Assuming Yao goes through the Olympic games with no problems and comes back relatively healthy next year, should the Rox do a better job of limiting his minutes? I've gotta go with yes. We can't make a legit run throughout the playoffs without him. I felt that Rick left him on the court to much this year and it was a recipe for disaster. I'm not saying the injury was his fault, but now that he does have problems, we have to be extra careful. If you feel like I do, this almost certainly means we need an upgrade at backup center. Deke will be another year older and Loren Woods is Loren Woods. Who's the best available back up center in the draft or as a free agent? I
considering we were still winning at a very high rate without him for the last half of the year, rick probably feels safer shaving off 3-4 mpgs on Yao. He should also consider staggering Yao and Tracy's minutes so that Tracy can also get an extra 3-4 minutes of rest per game.
hell yes his minutes need to be reduced. and with scola holding his own, we could always play scola and hayes/landry at the 4-5 to spell yao AND mutombo when we needa go small. it worked pretty well last year (especially the goldenstate game)
Over the summer, yeah they should. I hope he can handle 35 mins a game, but if he can't we'll find out too soooooon enough. I doubt a few minutes a game will make much of a diference. Thinking it would have in retrospect is probably wishful thinking to begin with. Did Deke ever talk about his minutes this season? He seemed fresh enough when we needed him. Should we worry about his minutes if Yao plays fewer of them? He's a freak of nature but even Robert Parish got too tired to play eventually.
If he keeps breaking down every season, then so be it, that way we won't have to pay him the rest of his contract and we can move on and rebuild the team.
Both Yao and T-Mac should play 32-34 mpg. We need to get good enough players to not suck so much when they are on the bench. That way the risk for injuries will decrease , and they will be fresher for 4th quarters.
how about giving him the pre season off? We can say he had personal matter to attend.(acquiring new weapons in WOW) It's just pre season.
It depends....it depends what the roster looks like. Moreover, I think the last two injuries were caused by outside factors, so I wouldn't worry too much about him breaking down just yet. But, anyway, yes, his minutes need to be reduce, he doesn't need to be in the game when we are up by more than 15. We would work for both parties, we can run and shoot more, while letting Yao get rest. But I think Adelman and Co. already know this...so it is nothing new.
It is inevitable that Yao should not be averaging more than 30 min of PT per game in the season to ensure a better chances of him playing deep into the playoffs. Yao probably need to play more minutes in the playoffs for us to go deep.
I say limit him to 30-32 MPG like early in his career. On those rare nights where it's a tight game against a tough team or where T-Mac is out with an injury(you know we'll have at least a few of those), he can go for 35-38 minutes. Yao had to log heavy minutes the first half of last season because of the ridiculously tough schedule, the lack of scoring from Rafer and Shane, and Luis Scola and Carl Landry not being key players in the rotation yet. All of that will be different this season.
Yao can handle the minutes now so why limit him? 30MPG is too little for somebody that is suppose to be a Superstar franchise player.
How about dumping his shoe contract and getting some shoes that really support his feet. Didn't JVG raise this issue sometime ago?
He can? When he first came here, his wind and breathing was the issue. That could be addressed through increased cardio. Yeah he can handle that end of it, but a stress fracture is something that can't be messed with and to my knowledge there is not a lot you can do to prevent it other than good shoes and something for bone density. I would assume those are being done.
Only if the Rockets want him healthy for the playoffs. Anything over 30 minutes a night is just begging for disaster.
yes, thats why we should get a back up for him who can play productively at 10-15 min per game at center