Jordan/Yao/Chandler/Eaton

[Laimbeer]

How do you rate these big men at their peaks?

[zonedefense]

Yao is clearly ahead of the rest in my opinion considering the fact that he could score 20+ a season and create shots for himself in the post. He is the worst defensivly but still a good rim protector.
Eaton was a defensive beast but sadly is career ended early. At his peak i would say he is the goat shot blocker and rebounds with the best. So I would rank him second.
I don`t know how to rank Jordan and Chandler.
The boxscore numbers speak for Jordan but at his best Chandler is probably the better defender considering the fact that he really ankers the defense. For the Clippers CP is calling defensive plays while Jordan protects the paint. Chandlers defensive IQ is very high...he is vocal and directs his teammates. With Jordan having the boxscore advantage and Chandler winning the eye test I would put Chandler slightly ahead of him because he is able to shoot 70% from the line...I want my center on the floor in crunch time.

[SlowPaced]

Yao doesn't really belong in the comparison, he had a different playing style compared to the other three who are all bad offense defensive anchors. He was an MVP candidate prior to his injury in his peak, clearly ahead.

The other three I'd probably go Eaton > Jordan > Chandler. DJ and Chandler are really close though.

[Laimbeer]

Doesn't Chandler have a better offensive game than Jordan?

[zonedefense]

Doesn't Chandler have a better offensive game than Jordan?

he can shoot freethrows...otherwise I haven`t seen him doing any post moves or creating offense. Both are finishers around and above the rim. Chandler developed some range out to 15ft in Dallas.

[trex_8063]

As others have already stated, Yao is an inappropriate inclusion in this comparison. Maybe not a HUGE separation from some of them, but certainly a very clear separation. He was simply on another level. Yao was perhaps not a dominant offensive anchor, but he was an offensive player roughly on par with Patrick Ewing (which is pretty darn good), and then combined to that he was a VASTLY underrated defensive player. Look at Houston's team DRtg in and around Yao's career:

'02 (before Yao): +4.1 rDRTG
'03 (rookie Yao): -1.0
'04: -3.9
'05: -4.4 (obtained a post-prime Dikembe to function as his reserve this year, though surprisingly only a small uptick to team defensive performance)
'06: -2.9 (Yao missed 25 games, but had aging Dikembe as his fill-in; they were -3.0 rDRTG in the 57 games Yao played in, -2.7 in the 25 he missed with Dikembe filling the gap)
'07: -5.8 (this was the year they obtained Shane Battier, also 2nd-year Chuck Hayes getting consistent and significant playing time off the bench: indicates the potential of Yao-anchored defense if you give him a decent defensive supporting cast; they did this despite Yao missing 34 games. Their rDRTG in the 48 games Yao played in was 100.2 (-6.3 rDRTG); they were 101.5 DRtg (-5.0) without him despite having post-prime Dikembe filling in)
'08: -5.9 (Yao missed 27 games; they were -6.2 rDRTG with him, -5.2 without him.....and that's with an admittedly ancient Dikembe being around to fill most of the games Yao missed; also of note: Dikembe missed most of the games that Yao did play in that season).
'09: -4.3
'10 (Yao's gone): +0.4


I also recall looking at Yao's year-by-year defensive FF data on gotbuckets.com before that site disappeared, and I remember being struck by how well that data rated Yao: generally in the roughly 90th percentile for DRB% and opponent's eFG% (very similar numbers to circa-DPOY Marc Gasol).

Anyway, this is the long way around saying he's a highly underrated defensive player, while being the clear best offensive player (by a good large margin) of these four.


I'd rate Eaton in last place of the four. Tremendous rim-protector, though fwiw I think his defensive stock goes down in a more current setting......
*where the floor is much more spaced and he may be forced out of the paint----or on to the bench----by stretch bigs
**where he'd increasingly have to deal with pnr (problematic for him, as his lateral mobility was s***)
***and where the officiating on defensive 3-seconds is tighter, too.
****Fewer shots coming at the rim or paint-area anyway (3pt era, right?).

Don't get me wrong. I still think one could argue he'd be the most valuable defensive player of the four (though one could easily argue the other way, too). But I don't think he'd be the perennial DPOY that he was in the 80's. All of those things metioned above will mitigate his defensive impact, and especially his interior shot-blocking.

And aside from his rim protection, where does his value come from? He was an absolute zero on offense (I would say about the same as---or perhaps even marginally worse than---Ben Wallace on that end), and really only an average rebounding center, too.


So I'd put him at the bottom of the group for peak, and Yao a clear #1, imo. Not sure how to order Chandler/DJ for 2 and 3.

[wojoaderge]

He was an absolute zero on offense (I would say about the same as---or perhaps even marginally worse than---Ben Wallace on that end),

His hook was decent. Ben had nothing

[trex_8063]

He was an absolute zero on offense (I would say about the same as---or perhaps even marginally worse than---Ben Wallace on that end),

His hook was decent. Ben had nothing

And Eaton was a better FT-shooter, too.

otoh, Ben could run and finish in transition (may have been a marginally better finisher overall). Also a little better passer (obviously not breaking the bank in that regard, though neither is Eaton's hook shot). So....six in one hand, half dozen in the other.

I'll retract my "maybe marginally worse" comment, but we're still basically talking about two tremendously limited scorers (especially considering Eaton played with one of the best set-up artists of all-time) who were seemingly incapable of even mediocre efficiency despite EXTREMELY low usage, and neither a passing hub either.