Certainly for Yao. JVG expected more from his pnr defense than Adelman. But overall, I'd say everyone plays harder for JVG, because he measures players by effort and intensity than most coaches. So, he had to rest Yao more. btw: I didn't really consider that regarding Yao until your comment. You're right. 34mpg for JVG might equal 37mpg for Adelman. I'm thinking Yao would play 34mpg for Pop, too, not to "rest" in as much as that's all he could handle given the responsibilities Pop would place on his playing time.
The west is loaded with talents, and the 8th seed team is probably only a few games off the 1st seed. The rockets will probably be playing the likes of Portland, Nuggets, Warriors etc. if we land the 1st seed. However, if that means forcing our stars to play 38 mins a game, its not worth it. Adelman knows his ways, we don't. I'm sure if he dropped 40 mins on McGrady, he'll play him 30 mins next game now that our bench is a lot deeper as well as our aquistion of artest. However, I cannot see why we cannot aim for top seed yet have limited minutes for our superstars. We had to play the second half of last season without Yao and just McGrady, and in the end we were only a few games away from the top seed.
This was exactly my point, plus i remember the Spurs having te top seed a few times and they still managed the starts minutes a lot as today.
I think its a good idea to limit T-Mac and especially Yao's minutes. Should be easier to do this year, because remember, we started off just around .500 halfway through the season last year. We were forced to play our best players big minutes just to make the playoffs. A good start is an absolute necessity for us to even consider limiting minutes.
