it seems like injuries have cursed us EVERY single year the past 4-5 years and it's really pissing me off. i really believe we are a contender this year with our full team. the injuries this year have basically been "freak" injuries: tmac's elbow, knee, and shoulder all have been from freak injuries yao's stress fracture came out of nowhere (though it's from playing too much) rafer's injury came at the most inopportune time (before the playoffs) battier's injury came during the series landry's injury caused him to never be the player he was that's to our 5 main players. who else in this L has that? i'm fine with injuries that are chronic like tmac's back injury b/c that's not bad luck (that's genetic). but he has managed that. now we have "freak" injuries and it cost our season. i just PRAY next yr we will have our first injury-free season under the tmac-yao era.
I have more faith in Yao returning to his injury free days than I do Tracy. Yao's injuries seem to be a combination of freak accidents and incompetence from the Rocket's medical staff. Tmac is just breaking down and there no reason to believe it won't get worse. The good news is that I believe Morey is good enough at his job to bring in more scoring punch so that Tmac's minutes can be reduced and hopefully avoid all of these nagging injuries that keep piling up on his body. What a luxury it would be to see Tmac sitting out 4th quarters on a regular basis because this team is stomping the opponent and there is a competent backup SG/SF out there producing.
I hate to admit, Bonzi would've helped in this series, it wasn't Morey's fault that Head did his magic trick of disappearing in the playoffs to be fair tho, Bobby did what he could with what he had out there, if we had a 1-2 punch of Bobby and Bonzi, that would've been sick.... btw, Tracy's first year here, both were injury free, one or the other may have missed a total of 10 games max, but it was Sura that was injured in the Playoffs.
i think it was juwan. but like i said, juwan was actually "good" that year so losing him really hurt us. and i agree with your view on bonzi. whenever harpring was in the game, bonzi would have killed him. battier just can't guard him and he couldn't do anything offensively either. if they put harpring or korver on him, adelman would have gone to bonzi a lot and opened up the space for tmac. the 3rd quarter was where bonzi would have been huge. oh well, we're due for a season where EVERYTHING goes our way, even the refs? nah, i'm wishing too much
This team is built around Yao. In fact, Tmac was signed to help Yao. If Yao cannot stay healthy, then the rockets will never be the team that we want. Hopefully, Yao himself, his agents, and the rocekts organization can find a way to help him stay healthy.
The thing with Yao is that even though he got freak injuries, he's still 7'6" and over 300lb. McGrady will always have back problems, but we don't know what's going to happen with Yao in the coming years. It's not helping that he has a busy schedule with the Olympics. The other players are just bad luck. Maybe there's more to Landry's knee then we realized, but oh well.
Tmac will always have something wrong with him every season. The team will just have to get used to not having him 10-20 games a year. However sometimes I like to think most of it could be just mental. I think with Adelman's system, we can actually afford Tmac's annual injuries during the regular season.. of course barring any other injuries. I don't know about Yao. I hope he will learn from this injury that he can't be playing basketball all year round. The wear and tear from an NBA season will catch up on him before he can even say "abugawuga" if he doesn't rest. We all know he's devoted and dedicated to the CNT, but c'mon... the Rockets always comes first! Get your priorities right Yao! Btw t_mac1.. that's a lot of post count for someone who just joined this year (32.68/day). Have you been posting on the game threads a lot? If you're trying to catch DD.. forget it, you'll grow tired sooner or later.
The coaching staff and trainers need to be in the understanding that changes need to be made in regards to how they use Yao and McGrady during the regular season and practice. How injuries are treated need to also be re-evaluated. Don't just just submerge the foot in ice or put a heating pad in the back, find what is causing the problem. Sometimes when you are misaligned on another part of the body it causes problems somewhere else.
Next season is our last chance. If we don't stay injury free, it won't matter for the rest of the years.
T-mac's injuries seem to be more a result of wear and tear than anything. Yao's stress fracture as you said was kind of freak, but also from playing too much. I mean he's a big ass guy playing a lot of minutes and running up and down every night. It's not inconceivable at all that he endure foot problems. I'll agree with you on Rafer, Battier, and Landry though, but a lot of teams have players who play injured as well. I feel your pain though. It sucks to have a team that could have been great this year, fall once again to the injury bug.
he got nothing on me man. i'm the most hardcore rockets fan you find in this earth. (but yes, i post a lot in game threads )
McGrady had a decent season injury-wise for him. He played hurt, but he played. I'm much more concerned about Yao's foot. He couldn't play at all. And, it brings up the spectre of the chronic foot problems that killed the careers of Rik Smits and other big big men.
we've been cursed by evil doers! An Excavation, led by mr. alexander, should take place at toyota center this off season.
next year, we will have a cinderella type season, win 64 games, win the championship. After that, we will get injured again.
ha I forgot about Juwon, if we had him starting instead of Flying Ryan, and the refs wouldve caught Finley, it'd be different.
I think in the next few years..... Remember, most of Yao's injuries are somewhat freakish, most people landing on his foot and ankle.....his hasn't been like Grant Hill where twisted something awkwardly and was injured for the whole year. I think the surgeries will actually extend his career...since if he has them while his still young it won't be a big adjustment as it would if he were slightly older. Also, he's not running or high jumping type player, so he doesn't need that athletic ablity as much someone like Howard or Stoudemire would. T-Mac has been pretty decent the last two seasons, he does have minor injuries from time to time, but as this team gets a better roster, it won't really matter as much as he can afford to miss time. I think the more the Rockets expand their rosters and play 9th and 10th men...it will decrease injuries/fatigue on both of the star players. The Rockets need a scorer at either SF or SG and a real PG. I'm sorry, but I think PG is our biggest issue, position wise.
what about francis injury? i think he could of helped on deron williams. any chance he comes back next season?
