Al Jefferson is tough for any player to stop. Don't just blame this on Yao Ming. If Yao Ming didn't play on this team and Mutombo had to guard Yao. I'm sure you guys would be hating on Mutombo for being unable to defend Yao single coverage. Yao and Jefferson are the best offensive post players in the league, Duncan has seemed to decline slightly on the scoring end. His consistency is still excellent and he is still the best big man in the game though.
It has nothing to do with athletcism as it does technique and balance. Against those types, his balance is so poor, they just really make them stand out. Yao can play those types if he got his ass down, opened his stance and kept his arms up, but that hard to do if your body isnt conditioned and strong enough to do it. If you've ever watched football and you see these massive left tackles play against freeney,harrison, and those smaller type of edge rushers, if they get their head over their feet, its like a bowling pin. Those big guy allow those levergae guy get into there body, knock them off balance an sack the qb. When he prime days of Pace,ogden, Boselli, and munoz who were 6'8-6'9 330 lbs double kick and exteend their arms and were in great balance, those small guys would just run into a wall. Football is different , but balance is the same. As a oversized guy, you have to always be in good balance because if not, smaller guys get leverage on you and expose your lack of. Even as a 6'4 guy, playing againnst a 5'8 guy or 5'6 guy, if you dont get down, he will blow by you and make you fall also. Its all about balance.
That was my observation too. Jefferson scored quite a few from outside and his inside scoring was mainly from scrambles and offensive rebounds. No body could have stopped him on those shots. Actually when Delk or Chuck was on the court, neither stopped Jefferson. On several occasion, Yao actually did quite well to stop Jefferson from scoring inside or to force him pass the ball out.
theory sounds great, but you're just grasping at straws. like you said, it's been 6 years, something should have changed. but it didn't. yao simply doesn't have the athleticism and the endurance to play great defense as how you pointed out for 48 minutes. If you come into the league as a good defensive player, you'll always be a good defensive player. If you're like Yao, who has poor lateral quickness, you'll always play poor defense. It has nothing to do with tenure. It's his lack of physical attributes to play the necessary defense for 48 minutes.
You guys also need to add that Yao Ming had all of his blocks on Big Al. Their were about 2 shots where he was blocked and it somehow went in anyways, which was weird. It took Al Jefferson 30 shots to get 36 points, while it took Yao 18 shots to get 30. Tell me who's game was more efficient? Al had the better rebounding night, but tell me who's team won too? You guys can talk about stats all you want, but the wins are the most important one and many people leave that out.
Blah blah blah...Oh please just shut up already about Yao this and Yao that. You sound more stupid everytime you open your mouth. If you can't understand the size of Yao and his build that is limiting his mobility. Than you shouldn't be yapping nonsense. It's like teaching a giraffe to move like a zebra which will never going to happen. So please use some common sense if you have one everytime you yap about Yao this and Yao that. I'm getting really sick and tired of you trying to sound smart.
Howard is not as skilled on offense or as good as shooter as those two. Jefferson and Boozer shoot, like forwards, that's why we use Chuck Hayes or Landry on them .
if this was the playoffs and we face a player like boozer and al, he has to play deke/hayes some just to make them see different defenders and change how they play a little bit. b/c yao plays them so much, they know what to do and do it quite often. there's a reason teams put multiple defenders on guy like kobe, bron, tracy... so it keeps them guessing and play different ways. but the only thing yao can do back is score back on them and he did that last night. if he does that he'll cancel out the offensive output that the others do.
Yao Ming was capable of shutting down David West last season. He made him shoot 1-7 when Yao was on him in the 4th quarter. Here is link for those who want proof http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5450875.html
That's exactly, what needs to happen. Team Defense. When it comes to star players, it's great to have one person that can guard them, but most teams can't do that. So they use the never fails team defense. Even before Battier, the Rockets had some games against Kobe where they actually slowed him down...why? Good team defense.
Match-ups, match-ups, and match ups. Sometimes, the worst defender or player can be the best defensively against another team's good scorer (see Ryan Bowen). Hayes can defend Jefferson, Boozer, and Bosh for good bit of time for Yao. At the same time, I don't think Hayes would be very effective against Shaq, Big Z, Bynum, and other big centers.
David West isn't exactly on the same level offensively as Al Jefferson. West is relatively slow on his feet.
True, but No Hayes incapable of guarding Al yesterday. Nobody on the Rockets team can defend him, in my opinion if Yao was more focused on defense he can stop Big Al. His focus was just more on offense yesterday, but in the 2nd half Yao Ming played excellent defense on Al. Hayes is capable of guarding those other guys you mentioned though. Bosh is nothing special, just a small forward in a center's body.
yao has had trouble vs shaq too, who is dwight howard type. in short, yao may have trouble vs better players on any given night.
Except that Bosh is the most softest player in the NBA. If Bosh actual had Testosterone in his body, maybe he would be the best big man in the game. We don't know. All I know is he is soft and has muscles that PG has.
that's not very accurate. dwight is strong, but he's not even close to as strong as shaq and he doesn't have the post game repertoire that shaq does. shaq, even at age 37, can still overpower yao with his game. however, yao can get his. that's probably not likely when shaq was in his prime.
These "types" that you talk about are not centers. That's like saying Elton Brand has problems guarding Steve Nash and Chris Paul types. Al Jefferson is not a true center and Yao is no Hakeem. When teams play small ball, they take a chance because although Yao will have a hard time defending the smaller player, he'll be....what's the term Clyde used?....oh ya, clubbing baby seals on the other end. In this case, T-Wolves didn't really have a choice. But when 2 true centers collide (i.e yao vs howard), Yao is able to hold is own. Jazz are an exception to the above. The problem with Jazz is that Yao friggin gets raped by Okur and refs don't call it.
Not really, Shaq actually had skills, post moves and ability to create his own shot. Shaq and Dwight Howard have nothing in common outside of being African American and ability to miss FT's. Yao has outplayed Shaq during his rookie year too. How many rookies outplayed Shaq in his prime? Not a very long list.
