It all depends on the situation of the team when the doctors give Yao the go signal. A winning season with a chance to move up would be an opportunity that Yao can not ignore.
Unless Tracy comes out and looks 5 years younger, and our other players are playing the best basketball of their lives, no need to rush Yao back into this season. Unless we look like we will have a strong chance at the title, keep him off the court as long as possible. I'd rather have 1 crap season and keep Yao for a few more years, then try and rush him.
Great news, but I think it all depends on where the Rockets are in the WC standings at the time that he could potentially come back....
100% fully agreed, especially considering the superb job our doctors have done diagnosing his ailments up to this point.
I don't know, this doesn't give me much encouragement for him helping out at any point as a starter next season. Say he comes back, do you really put someone in that has been out 3/4 of the season or more? My best hope for Yao is really to make it into the lineup as a backup somewhere in the second half of the season, maybe with fewer minutes he'll actually make it through the playoffs.
From a fan's standpoint, and for the sake of Yao's career, I would much rather him sit out this entire next year, so that he can finally, once and for all, deal with this problem the proper way. However, from the Rockets' standpoint, I can totally understand why they would want him to play. It has nothing to do with making the playoffs, or even competing this coming season. It has everything to do with seeing what kind of commodity they have in Yao as his contract year approaches. From a purely business view, it would be beneficial to see if Yao has (or has the potential to) fully recovered, and to see what kind of value he brings to the team. Again though, personally, I wish he WOULD sit out the entire year.
Sit him out all year. Yao has always been a guy who is very, very slow to regain his from when he comes back from injuries. Some guys who miss a lot of time get their timing back and shake the rust off in a few weeks. Yao seems to take months. I think he would have to return immediately after the All Star break in order to get his game up to par as well as have the team "gel" around him in time to make a playoff run. I don't see him coming back that early so let's save him for 2010-2011.
I wish he would sit too but....... We are talking about a guy who lives and breaths basketball.....and asking him to sit...... He is coming back and nobody is telling him otherwise.
Move up from what? Lottery-bound to the 8th spot? We need him 100% recovered and if the doctors say he's 100% recovered this season then, sure, suit him up. But I'm in the frame of mind that a 90% Yao playing with this current group of Rockets aren't going to be any better than, say, 6th seed at best with another golden opportunity for a 1st Round knockout. This, of course, is assuming that McGrady gives us absolutely NOTHING next season. With Yao out, this is a bittersweet opportunity for the young players to gain experience and confidence in their game (namely Chase, Brooks, Landry, and to a certain extent Ariza). If they can improve their play on the court in Adelman's system and do it without Yao in the middle, once Yao comes back this will be a far better team.
i agree...if we are in the plaoffs, he will play...if we are out, they will rest him even if he is healthy....
Morey is trying to help ticket sales. The fact is it is unlikely yao comes back as a guy who can play 35min for an entire season.
I don't think Morey is lying. He's been honest for the most part and said maybe. Give him a break. Helping ticket sales is a must in his shoes, but I don't think it hasn't been ruled out at this point in time and it could definitely happen. Hell, who would have thought T-mac would be playing by this point. Doctors give worst case scenarios for heal times when it comes to high dollar clients because they don't want to risk looking bad.
That's really good news. Best case scenario is T-Mac comes back at the beginning of the season and help carry the Rockets to the playoffs which, hopefully Yao will be fully recovered by then and we'll give the Lakers a beatdown and Artest doing nothing about it...
I wouldn't be surprised at all. It would be kind of ironic that the year we finally do some damage in the postseason is the year no one (Rockets fans included) expects a darn thing out of the team.
