Could it be? All my early (and oft-flamed) comparisons to Rik Smits were off by -7,000 career minutes and -4 seasons played?
They AREN'T beating around the bush. They want insurance to pay his salary, while the team chemistry excels. DUH.
At this point, I don't know what to think. The big fella had all these safety precautions in place and still got hurt. That tells me they didn't do much. I would rather Yao take a month or two off and then play ~38 minutes per game than rush back and play 24. I understand how a player who is in and out of the rotation can hurt the chemistry (see Tracy McGrady). I see it from every way possible, I really do. Yet, in spite of it all, I'm at a loss. We need him on the court. This team is his team. It always has been. We are playing our second string night in and night out and we're getting killed. Now that we've got some momentum behind us (some), we get something that just deflates us ever the more. It's easy to trade a cancer, to cut a cancer, to relegate a cancer to no playing time. It's much harder to let go of a guy with so much class, so much potential, a guy I like. The more he's out, the harder it is. That's the only thing I know, and you know what? Everybody already knows that.
The dilemma is, when yao's on court for those 20 mins after the long rehab, he's still really good and fun to watch
Don't get me excited. (Not that the thought didn't cross my mind, but it would be too much to hope for.)
maybe when yao is a FA and signs with another team, he'll enjoy the boos he get for doing nothing here in houston
The whole thing is assinine. When he is able to take the court....PLAY HIM. PLAY HIM until he cant play anymore. What are they saving him for????? We will NOT make the playoffs without him (with the current team)....and we wont sign him if he doesnt play......so PLAY HIM. I have a weird feeling that a couple years from now, someone with some inside knwledge of the situation is going to shed an awful lot of light on Yaogate....and we aint gonna like what we hear
Yao to the Heat (as a free agent) would be perfect. It'll be a cap issue, fer sure. But if he could just go there, play 26 minutes a game, take only 3-5 shots a game, and just camp out in the paint and pull down 11 boards every night, he'd be a perfect fit. His interior presence on D is exactly what the Heat are missing. I don't what Miami can do to change his bone structure from glass, however....
But I thought you said he was on the Ilgauskas track, and that he'll be fine now that he's had surgery that magically altered his DNA? Wouldn't it be a good idea to sign such a bionic player to a long-term deal since he's guaranteed, per you, to follow Big Z in every conceivable way, including haircut and difficult-to-spell last name?
Even more slowly? As in, playing him negative minutes? 'Cause right now he's playing 0 minutes a game. Can we convert Yao into anti-matter and play him negative minutes? I suppose that would mean playing him on another team. I'm all for that, if that's what "bring him along even more slowly" means. Git 'er done, Morey!
No way it could be #1, according to you, since Yao is following exactly Ilgauskas's injury/surgery trajectory per your expert medical opinion. And, since Big Z did not have a leg that "noticably [sic] atrophied" it is impossible that Yao would have one. What do you mean by noticeably atrophied, anyway? The leg looked skinnier and weaker than before? It's skinnier than the other leg? Is this like "visibly limping" (as opposed to limping invisibly, in a way that no one sees it)? Does anyone actually think Yao will sit out till he's healthy/strong enough to play without a minute limit? I keep hearing that, and I think it's insane. When he comes back, it will be in limited doses, and people will post here that "there's no way you can be back in game shape till you've played some games". Then, when he inevitably reinjures himself, people will say, "Well, whaddaya expect, the guy's barely played in two years. Jeez! Let's give him another 20 years to rehab, and when he's 50 years old, by God, he'll be ready to kick Shaq's a$$." ClutchFans, where people suck Yao's d!ck for a living.
