Lol I meant it as in the $$$ that he brings in. The best choice IMO would be to sign Yao for cheap after this present contract, and build around the young guys and use the extra money to add in pieces. I don't think it'll be a big risk, if a risk at all just because Yao seems content in, and is loyal to Houston, and should not ever be complaining about a lack of income. That's just me though , each to their own.
Yao struggled his rookie year for a while too, I think he will get back to where he was or nearly there. DD
So once you don't care about money, but when it suits your anti-Yao argument, you do? (aside from the fact that I guess the insurance picked up the tab)
I think he can get his level of play back to pre-injury skill levels eventually while playing limited minutes. The risk is exceptionally high to re-sign him to a max contract regardless of how this season goes though. If he is willing to take Ilgauskas level pay, then sure. Most of the best case scenario expectations are based on Ilgauskas. Ilgauskas played just five games in the 1998-99 campaign before the injury occurred and none the next season. He came back in time to play 24 games in 2000-01 missing over 2 seasons worth of games total recovering from the injury. He played 62 games the next season averaging 21 minutes per game, and starting 23 games. Yao is apparently trying to come back twice as fast and many fans expect his minimum to be 24 minutes a game to be increased as the season goes on, when there is a good chance that will be his ceiling this year. The encouraging thing is that after that season Ilgauskas had a 5 year run of playing 78-81 games a year and his lowest total of played games is 64 last year which I would attribute more to age than injuries at that point. But he was also a role player, not some one the team was built around.
Just give him a signed blank check... Seriously, nothing over 12m...well...if somehow he can be back to form and plays spectacularly well this year, I may push it up to 14m...we'll see.
I would only resign him to a cap friendly deal. Nothing near the max. Yao doesn't need money and probably feels a little guilty about the last few years. He might go for a smaller deal if the team remains good. And this is all only if he remains healthy for most of this year and ends the season healthy. If this is another injury plagued season, then the two sides would unfortunately need to part ways.
