really ever shoot a tech free throw. So his actual average (from getting fouled) is probably more like 8 or 8.5. Am I right?
Or if he could increase his FT percentage to 100% I am sure that will silent the haters, oh wait.. he is supposed to shoot that percentage as a professional.
that's amazing considering we are in the era of the zone defense. most of those other guys got all thier FTA's because the guy guarding them one-on-one had to foul or give up a basket. this is a testament to howgood yao is and how good the team has become at getting him the ball.
That's a good observation. Glad you pointed it out. Another thing is OP mentioned in a footnote that Shaq gets fouled intentionally by his opponents so his FTAs seemed to be inflated. However, Shaq also gets extra protections from his coaches, i.e., by taking him out, to prevent him from being fouled late in the game. So this factor should also be considered since it offsets somewhat the inflated FTAs rewarded to Shaq due to intentional foulings.
While those numbers look promising, his FTA's still should be higher. A lot of the criticism Yao takes is for not being "dominant." Well how can he be dominant when there are blatant missed calls? Everyone can hack Yao and get away with it, but Yao can't touch anyone without getting whistled. Yao gets abused as much as anyone, but they let it go because he's 7'6" 18" gash down his arm? no foul, but it's okay cause Yao is 7'6" elbow to the head from Shaq? no foul, but it's okay cause he's 7'6" rake of the eyes from Nate? no foul, but it's okay cause Nate is 2 feet shorter than Yao
Also you should factor in minutes. The guys on that list played around or over 40 mpg in their prime, right now Yao is at a career high with 35.
Thank you! 10 FTs per game is good but the reality is it should be higher but refs still let him get hacked too often without a call. This season, aggression hasn't been an issue with Yao at all. He's brought the same mentality we saw late last year into this season, which is very impressive. Now that Yao has clearly taken the next step, the refs need to also.
I think that cause the refs don't call it often he gets fouled more. Once they'll get completelly fair(but that's more like a big IF), he'll prolly get fouled less(since the opponents will know this will mean almost sure points), so he'll get around that number again(only with better chances for easier work, or making the opponents concentrate in stealing and making easier the game for teammates). 10 FTpg is a huge number anyway.
