Realistically, how many games does Yao play next season?

do we agree his left foot has been the major issue? have you seen other parts of his body also cause the season ending problem?

he didn't start NBA career with injury prone. his major injury that becomes a routing thing just happened in last 2 or 3 years, mainly on his left foot. other parts of his body look fine so far. IF you believe the doctor and what the doctor did on his left foot does prevent it from re-injury, i don't see why he can't play w/o season ending injury in a few years.

 

I would play Yao every game, not 40+ minutes but enough to see how he's going to hold up from here on out.

It's his contract and we need to see where this team is headed. As much as I love Yao, if he get injured again, it's time to move on. We can't keep sitting back having our future rely on unknown health status.

 

Ilgauskus from the Cavs went through the same type of thing. He had foot problems that kept him off the court during the beginning of the year, then had this foot surgery. It's been like 7 years and he's missed games in the double digits in those 7 years combined (as in, he's averaged less than 15 games per season each of those years... and the average is actually less than this).

Although, in the interest of complete information, that first year he barely averaged double digits and was only able to play 20-25 minutes a game.

Of course, this was an experimental surgery back then, so hopefully they improved on it.

 

History will repeat itself. Yao will be back eventually, but as soon as he's semi-ready or had a couple good games, Adelman would play him extended minutes again.

At the begining of last season, yao came back from an injury and many fans on the forum criticised Adleman for playing yao extended minutes early on. But as the competition got tougher and yao appeared to be fine, everybody calms down.

That's the year people are talking about backup center, reducing yao's minutes...But there're a few issues preventing it happening:1)cheap and reliable backup centers are hard to come by(or you can say they don't want to spend money there); 2)west is so tough that you don't have many choices but to risk yao's health to stay in playoff run; 3)yao is a hard working and proud person so he's not gonna take smart yet discouraging action-rest himself more;

 

You can say im a YOF but as ive watched the rockets for over 8 years, ive come to love the team with or without Yao. I also have to give him 1 more year to see if hes still got it. If he doesnt Morey has to change our gameplan and not have Yao as our franchise player.

 

In contract year, even TMAC knew it was time to play.

Yao will play 70+ games. mark it.

 

I want to say all...

But my gut tells me around 50-60....limping into the playoffs.

Call me cynical....

But as much as I loved our TMAC Yao combo....I've grown soooo sick and tired of their annual injuries. Glad TMAC's gone....hoping Yao can stay healthy...if not ....SEE YA.

 

No one can argue that Yao has or hasn't been injury prone in pass season's, but IMO none of his injuries should have any long term effect on his career except maybe this foot injury... and then again maybe not. The doctors went in and strengthen the area and added some support. As you stated this is not a new procedure.

I hoping for at least 70 games though.

 

He won't play early on because he'll need to get conditioning. I think he'll avg. 20 minutes before All-star break and increase it to 30 minutes after the break.

 

I can't vote on this. It depends too much on how Yao feels when the season starts...heck if he's still hurting I'd have trouble believing that he'll be ready for an NBA season in 6 months.

I think ,more than anything, I'm wondering what kind of contract he'll be asking for when negotiations start. I highly doubt he'll be anywhere close to the max anymore...and if he demanded that(which he probably will) I really hope management will make the right decision and cut their losses.

 

His usual 50-60 game before going down with another injury or a flare up of the current one.

 

my biggest concern is not how many games he'll play with the Rockets it's how many he'll play for china? If the Rockets can't negotiate different terms about his play in China, then i say cut their loses. I think its the year long basketball thats got his body tired.

 

I voted between 55-69, but I hope it can be more. Rick has to make sure he keeps Yao mins. in check at about 27-30 a night, we dont need Yao playing over 30 mins that will only lead to bad things. His body just cant take that much of a beating.

 

Realistically, do you think any of us are psychic? Maybe psychotic, but not psychic.

 

i would guess 66-75 regular season games...if we make the playoffs he will play.

 

I think he will be traded during the offseason.

 

My guess would be 60-70 games, lets hope he can do it.

 

Yao Ming is a wonderful human being, and he deserves better than this...but I see him only playing about 70 games (I voted for 70-81).

I just hate it when I see a man with such a great talent love for the game get forced to sit on the sidelines because his body had other plans. And it wasn't even due to a dumbass decision he made, like Bobby Hurley and Jay Williams. Yeah, remember when Bill Simmons wrote this?

(Yes, he rescinded this six months later. That don't change what he said none. Nuh-uh. [/exaggeratedtexasaccent])

Of course, as you probably know, Jay Williams got in a motorcycle accident that was his own damn fault because he was was not wearing a helmet, was not licensed to drive a motorcycle in Illinois, and in fact was violating the terms of his contract by riding the new bike. He damaged a major nerve in his leg (among other injuries) and was never the same again.

Yao Ming's too smart and mature to do that. (Plus, you know, the whole "too big to ride a motorcycle" thing. But that's beside the point.)

...Wow, it's amazing how far I can get off-topic. Anyway, yeah, 95% chance he won't play in every single game.

 

I would say he can play every single game, but of course playing less than 30 minutes a game, which I think is the best way to go.