Thank you very much. Kieth Jones has a very impressive resume, has received awards for being a top NBA trainer, and has worked with past Olympic teams. For people on clutchfans to say our trainers did something wrong when they don't know all the facts, is just silly.
Holy hell.. What do some of you guys expect?? This? Let's blame it on everything else, despite the elephant in the room. A 7'6, 310lb elephant with previous and known, risky, structural ailments.
He was a great ambassador to this team, hell.. I loved him as a player, great attitude, billions of viewers, sponsors and for his never-die attitude, but it's about that time to look ahead for that championship trophy. The city of Houston* needs it, and not so much as China needs it.
Does anyone have a picture of the three stooges to post? I don't think Keith Jones is the problem, but the team physician and his staff, they are suspect when you consider the medical outcomes with Rocket's players.
RV6, I like your perservence to defend the rockets training staff, but when after years of negative results, you have got to at least question some of the things. Maybe its not the training staff but the mis diagnosis is extremely worrying. Twice yao went out with aparrantley nothing severe and on both occasions a stress fracture was discovered. Rockets fans sometimes are to lenient, and ignore the organizations mis-steps.
If there were more players involved i'd tend to agree...but it's 90% tmac or yao and both of those guys are fragile and damaged goods, whether it's as rockets or as par tof any other team. All of the other players brought up do not fit as mis-diagnosis. Maybe With Francis, but even that doesnt seem to be the case.
Its not their fault Yao can't stay healthy. I mean are they suppose to magically turned Yao's foot to steel? The Rockets have some injuries problem this year and most of them are ankle injuries which are cannot be prevented. Taping up the ankle too much will cause knee problems down the road. Most of our players never really have any serious injuries except they happens to land on someone's foot and got hurt. No big deal, just a touch of bad luck. But if we're talking Tmac and Yao Ming, thats a different story. They both will be injured wherever they plays. It doesn't matter what team they're on, they both will be injury prone. Tmac always dealt with back problems because that was an injury he dealt with all his career since his Orlando days. His knees were hurting him and he made it worst by getting the microfracture knee surgery. Yao on the other hand will keep breaking his foot even when he walks from his couch to his fridge. His foot will break if he's walking his dog for too long. His foot will break if he's standing too much. Basically his foot will break no matter where he plays. His massive body just overweights his foot. His foot isn't strong enough to withstand his frame. Basically he has a weak foot and his bone mass isn't as dense. That's just how he was born. Shaq is shorter than Yao but weights much more and he never dealt with foot problems like Yao. That's because his foot is bigger than Yao and his bone mass is much more dense. If Yao had bigger foot then maybe he wouldn't have that problem. A bigger foot means less pounds per square inch which will lighten up some pressure.
BTW, I saw ROckets athletic trainer Keith Jones yesterday afternoon at Best Buy in Sugarland on highway 59. He was nice and talkative. He was behind me in line for in-store pickup. He looked bigger in person. I talked to him about what happened to Yao Ming and how much of a tragedy it was to lose Yao again with the foot injuries. His replies were " that's life, some things you just can't control". After that I didn't want to talk about the Rockets too much to him so I just talked about the holidays season and other off subject things. He seemed like a really cool guy and I can tell why he has a lot of respect from players and coaches.
I agree. Plus am i the only one who noticed yao hobbling during game 3 of the 09 playoffs vs. the lakers? It was so painfully obvious that yao was grimacing and hobbling on his foot in the 4th quarter, yet adelman nor the training staff noticed it to be of any concern and continued keeping him in the game. Having two of your star players practically end their careers on RECURRING injuries, some of which the staff don't properly diagnose (bone bruise??), under the same organization isnt just a coincidence...
It seems like people are under the impression that everyone's body work the same way hence the so call "military treatment" or w/e nonsense workout they saw would be better for them. I'm pretty damn sure Keith Jones is doing whatever he can as well as the medical staff to insure that their players stay healthy. It also seems like people are just trying to find someone to blame. In Yao's and T-mac's case, it was just unfortunate. You have t-mac here who doesnt have a good work ethic compared to players like Jordan, kobe, Grant hill and so on (those who fight to stay in top condition); then you have players like Yao who is freakishly tall and talented but unfortunately, being that height has its weaknesses. Yao is 7'6". Again 7'6". Name someone who's managed to play 7 years+ with his height and weight healthy? No one. Like someone said, his body isn't made to last that long and healthy. We should appreciate for what he has done and just move forward.
