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Originally Posted by MemphisX
People still don't seem to feel or understand "era changes" in the NBA. Centers like Yao (limited mobility) are going to struggle in this NBA era. Yao has the skill to still make an impact but teams are killing them with athleticism, movement, and ball skills. That is the impact of the zone.
Yao is a pretty good player in the weakest NBA position. He is not MOP because most don't consider him a great player anyway.
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Agreed to an extent. Hakeem always struggled to dominate against the Sonics in the mid-90's because they would 'cheat' and play zone on him. When back to the basket players don't have room to work with it's always a challenge for them to create shots. I guess Shaq would be the one exception as he could create his own space and also was the beneficiary of an excellent triangle offense. Yao would be pretty awesome in one, as fronting wouldn't be a huge problem. Still, Yao does a pretty good job of getting a high % shot with his FGA.
He obviously doesn't have the impact he would in the pre-zone era, but he is still an impact player. I mean Ryan Bowen had 9 shots, 8 of them because Yao was on the floor. 1 was a runaway layup he nearly injured himself on. When the Rockets got back into it, it was because Bowen was finally hitting those open shots. To me, that's impact.