Yao Ming will not play more than 24 minutes in any game this season

Pretty sure teams know how to do math and calculate his effectiveness on a per minute basis. They may not have the MIT pedigree, but I think they got guys who can do simple division.


More than his per minute "stats," the more likely factor influencing his market value are (a) his age, which goes up at the same rate no matter how long he plays, and (b) fear about his injury risk, which is gonna be there one way or another, but frankly, is going to be larger if he misses 30 games + playoffs while playing 35 mpg than if he stays mostly healthy on a 24 mpg limit for the regular season.

In any case, I doubt this has anything to do with any effort to reduce Yao's salary.

 

I am sure there will be time when Yao won't be needed for 24 mins, especially with all the promising young players we have now . We did manage to do pretty well last season without him at all. I would never just play him the exact the same time but vary the min, no more than 30 at first, and keep the other team guessing.

Unless this is a master plan to throw the other team off, because they are expecting Yao to play for a certain amount of mins and them we pull a fast one of them by playing Yao more or less. I think i am losing it it here and over analyze things, season opening can't get here soon enough :grin:

 

I think they are trying to be cautious with him as much as possible, but not more than 24 minutes..? damn that's suck.

 

Pathetic.

 

What will be interesting is what if Yao still gets hurt with only 24 minutes per game to play.

 

Edit: Wrong post.

 

In the old country we would say BBS. Nothing further should be uttered or considerd a sit is all guess work.Y

 

8 minutes less than his Career average....oh no..... I guess it's better than 0 and there is a reason we signed Brad Miller to play the other 24 minutes........

We have 2 real center again, I will take that over 6'6 Chuck Hayes and David A

I love DM quote, I been preaching this all along, you do what you can to win not force the issue and cry he can't play an extra 8 minus this season. If anything this builds up character for the rest of the team. Allows Cbud, KM, AB, Scola to carry the load.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about winning,” Morey said. “It’s about winning in the playoffs. We’re choosing to limit Yao Ming and Yao Ming is in agreement that this is the best plan. We want him when it counts the most."

 

That will change in the playoffs, when we play the Lakers they will not limit his minutes to 24.

 

Last years MPG, 274 minutes total.

1. Aaron Brooks= 36
2. Kevin Martin= 36
3. Trevor Ariza= 37
4. Luis Scola= 33
5. Chuck Hayes= 22
1. Kyle Lowry= 24
2. Shane Battier= 32
3. Chase Budinger= 20
4. Jared Jeffries= 18
5. Jordan Hill= 16


Next years MPG, 274 minutes total.

1. Aaron Brooks= 35
2. Kevin Martin= 35
3. Shane Battier= 30
4. Luis Scola= 35
5. Yao Ming= 25
1. Kyle Lowry= 25
2. Courtney Lee= 25
3. Chase Budinger= 25
4. Chuck Hayes= 15
5. Brad Miller= 24

 

Why would the Rockets make this decision now? Why make the limit for the ENTIRE season BEFORE pre-season???

It makes no sense. How did they arrive at 24 minutes? Why wouldn't Morey or Adelman reveal this?


I think it's a false rumor. If it's true, the Rockets will confirm it within 48 hours as this kind of thing if false can be damaging.

 

Blessing in disguise. It'd be troublesome for the other team to handle two entirely different styles of play 50-50: half court with Yao, run & gun without Yao. One of the two option's gotta work wonders, so good stuff.

 

I thought they did confirm already? The chron.com article quotes Keith Jones saying 24 is it.

 

I can't see how people don't support this. One more injury and the rumor was Yao would call it quits. Miller is more than capable of filling in, in fact it was one of the reasons he signed. Somewhere in the discussion was "Brad, we're going to limit Yao's minutes, you will get significant playing time."

We all miss Yao, but this is a deep team, we can afford to ease him in with limited minutes.

 

Yep I understand Dr. Clanton and Keith Jones, but I also think that Adelman, Daryl, Alexander and Yao himself, could try to pressure them as the season goes.

 

To get the most of Yao's minutes is quite simple. You bench him and let him play the last 6 mins. of every quarter. Its not rockets science. But I also think this move is made to lower his value next summer even though they will never admit it.

 

I thinks its because were gona run and gun like we did last year mainly on the 2nd quarter and the last 5-4 minutes of the 3rd and up to the last 6 minutes of the 4th quarter and then we go to our bread and butter (yao) to shut down teams.

 

If Yao can't play more than 24 minutes a season, then he's a bench player not a starter.

Also, stress fractures aren't about the length of pounding one takes but rather the conditioning of the bone, muscle, and tissues. It's changes in activity that cause them.

Meaning if Yao plays 24 minutes the whole season and then goes to 35 in the playoffs he's actually has more risk of a stress fracture than if he had just played 35 the whole way.

 

As long as the Rockets are winning and it keeps him healthy I have no problem with it.

I had the idea of Yao playing a Euro season, ie one game per week. So this doesn't worry me. It's just part of the process for his comeback.

Obviously if this is how it is for the rest of his career they'd have to re-evaluate but I assume it isn't.

 

Honestly, I don't know why people are surprised by this news. There were doctors on sports radio saying as much right after he got injured the last time.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/7202701.html


“Twenty-four is his number all year,” Jones said. “Playoffs come, things could change. We’re trying to get him through April. It’s going to be tough. I’m not saying it can’t change if someone tells me different, but I don’t see that happening.

“We’re trying to give him the best chance to play the whole season by limiting stress. Even practices, if we play on Monday and play again on Wednesday, can he practice on Tuesday? No. He’ll practice, but he won’t scrimmage.”


"We’re going to take what we think is a cautious approach to try to make sure he is healthy throughout the playoffs,” Morey said. “Does anyone know for sure what that best approach is? The answer is no. The question then becomes who is best to make an educated case, so given that criteria, you go with our medical staff.

“We do have some evidence. We have evidence that when he played 35 to 40 minutes he averaged two years ago there was a buildup of stress on his foot that led to it being injured in the playoffs. On some level, we have at least one indication 35 to 40 minutes might be too much. That would lead you to choose to look at having a limit.’