[Chron] Dick Justice:What can the Rockets expect from Yao next season?

I don't pay any attention to little Dickie Justice, because little Dickie Justice is an idiot.

 

Not to mention Big Z was only 24. it took him 4 years to fully recover, yao is 30, way bigger and havier and will need 18 months of playing to be ok.

 

yoa' only 3-4 inches bigger than illglaskus

 

Uh it only took him about a year and half to recover...

 

The correct term is taller..

 

Yao has to lose weight. When I saw him on the sideline during last few games he looked HUGE. The weight would put a lot of stress on his feet. As soon as Yao can physically do so he should start a weight loss program. As for the minutes per game next season Yao should start slow and see how much he can handle. If he can only play 25 minutes a game it should be a quality 25 minutes.

 

I'm sure he could be swimming or doing a number of other exercises which don't stress your feet right now... in addition to proper nutrition. I don't blame him for taking it easy a little while he recovered, but seems like about time for him to get going and get those extra pounds off.

 

I like Yao as a player and person.....but I don't think he'll be the same player he was before the injury.

part of me is thinking a McGrady like decrease in talent...but I hope not

*flame suit on*

 

I doubt it as Yao has never depended on his athleticism much, if at all, unlike McGrady. His game is centered around his size and his skill, not his ability to jump and move around quickly on the court.

 

Honestly, I think Yao is going to come back and end up re-injuring his foot within the season. He is just too big, and the game of basketball at the NBA level is too much. That makes me sad because he is by far my favorite player.

 

As Morey keeps saying, Yao will be the most valuable player in the entire league in the last 5 or 6 minutes of a game, once he, Lowry and Martin have used their foul-drawing ability to put the Rox in the bonus. If you foul him, he hits both FTs, and if you don't foul him, you can't stop him from scoring. Looking at it from that point of view, I don't care if he's slower than Bill Worrell.

 

Here's some info I posted in an old thread comparing Z's career with Yao's. The comparison is also even MORE valid now, since Yao had the same type of reconstructive surgery that Z had...


... Like Yao, Z also had stress fractures of the navicular bone in his foot -- or his feet, to be precise, since he had the same issue with both of them. In fact, he sat out two entire seasons for each foot. Even more alarming: In a span of five years, Ilgauskas fractured the navicular bone in each foot TWICE.

For the record, Yao (7'6" and 310 lbs.) is definitely bigger than Z (7'3" and 260 lbs.), but he's in the same ballpark their games and their injuries are pretty similar, so he's a good point of comparison.


Here's a season-by-season look at Z's career:


1994-95 -- At age 19, played 36 games of pro ball in Lithuania.

1995-96 -- Did not play at all while rehabbing from a broken right foot.

1996-97 -- Missed his second consecutive entire season again after re-breaking the same bone in his right foot during summer ball and having surgery to repair it.

1997-98 -- Joined the Cavs and played in every game, starting 81 of them and averaging 13.9/8.8. Made the All-Rookie First Team and was the rookie all-star game's MVP.

1998-99 -- Played in only the first 5 games, averaging 15.2/8.8 before being put on the injured list with a sore left foot. It was diagnosed as a fractured navicular bone in February.

1999-00 -- Missed the entire preseason and season due to the injured left foot. He had corrective surgery in January of 2000.

2000-01 -- Started the Cavs' first 24 games, then again had pain in his left foot and was placed on the Injured List in December with yet another fracture of the navicular bone in that foot. Had surgery again in February of 2001 and missed the rest of the season. The purpose of the surgery was to reshape the bone structure in his foot to better support him.

2001-02 -- Missed the first 17 games while still rehabbing from the surgery on his left foot.


At this point it sounds mighty damned depressing, doesn't it? Since his sterling rookie year, Ilgauskas had missed had missed 85% (155 of 181) of the team's regular-season games over a 2+ year span. The Cavs -- from the president and GM to the doctors to the players to the fans -- wondered if Z would ever play meaningful minutes again in his career.

