22.3 composite · lower is better
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Player profile · HOU
Yao Ming
Yao Ming advanced stats and career rankings
21.8 average league finish
1,525 total value
Bottom line · Career overview
Yao Ming ranks #170 all time. Across his three best seasons, his average league finish was #16.0. His full-career value ranks #269, so this placement is driven more by dominance than longevity. Explore Yao Ming's advanced stats by season, era-adjusted impact, workload, and historical comparisons.
Career standing
How Yao Ming ranks all time
These are league placements, not raw scores. Each season is judged against that season's qualified player pool.
Best in the league
Elite finishes
Upper-tier finishes
Standard deviations across scoring seasons
Career Composite22.3
Equal average of Best 3, Prime 5, and Best 10 league finishes. The overlapping windows make this explicitly peak-weighted. Lower is better.
- Best 3 weight
- 63.3%
- Score
- 22.3
- Qualified seasons
- 7
- All-time rank
- #170
Strongest seasons
Every season
Yao Ming advanced stats by season
Era-centered box impact supports comparisons through time. Impact Rate and its rank compare players only within that season.
| Season | Team | Age | GP | MP | Era-centered box impact | Impact Rate | Rate rank | Season Value | Value percentile | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–11Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 30 | 5 | 91 | -5.96 | — | — | -7.1 | — | Limited |
| 2008–09Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 28 | 77 | 2,589 | +2.90 | 92.8 | #25 | 238.3 | 92nd | Strong |
| 2007–08Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 27 | 55 | 2,044 | +3.67 | 94.0 | #21 | 218.4 | 88th | Strong |
| 2006–07Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 26 | 48 | 1,624 | +5.28 | 97.0 | #11 | 223.4 | 89th | Strong |
| 2005–06Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 25 | 57 | 1,949 | +5.41 | 95.4 | #16 | 264.9 | 91st | Strong |
| 2004–05Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 24 | 80 | 2,447 | +2.60 | 89.8 | #36 | 208.2 | 90th | Strong |
| 2003–04Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 23 | 82 | 2,692 | +2.09 | 84.3 | #53 | 201.6 | 88th | Strong |
| 2002–03Historical Defense Estimate | HOU | 22 | 82 | 2,382 | +2.02 | 83.0 | #55 | 177.3 | 85th | Strong |
Career movement
Yao Ming's career impact by season
Peak +5.41 in 2005–06 · 8 seasons · 15,818 minutes
The same historical box-score model is used for every season, making the career shape comparable through time. This is separate from the current lineup-context ranking.
Era-centered box impactMinutes
—’10
Across-era box estimateWorkload
Career comparison
Compare the shape, not the calendar
Align by NBA experience to compare season one with season one, or by age to compare players at the same stage of life.
Yao MingBrad Daugherty
NBA season number · fixed impact axis −5 to +15
Similar career arcs
Players with careers similar to Yao Ming
The score compares era-centered box impact, peak, prime, workload, career length, position, and trajectory aligned by NBA experience. It describes career shape, not playing style or equal ability.
C · All-Time Career #226
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89%career match
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88%career match
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88%career match
94% season match · 2005–06 ↔ 2020–21C · All-Time Career #126Arvydas Sabonis
87%career match
84% season match · 2005–06 ↔ 1995–96Impact Rate shows how strong a player was compared with everyone else that season. Season Value adds how much he played. The career ranking rewards a high peak, a long prime, and repeated seasons near the top. Older seasons use clearly labeled estimates where the NBA did not record today's full set of statistics. Read how every ranking works →