Heard on the radio that he ran for the first time today. Says he feels good and wants to be back sooner than later. Trainer Keith Jones seems to think that it wouldn't be worth rushing him back. OS
I agree with Keith, although I hope he lets him play at least the last five games of the season. It would be nice to see Mo T and Eddie on the floor together before next season, though.
Although I would like to see a healthy Mo on the court, I hope they play it safe and make him wait until he's 100% before returning. It wasn't too long ago that an injury like his would have ended one's career; although medicine has come a long way, it still seems like too fast a return for a ruptured achilles. Wasn't he hurt in September? Anyone know what a realistic healing timetable is now adays? If he does return, it will be interesting to see who takes his spot on the IR. By then, hopefully Rice will be back, too, so- who goes? Willis? Brown? Morris? It would be nice to have that sort of problem, for a change...
I will bet money that they are posturing to get him back to get the suspension out of the way THIS year. Mo T should not risk it until he is 100% healthy. DD
That seems to be the most logical reason. He'll be healthy enough to do some pregame layups and go through the pregame routine without much problem. os
Maybe Maurice Taylor will not be ready to play until March, but he is saying late February so he will not really miss any games due to his suspension.
Was listening to the guys on 610 last Tuesday, and they were talking about the same topic. Charlie was under the impression, as am I, that the NBA gave the Rockets their medical exemption because they felt Mo would be out all year. Now, if the Rockets try and bring him back early to sit out his five games in a year where the games are for the most part meaningless, the NBA would be a little leary of their actions. They'd probably want to have him looked at by their doctors and put him through some drills and there's no gaurantee that it wouldn't blow out on him again. Also, does anybody know how the NBA reacted last year when Zo came off the injured list to finish off the year after the Heat got a medical exemption last year.
I think he should play the last 15 games (well, 10 now) so that we can figure out what we're lookin at when we have to trade a Forward, probably PF, in the offseason. Personally, I think he should return in mid February, so that we can have KT and Griffin getting big minutes at both forward spots, with Rice and Mo T working their way into shape. My hope is that we trade KT for a First rounder, and next year, we play Mo T and Griff at the forward spots, with Rice and Norris forming a very good bench. Mo T or Griff would spend a lot of time at C too. There is no way we can keep KT, and there's no better time to trade him than now, when he has so much playing time and production. We should trade KT to Vancouver for our pick back, then package a player or another first rounder or two for a very very high pick to pick up Yao Ming. I figure, with Cato as the starter, Willis gone, and Mo T and Griffin to chip in at C, Yao Ming could develop very nicely at 15-18 min/game? When he becomes a starter in his 3rd year, then Cato will have shown he's a solid player, and won't have a long contract, plus his salary would be close to the league average, so we could trade him for whatever we'd need then?
Rudy was on tonight and he was MUCH more cautious in his assesment of Mo T. He said they were going to be VERY VERY slow in their handling of him and that the doctors are planning on being very careful with him because it is "such a dangerous injury."
I hope he comes back so we can showcase him and trade his ass! We really need to get from under some of these contracts of mediocre players. Rice might be out for the year, so that takes him out of any kind of equation.
What would happen if this was Taylor's last year in the NBA and he would have been out for the season with the injury and he still got the suspension?