So if he is fully recovered then why let him play limited minutes? If you are concerned about him stressing it again, then how do they ever plan to let him return to full minutes?
It's not that they're necessarily concerned with him getting the exact same stress fracture. I guess it's possible, but the realigment is suppose to "fix" that cause. The problem now is that they can't know for sure if this realigment will work and/or if there will be no bumps on the road. They know by now that mechanically it's working, he can function without issues. However, they don't know how it'll handle the repetitions and banging of an NBA season. By limiting it, yet still subjecting him to it consistently, they can monitor his progress and are more likely to notice any issue before it turns into a huge one. This doesnt mean it'll be this way forever, they just need to "test" it out for a few months to make sure it's all working.
WTF MAN YAO IS QUITTING ON HIS TEAM BY NOT PLAYING BACK TO BACKS. HES A DISTRACTION THE TEAM HAS TO ADJUST THEIR GAME PLAN BECAUSE HES IN AND OUT SO MUCH.
what good is it going to do to keep him out? he has to play some to continue the rehab process. i'm guessing you have never had a major injury.
How long did it take Z to play regular minutes? Wasn't he averaging around 30 minutes in his first year back?
Let Yao walk at the end of this year. Seriously, it's only problems after problems with the guy. I don't care if he's a good guy with great work ethics. He is NOT DURABLE. This will be his 6th year in a row plagued by injuries! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me 6 times... I'm just freakin stupid at that point!
Yes. We dump him to the Heat or OKC and get... cap space and draft picks. Or the Lakers acquire Yao on the cheap to back up Gasol, and it's revealed that DM has been a secret agent for Jerry Buss all along.
Because every team is in a different situation. We've had our history with Yao and it's wearing on the fans, nor is it looking like it will get us to a championship. I'm sure the Rockets get that. How much in assets returned is Yao worth? I don't think you could trade him to a team that's even sniffing the playoffs or seriously wants to win. A team would acquire Yao now in order to put people in the seats and win some Chinese contracts. Sure, they'd want him to play and play like an all-star, but it would still feeling like they got something out of it anyway. It wouldn't hurt if the city had a high Asian population as well. Oh, and Yao is an expiring contract. I keep thinking about Golden State having potential. Maybe Cleveland, Toronto, Khan!, etc. Maybe NO would consider trading Okafor for Yao...salary relief, potential all-star to keep Paul around...
I think this 24M number is only meaningful for the first month. It can go up or go down or remain the same after that. Best case scenario: Yao plays full 24M effectively every game and feels no pain whatsoever after that. Then you have to increase his time or trade him (TMac treatment), it is his contract year. Worst case scenario: Yao retires ..
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I wonder what is going to happen if the Rockets struggle, and it doesn't look like they'll make the Playoffs. Then will the Rockets choose to play Yao more or stay the course?
I think no back-to-backs would mean just not playing one of the games, not both. That is about 9 games, and not 19. That's not too bad, especially if well chosen and other centers are playing well. He could still play 70 something games.
Year↓ Team↓ GP↓ GS↓ MPG↓ FG%↓ 3P%↓ FT%↓ RPG↓ APG↓ SPG↓ BPG↓ PPG↓ 1997–98 Cleveland 82 81 29.0 .518 .250 .762 8.8 .9 .6 1.6 13.9 1998–99 Cleveland 5 5 34.2 .509 .000 .600 8.8 .8 .8 1.4 15.2 2000–01 Cleveland 24 24 25.7 .487 .000 .679 6.7 .8 .6 1.5 11.7 2001–02 Cleveland 62 23 21.4 .425 .000 .754 5.4 1.1 .3 1.4 11.1 2002–03 Cleveland 81 81 30.0 .441 .000 .781 7.5 1.6 .7 1.9 17.2 2003–04 Cleveland 81 81 31.3 .483 .286 .746 8.1 1.3 .5 2.5 15.3 2004–05 Cleveland 78 78 33.5 .468 .286 .799 8.6 1.3 .7 2.1 16.9 2005–06 Cleveland 78 78 29.3 .506 .000 .834 7.6 1.2 .5 1.7 15.6 2006–07 Cleveland 78 78 27.3 .485 .000 .807 7.7 1.6 .6 1.3 11.9
Calm down folks. The Rockets will make it to the playoffs this year and, when they get there, all bets are off. Let us leave it to the doctors, management, training staff and coaches to make the decisions as to how they see feel are the best arrangements for the team, the organization and Yao. Once season gets underway, then we shall see.
