Realistically, how many games does Yao play next season?

LOL, I agree with most of the things that you said but I have to say it is one of the most incoherent posts in the history of this bbs. :grin:

 

I have a bet with six of my friends. I say Yao will play less then 20 games .

 

Isn't that foot still hurting Yao?

If so thats not good......

 

I would play Yao for 8 minutes a game until All-star break, then trade him for a rookie, an expiring contract, 2 first round draft picks, and a chicken rice stand.

 

Les and Morey are going to have to be very forceful about this. Yao playing more than 20 minutes a night, during the regular season, would be disastrous.

Regular season = up to 20 minutes
Playoffs = up to 25 minutes
Finals = up to 30 minutes

 

what's "real" as of now? Was his surgery succesful? Was it a failure? Did he have a problem with rehab? Is he set to be ready from day one?

We hardly know anything since he's just getting into the significant part of the rehab, so it's nearly impossible to be realistic about this question.

 

I think is going to be like 60-65 in the season and 10-15 in the playoffs.

 

Im typsie, im in nyc, n i love d rockets; wcf or bust! 60+ games for yao! Letst go!

 

I see Yao playing 65-70 games. Early on, he should get days off frequently and less so later in the year. He'll probably get nicked up at some point in the season (most centers do). But all in all as long as he's healthy and playing close to 30 min by playoff time I'll be happy. By the time the playoffs start he'll be almost 2 full years removed from the surgery.

 

--------------------------------------------

typical

u pathetic ...

 

I would be happy with him playing 55-65 games and the playoffs

 

Uh, yeah his broken right knee in 2006? I mean I guess it wasn't "season ending" but he did miss 35 games.

Face it, the guy is injury prone and can't be counted on ever again. It's over.

 

play him no more than 30 mins and sit him on back to backs until late in the season if playoff positioning battles are crucial. take a cue from popovich, just get in the playoffs healthy, the parody in the west is so crazy, we are deep enough to contend and win on the road, we just need to be healthy when we get in the playoffs

 

Again.... Ilgauskas misses half of the games in his first three years in Cleveland, had surgery, and proceeded to only miss 5-10 games on average for the next 7-8 seasons.

62 (still recovering from surgery), 81,81,78,78,78,73,65,64... and if you attribute the last two seasons to him being 35 years old... thats a pretty healthy string of 6 years right there.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Yao play like that when he recovers. I think the real question is how he will perform.

 

Minutes down. Games up.

 

55 - 69.

He's not going to play alot of back to back and I doubt he will start the season as a full time starter.

 

Going back to the Ilgauskus example, he WAS relatively healthy, but it's worth mentioning he basically averaged 30 minutes a game for the rest of his career and that first season it was only 21.

 

We all know this, but let me just say it.

Big Z went through a similar surgery, but Yao isn't Big Z. Just because Big Z recovered, doesn't mean that Yao will have a meaningful recovery.

To be honest we have no idea what he'll look like. But I don't see him being any more durable than he has been over the past 3-4 years. If anything he'll probably be even more fragile.

When big guys start have problems w/ lower extremities, it gets ugly.

 

You can compare to Yao to Big Z on one hand.

On another hand, you can't because they are two totally different body structures.

Yao could come back and not show anything, but rust in his game at best, while he could come back and re-injure the same foot, which would mean the end of his career.

We'll get a good measure of what he can do during training and full blown practices.

 

Doesn't ****ing matter.

All Yao needs to do is play 30+ mpg at his usual level in the PLAYOFFS next year. And it will be well worth his paycheck. I hope they go the Shaq route of basically rehabbing until the all-stars game, and just come back for the stretch run. Especially if we don't get a big like Bosh.


In this case, the regular season simply doesn't matter. If the Rockets can't get into the playoffs without Yao playing a lot, then they aren't going to win the championship anyway with Yao. So might as well get some ping pong balls again.