the Larry Smith reference? Back when Yao first joined the Rockets, Larry was an assistant to Rudy T. A massive amount of 'Yao' fans joined clutchfans. When Larry took over for Rudy when Rudy was out, he didn't choose to play Yao alot of minutes. All the Yao fans were angry at Larry Smith, who was known to us long time fans as hardworking hero. His most famous Rockets tenure was when Dream was out for a ton of games, and Larry started at center and grabbed a billion rebounds. Larry Smith was suddenly the most hated person in clutchfans because of the Yao fans wanting him to give Yao more playing time. But the Rockets Gods frowned upon these Yao fans for disrespecting Larry Smith and you see that Yao is cursed with a bad foot. The irony in the later years of Yao is that all the Yao fans don't want him to play much so that he won't get hurt. here's the famous thread: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=132939 I hope the Rocket gods have forgiven those fans Yao should be healthy for good!
Im all for limiting his minutes to 20 to 25 a game for most of the season. Then upping it to 30 minutes in the playoffs and perhaps beyind in some crucial situations. Certainly against all this Tmac bullcrap popping up where we kid glove him with missing every other game or back to back nights. Thats stuff gets us nowhere and teaches nothing about him or gets him ready to perform night after night in the long run anyways. I hate the missing games concept unless they are just holding him back for more rehab until he is definately 100% to go for every single game. Nomore Tmac mess here guys. Its all in or its a no go. We should have learned from Tmac by now miss a game then start leads to disaster.
lol so you'd rather Yao overplay because you're butthurt over Tmac? option 1: limit Yao's minutes in meaningless regular season games and have him 100% for the playoffs option 2: overplay Yao during the season even before he's in playing shape because of Tmac and roll the dice on our post season. OPTION 2.
Thats what I said. Limit his play in minutes. Not do any of these games I hear people want him to sit out on back to backs though or miss one game then start another. To me thats silly. He should go all season and not miss games but limited in minutes. Steadily increase them in the playoffs by round.
It doesn't matter what you all say, Yao Ming will be playing restricted minutes in the early part of the season. The Club Coach & Manager have stated this fact.
He is 300 pounds and hasn't played professionally in over a year and a half by the time the season starts. Even if he hadn't been injured and had major surgery, this would be a recipe for disaster. His body just can't support itself for 40 minutes a night over 6 months. Doesn't matter how much desire he has. His body won't allow it.
I don't get why 5 extra minutes a night, or a max of 20 extra minutes a week is going to make the difference between being fully healthy or out for the season. So in a way I guess I agree with the OP. It's not like he wouldn't be practicing during that time. I think it's been proven that he's most needed on defense. So let him play the high post on offense, clog the lane on defense and be on the court longer. This team has plenty of ammo offensively. Go to the low post in the 4th if we need it. Perfect coach/system for this.
Is Yao worth a max extension if he can only play 25 minutes a game? And even playing a reduced role brings no guarantees that he'll stay healthy.
Man....I think some people really hate Yao Ming. The question is: WHY???? Yao Ming is a special talent. Easily #1 center if he's healthy. He's also a great guy, team mate, and genuinely a guy you want to root for. But the guy still has haters. Why?
The rationale behind limiting his minutes early on in the season is so we can have it at 100% come playoff time, and to allow him to play us all the way to a championship. He's gone out in or near the playoffs on more than once occasion because of the stress of the long season on his abnormally huge and dominant physique. The only reasonable thing to do if we want to help ensure he is capable come playoff time is to build him up to the playoffs, not keep repeating the same strategy over and over that has resulted in multiple injuries..
The goal for this team is 1 thing - Rings. Your goal is not to play a 300+ lb player coming back from reconstructive foot surgery max minutes to see if he'll hold up to resign. Seriously people...Focus on the prize and how it can be obtained.
I just finished a workout with one of my friend, he has been playing video games and lazy for the last six month, and he still thought he can do whatever workout he was doing six months ago. So he literally throw up on the running mill. so ye, i'm totally in for the "don't limit Yao's minutes, watch and laugh" plan.
T-Mac hurt the team because he wanted to come back early and he wasn't ready but he wanted more minutes. Yao is ready but wants less minutes to get back into game shape. Limiting his minutes is not only to get him physically ready but mentally also, he had a major surgery and is probably a little nervous about playing and re-injuring it. I would imagine the coaching staff will have a hard time making Yao sit when he feels he can help and wants to keep playing.
This is how i feel and i felt the same about tracy. I want to see what i have without restrictions. I used my rig fresh out the shop as an example. Rig needed an overhaul at 1m miles. New injectors,turbo the works. When i paid the 12k for the work, i wanted and needed to make sure she was ready. Picked up a load of budweiser heading to odessa. I wanted to make sure she was ready. Now I couldve babied her at 64mph, but whatgood is that when the rig will run probably 105 even with a full load. Got on the other side of i-20 and opened the rig up. She was pushing 85 up the granger hill and i new everything was cool. Now, if she had been herking and jerking and dropping speed on that incline, i wouldve taken her back to freghtliner and told them they did a sorry job. Even coming back, I had her wide open and the truck didn't skip a beat. The basics are, you don't now until you test the limits. The same goes for my truck and yao's foot. If they baby it, give yao a huge contract and expect him to play big minutes and his foot goes out next year, then the team is screwed. If they give him big minutes this year and he holds up, then reward the guy. If his foot goes out or he breaks down, pat him on the back and tell him thanks and move on. All the kid gloves stuff is for the birds.
i don't believe he will be limited due to his foot. it will be because he isn't in game shape yet. as the season progresses he will return to his full minutes by the playoffs at the latest.
Maybe not to us, but from Les's POV if he is paying Yao $21M per year and Yao is generating $40M per year, it is a no brainer. Unfortunately, he has the $21M and the rest of us don't. At least I know I don't. I know we want the team to win, but I am sure Les bought the team to make money. The making of the money will influence a lot of decisions. Unlike other players, the max salary commanded by Yao is for off the court reasons. Most max players in the league are not only max players because they can help a team win, they are max players because people will pay to come and watch them help the team win.
