Shut the league down. Imagine Yao catching and converting the same easy feeds that Mutombo always fumbles + more. Mutombo playing less minutes and conserving all his energy to own the paint on defense. Teams doubling/tripling Yao and Chuck Hayes with even more easy offensive put-backs. T-Mac saving energy to takeover in the 4th. Rafer getting wide open set shots at the top of the key. Battier and Head all alone in the corner. Yao keeping the big men honest allowing easy post-ups for Bonzi down low. Juwan Howard giving us 10-12 off the bench.
Anyone remember the preseason when Yao had to get his toe fixed up again? Remember all the statements from jeff van gloomy back then? What happened after that? Yao went on to have his best season this year before getting hurt. I'm not concerned at all with Yao coming back.
A reminder for those who forgot. http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Notes_Yao_will_miss_710_days-191270-34.html "I'm told not to be concerned, but every time something happens, it's a longer prognosis than the previous one," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "My concern is high for Yao's feet in general." Van Gundy said his options at center are Dikembe Mutombo, Juwan Howard, Chuck Hayes and Matt Haryasz. He also added that Yao will be back as soon as he can return to the lineup. "The one thing that I'll say about Yao is that he's tough," Van Gundy said. "He doesn't sit out just because he wants time off. This is not his choice. They just thought the nail was coming off and they wanted to be more proactive in taking it off. But he's going to end up missing two weeks and that's going to have a big impact on Yao and us."
It still might not be too late to throw the year and get Oden or Durant though! Yao will be back when's healthy and capable of making a full return, there is no reason to rush things right now... we're playing solid ball. If we can get him back 100% for the playoffs we'll be set. And wow... JVG is always just soooo negative isn't he?
There is absolutely no need to rush him. 10 days or 2 weeks is not a big issues. Let us make sure that we have him for the longer term- healthy and in the same form that he had.
This is just a smokescreen and robo-yao is going to come back more dominat and will start giving everyone head (turiaf) facials.
I agree with not rushing Yao back. I love Yao's attitude and I know what it feels like to sit on the sidelines while your teammates are out busting their butts, I wish I knew what it felt like to be making millions of dollars too but that's a different matter. Sometimes you gotta take it easy and let your body heal and get stronger. Its not going to help the Rox if Yao comes back too soon and aggravates his injury or injurs something else because he is favoring his leg. We're not the T-Wolves fighting for the last playoff spot so we can ease his transition back.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2780186&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines Updated: Feb. 26, 2007, 12:02 PM ET Timetable for Yao's return from injury not looking goodESPN.com news services The Houston Rockets had hoped to get center Yao Ming back from injury by mid-March, but coach Jeff Van Gundy doesn't seem so hopeful, according to a published report. Ming "What we've seen in the brief things he's able to do with us, you get the sense he's a lot further away from playing NBA basketball than maybe the timetables would suggest," Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle before Sunday's game at Orlando. "He does not look comfortable at all with the brace. He does not look agile. Last year, he looked on the cusp of [returning]. To me, he looks like we have problems to solve there to get him back. "He has to wear this cumbersome brace. He feels that's a huge issue to his mobility, to his jumping, to his natural running gait. He's worrying about hurting something else because of the change to his natural running gait. There are a lot of issues I think right now. He doesn't look like he did last year when he came back." Yao also told the paper about how wearing a brace now compares to his previous experience with the device. "Remember two years ago when I wore the arm brace?" Yao said. "I had a lot of trouble with that and that was on my arm." Yao broke his right leg during a loss to the Clippers on Dec. 23.
