Good players are rare, not just bigs. You think the Trailblazers aren't hoping Roy gets healthy? Or Orlando wasn't hoping that someday Hill would get healthy? Fantastic players can be cut down by injuries. At what point do you stop praying and start rebuilding?
Well we should start when Yao's massive contract expires, either try and keep him for MLE range or just forget about him, if Yao signs for around the MLE then it becomes a low risk high reward move. We are forced to rely on Yao because he is eating up such a massive portion of our salary cap and that is one of the main problems at the moment IMO. Until that happens, you keep praying.
One more thing, unless you are prepared to take back terrible contracts I don't really see any way of trading Yao, I have seen some ridiculous trade suggestions that involves trading Yao's contract for guys like Brand and Iggy, which makes us good enough to make the playoffs but not enough to win anything, to top it off we are stuck with multiple 10mil+ contracts for the next 3 years, right on!
People wanted a throwback to the Yao-Tmac era with both of them on the court - but a more accurate throwback to that era would have at least one of them on the bench like it is now
Updated the original post to include the video of Yao after practice today. I did ask some questions about this after Yao's interview... no timetable, and not being able to practice today was not the best news. I think he's close though ... they just want him to practice consistently before coming back. Disappointing, no doubt, but I don't think the Rockets had 12/7/2010 as the expected date quite like Yao did.
We have good chemistry now and a better schedule. If necessary, I wouldn't mind to wait until 14 vs Sacto. It doesn't make sense to be so cautious all this time and now make a hasty return. He must return fully healthy and in shape.
Except for the fact that Adelman talked very well about him and about how better they were with him on the court, already in preseason; while never wanted to play McGrady at all.
See, this is where we disagree. You think we should wait until the season is over before making a decision on Yao. Unfortunately, that's when his value is at it's lowest. We'll have no ability to match another team's offer if Yao wants to leave. No team will give us significant value in a sign and trade. At that point we have to pray that he wants to stay here. Yao's biggest value to the rockets is as an expiring contract, not a player. I hate to compare him to Tmac because their character is so different, but their situations are identical. There was no point in hoping Tmac would recover or letting his contract expire, not is there in letting Yao's expire. Yao's contract is cap relief to some other team, nothing more. He's a constantly injured star on the wrong side of thirty, how much would you trade for him if he weren't already on the team? Not much, I'm guessing. Relying on Yao for the long term in any capacity is folly. Our best bet is to utilize his contract to get us assets, just like we did with Tmac. You scoff at Iggy, but he would be a nice return on a lost cause.
It sounds like over half the injury situations with players across the league...i thought he was already sitting out?
SUIT out, like when TMac last year put on his uniform in the Minny game, to show up the organization.... It was a joke. DD
i didn't like the fact that yao, like mcgrady played his own doctor by annoucning he'll be back for the pistons game geez what is it w/ these max players
Which means it's more of a business then a game. This team will always be in limbo until he's gone not trying to be rude.
