why tell the other teams about how many minutes yao will play and the back to back situation. I think they should keep that inhouse every year around this time we get bad news. we will have to hope these other guys step up big time in order for us to make the playoffs.
I think management just want to bring him back slowly. It's more important to have Yao ready by playoff. Our team is so deep this year that we could afford to rest Yao from time to time during the regular season. I am also wondering if morey is doing this to convince someone like dampier that he will get plenty of playing time if he signs with us. Just a thought.
The Rockets have 17 back to backs (if i counted right) in 2010/11. assuming he misses no other games for any reason, he plays 1/2 of 65 games. A net 32.5 games. If anyone's thinking mirrored my own, I was expecting 24 minutes for the 1st 32 games or so (till the end of the year. Then 30 till the playoffs. A net of 47 games. I suppose this compares to an average starter who plays 36 minutes the whole year. A net of 61. And this is out of a possible 48 minutes for 82 games. A net of 82 games. (theoretically) So in reality, we get Yao for about half the time as a 36 minute guy averaging the whole season. 32.5 vs 61.
So whats your strategy on something like this? Suppose you have Memphis game one and Dallas game two. Do you play him vs Memphis for the guaranteed win or be greedy and play against Dallas thinking you can squeeze out close wins in both games?
If the 24 minutes a night cap and not playing both nights of back to backs lasts into the second half of the season then the Rockets can kiss the playoffs goodbye. Chemistry is going to be trashed with guys not knowing their roles from night to night. The Rockets need to fire Clanton, also.
Does any NBA coach have a more challenging job than making this experiment work? I don't think so. Except maybe Karl, because of his health problems.
I'd rather give ourselves a decent chance in both games, then be severely under-manned in one. So, the latter.
We may as well Dump him for a bag of chips. Apparently people still fail to grasp an injury of this nature. You ease him into the game to see how it goes. You don't hit it at 100mph. Here is the simple reasons 1. Only 1 other person has this injury 2. That person played a soft perimeter game 3. Yao is 300lbs not 270lbs 4. You don't want him to suffer an injury prior to the trade deadline or you get ZERO VALUE. 5. You got Brad Miller as your backup Center 6. Because our team is good enough to win 42 games last year without Yao 7. We actually have games on TV.............when Yao is healthy.
Silver lining: we can re-sign Yao for 10M or less after this year. It frees up payroll on our team to get a true 2004 Detroit Pistons-esque staff with five starters all near all-star caliber and a deep bench to boot. Here's another fact that has held true for most of NBA history. With the exception of the 2008 Celtics and maybe this year's Heat, almost every NBA champion has gotten there only after knocking on the door a couple of years. The Bulls struggled to beat the Pistons before breaking through. Kobe's Lakers lost to the Spurs before going back to back most recently. It makes sense to me that unless you score an absolute coup via free agency or trades, that you have to first establish yourself as a power before you get enough experience and clutch-ness on your team to eventually break through to get the big kahuna. We as Rockets fans are a little naive in this regard. We hope that at the very least the most we can ask for preseason is to be a championship contender. This has not been the case most seasons. 2008-2009 we had a shot with Ron Tracy and Yao healthy. (This is why most of us hate T-Mac so much now: he didn't just tank our season, he took our BEST SEASON since 1997 in terms of chances or a championship and stabbed it in the back. Over and over. Toronto. Milwaukee. Many of us have PTSD when recounting these moments. And we STILL took the Lakers 7 games...sigh.) Anyways, where was I...oh yeah, so Rockets fans use our chances for a championship THAT particular year as a barometer for offseason success. When in reality we should not be hoping for that, it's unrealistic to win it out of the blue without acquiring a top 5 player in the process. What we need to hope for instead is the opportunity to become a fixture in the late playoff picture, to make it at least to the second round and preferably the WCF and establish ourselves as a power on the rise, full of young players growing into their games and hungry yet humble stars with enough talent and unselfishness to go out there and win any game. And if that ideal above becomes our hope for to garner out of this year, then I have to say we still have a great, great chance at achieving a meaningful year. When the 2012 playoffs start, we'll be able to look at one another just before each game and yell, "ACT LIKE YOU'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE!"
Yao Mings days as a star are over. If he is willing to sign a cheap contract like 7 million and play 3rd fiddle then re-suign him, if not ADIOS..We cannot go through this every year. Every year we say NEXT YEAR HE WILL BE HEALTHY and we will make our run to only be saying the same thing the year after.
Makes sense to bring him back slow, if nothing else to alleviate all the complaints if Yao gets re-injured early on. They really just don't know. That is all.
Exactly, and the only significantly important empirical evidence is BigZ who was played about 20 mins a game when he came back. Logically, this is a sound approach.
Yeah BIG Z was 25 at the time and didnt have three prior surgeries on his leg. Yao is 5 years older and has had many more injuries then Big Z when he had the surgery.
What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me? I get by with a little help from my friends.
