If you look at the first three years of yao's career he avg about 30 minutes and he played nearly the full season. The last 4 years the average has been 35 minutes a games and he missed around 90 games. For better or worse Yao is the the franchise and if we are going to give him a max contract we need him to be somewhat healthy. Therefore RA or whoever the coach is should have strict orders not play him 40 minutes and try to average close to 30 minutes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is smaller than yao, and he doesn't play more than 30 minutes and he has been healthy the last few years. Unfortunately Yao can't overcome the limits of the human body so it is time Morey or Les lay down the law.
I dunno... aside from that stress fracture Yao's injuries seem to be freak accident type injuries not predisposed ones. You can't prevent people falling on his feet, sprained ankles, etc...
I rather have Yao play the limited minutes and not be tired in the fourth quarter. Rockets need to start looking into Yao's shoes those things don't look like they can handle Yao's big legs.
I have maintained this for years. When players get tired, they are much more prone to injury and they distribute their weight more awkwardly, etc. Just my 2 cents. Yao is way too heavy to run up and down more than 30 minutes at NBA intensity. Ah well. Injuries would still happen, but they would be fewer and it could extend (could have extended?) his career a year or two.
So you rather Yao play 30 mins and lose and not 40mins and stay competitive and win?? I think what Rick Adelman does is right!! He plays Yao according to game situation. When the team is in dangerous of losing, he can't afford not to have Yao in there. Unless, you have someone like Tmac out there who can provide offense. But Yao is needed in there so we don't lose the edge is a competitive close game. Now if we have like 10pts lead or something and Adelman is not sitting Yao, then you can criticize him for that....but i don't see Adelman is doing anything wrong here.
Of course these are Playoffs game. But if it's a regular season game, i think Adelman would rest Yao even if we're down by 5 or so points. Yao is critical for the success of the team both offensively and defensively. Comparing him to Zygauzkas are not the same. Zygauska is not as big and heavy as Yao and he doesn't take the same pounding as Yao and they probably have better backup for him. So don't even compare...
This is my one major complaint of Rick Adelman. He plays Yao Ming entirely too much. He definitely needs a 30-34 minute cap.
I agree. Limiting his minutes will make it so that he is much more effective and efficient during the time he is in there. 30-32min/game wouldn't be that much of a change (7-8min/qtr instead of 9-10/qtr currently). Given his ankle sprain, it may be something that RA has no choice about now.
I am pissed off that RA promised he would reduce Yao's playing time after his last injury. However he played Yao with avg 40 mins to start this season until the management intervened
