I heard morey this morning on 610. He said 24 min is a hard cap and yao will not play back to back. They were talking about him only playing the second half of games. He was emphasizing that this came straight from the docs. This is starting to sound like the tmac situation.
Considering all of that, the pursuit of additional centers makes more sense. But one will have to see how the season plays out. It certainly makes sense to talk like that while you are pursuing additional centers (where else would they see their playing time).
They are being uber- cautious with him, sounds like they are setting the public up with the worst case scenario. And then they will adjust his schedule as they get more information about how he is holding up etc. DD
I have been saying that for more than 2 years.......it is always about 2011-12, and not anything else. Once TMac and Yao went down, it is the after party the organization is focused on, they will make a decision on Yao after this year....stay or go...and that will the key to whether they are contenders or pretenders. DD
There are 19 back-to-backs this season. So, if the Rockets follow these restrictions all year, Yao will play at maximum 24 minutes per game and 63 games. And add on top of that the uncertainty of Yao's effectiveness after a year off. Maybe Dwyer wasn't off his rocker when he projected Yao to be 11th best center this season.
I am not really suprised. But can we get to the playoffs with him playing only 63 game and averaging 24 minutes?
I'm depressed...I REALLY hope AB, Martin and Bud become stars, Yao turns into one hell of a closer, Hill and Patterson develop into something good and Scola goes into Beastmode more often.
I want him to see playoffs, if that means limited time, so be it. If he snaps like a twig or performs Jazz-like, then we know not to put more eggs in that basket.
i think how he is played should be based on match ups and what type of offense we will be playing. remember, Yao now have more help than he ever had throughout his career, Rockets is now stacked with good players, Martin/Scola/AB/Lowry/Miller. so if say we have a back to back game of SAS/PHX, he would certainly be playing in the SAS game and not the PHX game. he needs to be cautious and not rush him back. he should not play back to backs until at least after All Star Weekend when the doctors can have better understanding of his healing process. lets keep our fingers crossed.....
Other than the 1,000 car pile-up of posts this offseason, like every other, saying that the Rockets were true NBA title contenders "THIS YEAR" (caps yours) - so they should "STAND PAT" - this assessment is correct.
our front office has a nasty little habit of lying to the public about players' injuries, going back at least the past decade. in fact when CBud went down and the statement released said "4-6 weeks" i automatically made a "real-time" calculation that he'll be out 6-8 weeks minimum. i would not be surprised if yao is held out of a lot more than 19 games.
So, without an injury this year . . . we are basically getting what we've gotten from Mr. Ming during his injury seasons . . . don't want to see what happens when he does go down. yikes.
What I don't understand is why they didn't limit his minutes before the injury? They should know that a guy as big as him would prematurely have foot/feet problems...
