I think Rudy will bring Ming off the bench for about 2 months and give him 20 mins per game or so. Hopefully, he will have performed well enough to merit consideration for starting. Thoughts? I'm definitely going to get opening night tix this year. I want to see this Ming live.
My guess, he basically dosen't play at all this year. Only to "show off" the top pick and make the fans happy. Year two, rotation player, but clearly the sub. Porus defense means he can't be in when the game is on the line. Dosen't get starters time till Cato's contract is up. Ouch!
I think Ming will play a lot of minutes in the first year. RT, CD, rocket funs were all bored by the present crappy rockets team. Ming is the last straw
Ming will start every game for the rockets. The Chinese government wont have Yao coming off the bench.
If he can hit the open jumpers, I'd bet he'll be playing a lot. However, he will get into foul troubles if given significant minutes, so I think that fouls will be the limiting factor on his PT.
An injury during pre-season cuts his season short. China takes him back and he never returns to the states. Just Kidding. Hope I didnt jinx anything. He will start within a month of the season.
Not exactly though, since the Sharks are quoted saying they only want Ming to play 40% of the time, and be "developed" with 60% of the time. They repeatedly said they don't want Yao Ming to be "used" by being played too much, without being developed. No, I have no idea what that means either.. Li Yaomin isn't really a basketball man.
2 years atleast. That's how long it will take him to get his strength up learn the plays which will be way different, and get full understanding of the physical NBA which he still hasn't fully experienced. The average for a center is over three years. He's not about to be the exception to every rule, atleast be realistic. He's not going to be the greatest player ever. All the coaches say he will be great, but they also say he won't be the best player in the league.
His height - 7 and a half minutes before his feet hit the floor running and his feats don't fail us now.
My guess is he will start after Cato is injured. If Cato is not injured then he/we will have to wait until after the allstar break.
NJRocket, I totally agree with you. Cato is a fair excuse for a poor excuse...at best. That being said, sometimes Rudy gets weird about sitting veterans down in favor of rookies. Hope that's not the case with Ming. Dallas Rocket
I just don't see Ming coming in and starting the first game. He is not going to get a full training camp to learn the system and he needs to get used to playing with the team. Cato knows the system and is NBA experienced. Trust me Ming needs to be worked in slowly and get accustomed to NBA speed and the banging that goes on inside the paint which is totally different than in China. We don't need to shatter his confidence by throwing him into the wolves right off the bat. This is going to be a very important player for us so we need to do it right.
First Cato injury, or when\if he starts out-playing Cato & Collier in practice. Rudy seems to be one of those 'earn your position' type coaches. But even if\when Ming starts, I still wouldn't expect to see him play more than 30-35 minutes per game. More than likely, the C situation will be a little like a 2-headed monster scenario.
The real question is how many minutes will he get? To get a rough comparison, and to see how Rudy likes to play rookies, let's look at Eddie Griffin's minutes last year: 26 per game. KT got about 34, meaning that over the season Eddie got the other 14 minutes per game (34 + 14 = 48) at PF and 12 at SF/C. (These are rough numbers and assume that either KT and/or Eddie were on the floor at all times - also ignores games missed by KT and/or Eddie as well as OT games. Should be close enough though.) So one way to look at Ming's projected minutes will be to look at EG's 14 minutes at PF last year and say that's about what Ming will get his first year (one reason EG got the other 12 SF/C minutes is his versatility on the floor and the ability to play multiple positions - my guess is that Ming will need smaller, quicker frontcourt players around him to be effective and you won't see him and Cato together on the court). Remember too that with MoT back it cuts into the minutes that EG will get at PF, (same with Rice at SF) meaning EG will probably still get some PT at center as well. So the minutes in the front court might be distributed as follows: KT.............22 minutes MoT..........20 minutes EG............28 minutes Cato.........15 minutes Ming..........20 minutes Rice...........25 minutes #15 pick....14 minutes 03-04 season projections: KT/MoT.........27 minutes EG................35 minutes Cato.............10 minutes Ming..............32 minutes Rice...............15 minutes #15 pick........25 minutes Major assumptions in the above projections: 1. EG continues developing and plays significant minutes at SF and C as well as PF 2. Either KT or MoT is gone after 02-03 (Rox either lose KT to free agency or are able to unload MoT and his contract after he has a decent 02-03 season ) 3. Ming and #15 pick develop 4. No major injuries 5. TMo and Willis are the odd men out 6. No more 3 guard lineup!
This year. . . .Expect to see a new Cato. he will play through injuries . . .he will dive for balls . . he will do all the little things. . .and at the end of 2 months he will be brooding on the end of the bench!! Rocket River
