I agreed and have no doubt that Yao's injury is because of him being overused because there are times when Yao move extremely quick on the court...like he's a point guard or something...and there are times like he's laboring even at the start of the game. You can tell what kind of Yao you're getting in the game by watching him move in the beginning of the game..if he moves fast and quick...you're going to get an aggressive Yao ...if he moves slow, it could be a long day. I can't blame the Rockets for playing Yao too many minutes though because the ROX REALLY need him in the game to compete especially when the game is CLOSE and in jeopardy of losing. Unless you have a reliable backup that you can rely on more often.
Yao is an efficient, tall shooter who alters shots and ultimately gives the Rockets the advantage. If not Yao, who should we build the team around? Instead of playing an efficient player, you want to develop someone with those minutes? You really think we'd have a better chance of winning a championship with Yao on the bench while we train somebody to be good a few seasons later?
What scenario would you propose? If you think the Rockets wouldn't beat the Lakers with a healthy Yao in the 1st round, then you definitely think we wouldn't win the championship since we'd face the Lakers at some point. Is your proposed scenario better than last season? Getting past the first round, but limited in the second round against a better team due to injury? Don't get me wrong, I was overjoyed to make it into the 2nd round, but there's no point in getting to the second round if you lose your best player.
The goal is the championship, not some 2nd rd showing. What do i propose? If you've read enough of what i write its everywhere. The rockets are going nowhere if they have to depend on yao to get them there. Take that for your interpretation but i can't see any scenerio in which yao is counted on producing all star numbers and the rockets winning anything. I hope yao comes back strong and can play to all star capabilities, but i highly doubt that happens. Now if they rockets can get a elite level talent somehow, then their chances get better, but yap coming back ain't gonna do it.
I would go as far as saying no back to backs as long as the team is easily sitting in the top 8. The team has shown at close to full strength it can compete and beat most teams. With all the injuries over the years these guys are used to not having people in the lineup every night so I think they could manage it. I certainly do thing his schedule needs to be reduced in some way though, if not just a lot lower minutes.
I'm not sure what your point is. Of course it's unlikely that Yao can lead us to a championship. But the alternative isn't going to do us any good either. It's not as if Morey just turned down the Yao for Lebron trade. Or that Wade will sign with us if we freed up Yao's salary in the offseason. It's basically Yao or no Yao. And I still Yao and his huge baggage over this season's debacle. I don't even care that our chances of winning a championship is only maybe 5% with him. It sure as hell better than watching us fail against the Kings and Pacers every week. I don't know about you, but I felt much happier as a fan last year than this year. And I don't want to sit through year(s) of tanking to get a top 5 pick for our next superstar.
The alternative is better. We get a couple of chances of drafting a impact player to turn it around like Magiic, when they got threw injury-prone T-Mac on the Rockets management and started rebuilding. Or you could go no chance of winning the ring by riding a 30-40 yr Yao every year for the next decade. If we are lucky then we can toss Yao to NY, and get more draft pickss.
The thing about leeb's call for rebuilding is how would it be done? Yao's here for at least one more year. There is ZERO chance we would trade the guy for obvious reasons anyways so what do we have to lose? The way I see it, it's simple. We load up on Yao one more time for next season, aim for a championship, and see what happens. If it succeeds, yay. If it utterly fails, then the Rockets are ALREADY in good shape to start rebuilding after the 2010-11 season, as we would have a crapton of cap space (the only guys who would be on our roster after that season as of now are Martin, Ariza, and probably our first rounder in this draft) and a lot of draft picks thanks to New York. So it all works out. < Good. >
All I know is when Yao gets brought up 2 people always like to shoot down any Hope the Team may have. Ya let's rebuild for next 5 years of round 2 of the SF and Cat show. Exactly what AB and KM is. I am down with 1 more year of, let's try something to maximiza Yao so we have our best injury prone player on the floor. Better than rebuilding for the next five years. If you are really a Rocket Fan you better be hoping Yao recovers for the sake of 2 things 1. Better chance to win 2. Increase trade value.
If Yao breaks his foot by February, he should be traded as an expiring contract to a team dumping salary before the new CBA. There should be no question about it, if the goal is a championship instead of a 1st round exit.
It would be the other way around. You would have to have ask the Spurs to reduce Duncan's games and minutes to Yao's level. If Duncan gets in early foul trouble, he sits. If the Spurs get blown out early and Popovich gets pissed with their effort, occasionally he will bench all the starters. If Duncan gets injured like an ankle twist or falls down, he sits. Other than that, he plays 78 games a season and averages 34 min/game and 500 more total minutes than Yao each season. Yao averaged 59 games played for the last 4 seasons. Duncan averaged 78 games played for the last 4 seasons. Duncan 78 games - Yao 59 games = Duncan plays 19 more games than Yao. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/duncati01.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mingya01.html It must be fun to make up a premise about Duncan to support your ideas on how to use Yao and have a whole forum of posters believe you.
Really now? You'd rather sit through a 21 win season(and hitting the lottery jackpot), two 36 win seasons, a 40 win season... all worse than what the Rockets are on pace to win this year btw... rather than taking chances with Yao? I mean, even if as a fan you can sit through four years of mediocrity on par with our dribble-mania days, there's no way Les is willing to take the financial hit it involves. Nor is Morey going to purposely deplete our talent for the sake of high draft picks.
I think we should have him play less minutes(not that yao would ever agree to that) and occasionally rest him against bad teams and unimportant games(nets, warriors)
Yea I guess I was wrong, but in those years he played 68 and 69 games I'm SURE they sat him to rest him up. He may not sit as much now because of the fact they need him more just to get into the playoffs. I'm sure they sat him because he was on my fantasy teams both those years and I got ridiculously frustrated. And even if I'm wrong about Duncan after those years, sitting Yao IMO would be helpful to us. He is fragile for whatever reason (I think it mostly has to do with the fact that he is 7'6" and never before has a center that big been asked to do anything significant).
Did you even look at the real numbers before posting this? http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/duncati01.html Outside of last year (his 13th in the league) he only missed more than 10 games in a year twice, so I don't think the Spurs purposely hold him out. He also averaged more than 36.6 minutes per game for his career.
In '03-04, when he missed at least 6 games after injuring his thigh against the Mavericks. He had a few bumps and bruises that caused him to miss a game here and there also. http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/7121866 In '04-05, the Spurs lost Duncan for 16 games, after he sprained his ankle against the Pistons. Spurs fans thought their season was over, after losing Duncan in the last 2 months of the season. http://espn.go.com/nba/recap/_/id/250320008/san-antonio-spurs-vs-detroit-pistons They sit Duncan like Yao Ming. When something breaks, Duncan sits.