Now for the happy ending and the reason for optimism in regards to Yao: Amazingly, Ilgauskas eventually recovered from those injuries and had his best years by far afterward.


2001-02 (continued) -- Z started playing again in early December and only missed three games from that point on -- two with back spasms and one DNP-CD (reason unknown).

2002-present -- Over the past nearly SIX years, Ilgauskas has played in (and started) over 97% of the Cavs games -- 491 out of 505 games, counting regular season and playoffs. Even more encouraging: Of the 14 games he missed, I couldn't find any instances of it being attributed to foot problems; 1 game with a sprained knee, 3 with a sprained ankle, 4 with a dislocated finger, 2 due to league suspensions, and 4 for which I couldn't track down the cause.

Z.'s problems started over a decade ago -- an eternity when it comes to sports medicine research. Things have improved substantially during that span.

 

the difference is Z was never a "workhorse" that yao was for us. you can't correlate minutes to responsibilities.

yao's 25 minutes may be much tougher than say to dampier's 35 minutes b/c he has to bang so much in the post on both ends.

i think it's very realistic to "hope" that yao can return to play 25-27 "star" level minutes. let's hope that happens.

this team (with some more additions this summer) does not need yao to play 35 minutes a game to compete. we're a .500 team without any star at all.

 

I think we're even better than that, actually. A lot of our problems this year came from injuries and chemistry issues from changing up the roster a bunch mid-season. Also, just adding any true shotblocking center would improve our W/L record quite a bit.

Furthermore we have a lot of players who are likely to improve next year. Guys like Hill, Budinger, Taylor, even Andersen are rookies, and as they adjust to the NBA and get their work in during the off-season, they will get better. Guys like Brooks and Ariza are young and saw their first full season as starters, and they will be more comfortable and in-tune with what Adelman is trying to do next time around. Luis Scola has been going off the entire second half of the year and I feel optimistic that he will be a 20/10 PF next season.

Our biggest problem is interior defense. Add a good, shotblocking big man, whether that's our first round draft pick, an LLE/MLE signing like Marcus Camby, or a trade target, and that will improve significantly.

With all of these things considered, I would bet on us being a playoff team in the West even without Yao. I still believe he, combined with all the above things, will push us into being championship contenders, as long as (and this is a big "if") everyone is healthy.

 

If Morey really felt Yao wasn't worth keeping for basketball reasons, wouldn't he trade him? Or would Les step in cause he is the Rockets' cash cow.

Why doesn't anyone talk about Yao's global marketability factor, and the international attention it brings to the Rockets. Well, i guess Justice did touch on that for a second, but I'm more interested in knowing if anyone can quantify the financial benefits that Yao brings to the organization through his international popularity and whether or not that number has anything to do with why we will never give him up.

 

He was out for two years. then he started having problems again. it shows even a 24 year old can never be the same. let alone a soon to be 30 year old whos body keeps breaking down every year.

 

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Big Z was alot Younger and did'nt have anywhere near the mileage yao has had when he had his surgery. To expect yao to be a yao again is unrealistic. at best he can now be a very good role player or a 2nd or 3rd option now

 

Yao's market is'nt going to help us win games.

 

Yao's market could help Les to make some money, that matters the most for a NBA owner (If Yao indeed helps lots). I do not think the owners and fans are on the same page in term of managing a NBA team. As Yao, Morey will make a good decision on his contract, I do not think we are concerned it, actually, this team needs Yao most only if Yao can play good min in the playoff.

 

Apparently Yao is a uni-Yao, operating and succeeding on one foot his entire life. It's really quite amazing. Now that his Judas pogo-foot has been surgically operated on (I hasten to say "repaired" since no one knows that), he can put on his Rocket Red uni-tard and carry us to the championship. After all, there's no need to worry about that other foot breaking down, right?