Time limits for fragile players

[sinobball2]

Houston Rockets decided Yao Ming will play at most 24 min/game (if at all) and won't play the second back-to-back game. As an example he played 23:15 yesterday (although he fouled out as his "time" winded down) and won't play today.

Detroit Pistons decided Tracy McGrady will play at most 15 min/game (at least for the season opener). He only played a few minutes in the first game of the preseason and DNPed in the rest "for safety".

There were also talks by the Lakers of getting Andrew Bynum on that program as well.

Thoughts?

"Hey Yao, let's see who lasts longer this year"

 

[Khalid802]

Definitely that would be a safe move for any team that can afford to do so. Especially for teams that are going to be making it to the playoffs cuz that's when they will need their star players to be playing extra minutes.

I can't imagine how Portland is going to be playing their big men once they've recovered from their injuries They're all more fragile than glass

 

[theleatherwallet]

smart decision. These guys are investments, however it can get to the point that the team gets fed up with it. hopefully they can be nursed to full health.

 

[mvblair2]

When Big Z had his big surgery in 2002 (I think), he came back and was a legitimate All-Star. He played lots of minutes. The surgery was reconstructive, so he almost had completely knew ankles.

If these other fragile players had the same type of surgery, I don't see why they couldn't play 30 minutes a night like Big Z.

I guess the thought is that these players might really be fragile, like Greg Oden. Maybe Oden really has fragile bones. In that case, the best thing to do is not play them hard. Same with Yao. Even though Yao could dominate every game, they're making a choice to have a few minutes of domination rather than risk losing him.