It wouldn't be so bad if it was just Yao. Of the Rockets that have worked with our staff for the last 2 years. Battier has played 60 and 67 games in the last 2 seasons. Lowry played only 68 games last year and may only play around 60 something games this season. Brooks will play less than 60 games this year. Budinger has already missed games to injury and may have playing through the injury in his first few weeks after coming back. The other players are new to the Rockets training staff and came in after the all-star break. Only Chuck and Scola have been able to stay healthy.
The number of games players miss will be directly related to the injury they have. Certain injuries just take awhile to heal, there's nothing anyone can do about that. I'm not sure what people want them to do to get guys on the court faster.
Suns had 8 players play 79+ games last season vs the Rockets 3 players(Scola, Hayes, and Brooks) in 79+ games. I rather have prevention than rehab.
How can you prevent someone from landing on another players foot and spraining his ankle (Brooks)? How do you prevent a player from taking a hard foul and getting injured from landing awkwardly?
We should poach some members from the teams with better training staff and find out. They are much better than me or the Rockets staff. Then, we can have a consistent rotation for the bench and starting lineup. Rockets fans have gotten so used to having their players missing several games that it feels normal now. There is something to be said about having a consistent rotation, instead of using 10+ different lineups due to injury. Many of these healthier teams are also playoff contenders. Players with 75+ gp for last season. Rockets Hayes 82 gp Scola 82 gp Brooks 82 gp Suns Dudley 82 gp Stoudemire 82 gp Nash 81 gp Hill 81 gp Frye 81 gp Goric 80 gp Amundson 79 gp Richardson 79 gp Hawks Horford 81 gp MWilliams 81 gp JSmith 81 gp Bibby 80 gp Evans 79 gp Crawford 79 gp Pachulia 78 gp Magic Howard 82 gp Redick 82 gp JWilliams 82 gp Barnes 81 gp Gortat 81 gp Carter 75 gp Pietrus 75 gp Spurs Blair 82 gp Jefferson 81 gp Mason 79 gp Bogans 79 gp Duncan 78 gp Hill 78 gp McDyess 77 gp Mavericks Nowitzki 81 gp Kidd 80 gp Barea 78 gp Terry 77 gp Marion 75 gp Lakers Odom 82 gp Fisher 82 gp Brown 82 gp Farmar 82 gp Artest 77 gp
I'd love to have a consistent rotation but a new training staff won't help. They are certain BB related injuries you cannot prevent. I've been a strength coach for 15 years and have worked with a bunch of athletes so I have some experience in this field. You can prevent things like muscle pulls and strains but joint injuries are hard if not impossible to prevent. Certain joints just aren't meant to move in certain directions and when they do injuries happen. Joint injuries often take longer to heal because they lack the blood flow of soft tissue. The thing you CAN do is try to stay away from injury prone players and I think this has been our problem. Yao and Tmac have been VERY injury prone and it appears their bodies weren't meant to take the pounding of NBA BB. That's how you get a consistent rotation, stay away from guys that are injury prone.
When the Rockets traded for healthy players, they ended up being injury prone too. Shane Battier was not injury prone until he came to the Rockets. Lowry was initially injured severely in his first season, but had to 2 straight seasons of 77+ games(mid season trade 28 gp Rockets). In his first full season with the Rockets, he plays only 68 games. The other guys are 1st/2nd year players or have never been on another team. They have no injury prior to the Rockets to compare.
If I remember correctly Battier's injury was to his ankle, which again isn't preventable. Lowry had back spasms, which can be prevented depending on how they do their core training, but this would be an issue with the SC staff, not the training staff. Lowry also had a bone bruise in his knee which is a collision injury and not preventable - and they hurt like hell by the way. I had a bone bruise in my ankle - horrible pain.
