He had an extra 7'6 player at his disposal, and that's a disadvantage? He wasn't forced to play Yao Ming. Just asked not to play Yao extended minutes (which was probably the right advice, considering how fragile he evidently was).
Wasn't forced to play Yao? You think Rick could have benched Yao and Leslie would have been okay with it? Yes, it is a disadvantage, when the opponent knows a guy is on a minute mandate, and you have to play a completely different style when he's in the game. Come on, it's not like you can just plug him in to clog the lane, and just ignore him on offense. Geez. You have to play a completely different style when he plays vs. when he's forced to sit out by management. That kills team chemistry early in a season.
We are struggling with Defense. It think offense is good enough. short training camp, Patterson coming off a surgery on his ankle, Sammy not in game shape, New coach and new system. Give them some time to figure it out. This is a trial season. If we make the playoffs, great but if we don't, I like to have a nice pick in this upcoming draft.
Rick didn't make his coaching decisions based on whether Les was okay with it. Yes, if Adelman wanted to bench Yao because he couldn't play every game I think he would have and could have done so. He chose not to, because like most of us he thought having Yao even part time would be helpful.
