Yao Ming will not play more than 24 minutes in any game this season

Exactly. Les needs to bite the bullet and let him go or trade him.

 

Man if we are gonna do it like that and possibly cause chemistry issues, might as well just go all in and trade for Melo because that is the only way we are gonna be semi-respectable if Yao is in and out of the lineup.

 

Our chemistry is gonna be effed up either way, might as well do with a star that is at least somewhat durable.

I can't believe the Org is gonna do that after the whole T-Mac debacle that transpired 2 seasons ago and even last year. You just can't have a guy, who is an important part of your rotation in and out of the lineup and not cause chemistry issues.

This is turning into another T-Mac situation, but even worse because Yao is more important to the team success than T-Mac was during the Ron-Yao era.

 

You replying to you'reself??

 

Can't edit post.

 

No problem. All is good.

 

By announcing Yao is going to play only 24mins a game, do you know what the other teams are thinking of the Rockets right now?? They're not going to scare anybody anymore. The Rockets should not make mandatory announcement that Yao is limited to just 24mins. Rather, they should say they're going to limit Yao's minutes in the beginning and see how he go and try to add more minutes as the season go on. I think 28-30mins is the more appropriate figures.

Imagine Lakers announcing Bryant is going to be playing only 24mins a game, every team in the league is going to be licking their chops.

 

Yeah, I still don't get why they made that announcement public.

 

I think you missed my point. And you're arguing technicalities on the average thing. The overall point is that the team is going to have a hard time gelling with Yao coming in and out of the lineup, he completely changes the entire tempo of the game when he is in, it's not like they can play the same style with or without him. And the point on the minutes average is that even if he averages 23.4 minutes per game or whatever, that isn't really representative of the minutes he is actually contributing over the course of the season because he will miss like 20 games due to back to backs where he will play 0.

 

I don't understand this announcement

 

Henry Abbott's (ESPN TrueHoop) take:

[rQUOTEr]Yao Ming should come off the bench. Daryl Morey says the center will play no more than 25 minutes per game as part of his injury recovery. Morey has said in the past that Yao is literally the most effective player in the NBA while the team is in the bonus. Well, they're never in the bonus at tip-off. Let his teammates -- who have been selected in no small part for their ability to draw fouls -- get some whistles going, and then bring him in like a closer. Also, TrueHoop reader Rob asks a solid question about this decision to limit Yao to two quarters of play: "I never know what to make of these kinds of decisions. Are there any studies showing a correlation between minutes played and injuries? Might it not be better to play 10 minutes a game, 16? Perhaps playing 40 minutes but always having a day off between games would be better? How likely is it that 50% of a game is exactly correct? Isn’t it great how human beings like 'medium' and like to cut things into half?"[/rQUOTEr]

I kinda agree with him. Rockets might need to sell some tickets by starting Yao but for the benefit of the team, Yao better play the major part of his 25 minutes while the team is in the bonus.

[Edit: Link: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop]

 

2 years too late. Shoulda rolled this plan out in '08.

 

The minutes need to increase as the season progresses and as he becomes more re-accustomed to the NBA grind, however if this 'sitting out the second game of a back-to-back' model is going to be employed I am not at all opposed to bringing him off the bench.

You can't just have a pivotal starter floating in-and-out of the rotation on a nightly basis. We all know the end result whenever McGrady was allowed that freedom. It screws with cohesion and constantly leaves your best four guessing who they're playing with that night.

To start a player means you are relying on them. At this point, relying on Yao is a costly risk. Sure, we all hope for the best and ideally this conservative/cautious approach will ultimately result in him being 80-90% of the player he used to be by the end of the season. If that happens, great. Given that he's a bit of a wild card, perhaps he really is best suited coming off the bench?

Tough call. Hopefully, he can just play the 24 in EVERY game rather than leaving us all guessing.

 

so can we call him "Half Ming" ?

 

I understand the whole "rocking the chemistry" thing, but I'm still trying to figure out where you are going with the minutes. If he averages 23.4 minutes and plays 65 games, then over the course of 65 games he averaged 23.4 minutes. There is no misrepresentation about it. It will be known that he missed 17 games, but averaged 23.4 minutes in the games that he actually played in. His contributions will be evident, because people will look at what he did over those 65 games.

 

It's so its enshrined that the purpose is to have him fit for the playoffs.

Other teams would have figured it out after 2 games anyway, whilst already thinking it'd be about 25 mins anyway.

 

My theory:

http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showpost.php?p=5576530&postcount=43

 

Winning cures everything.

 

D00d, join the roller-coaster ride, it's a lot more fun that way.

 

IF HE STAYS HEALTHY ..

It will be hard to resist the temptation of increasing his minutes ..

And With Yao its gonna be hard to keep him on that time cap ..