By Eddie Moore

Yao Ming appears to be healthy, but it’s far from a guarantee that he will stay that way. Rocket fans have been teased far too many times. If the Rockets don’t make any more notable changes prior to the season, it’s obvious that they will need Yao often if they intend on contending in the Southwest division and in the rest of the Western conference. Last week the Rockets decided to release some short footage of Yao. He looked solid; his post-up game looked crisp, and although it’s just a brief practice, this footage was encouraging. Yao even entertained us with a little trash talkin’ aimed at Chucky Hayes…Come on, who doesn’t love Yao?!

According to SportingNews, Morey described how Yao’s playing time will be sporadic this season. Until the big fella actually demonstrates some endurance and consistency, there’s no need to rush him back to his old minutes. “He is going to be more limited, it is just a matter of how you get to that point, how you limit him..Obviously, you start with less minutes per game. He won’t be out there for 35, 40 minutes per game, we know that. But then, things like back-to-backs, you might see him not play in the second part of those or something. Practice time, he might be limited. There are different ways to keep his minutes down. No one knows exactly right now.”

Yao’s a free agent next year and if he suffers another grueling injury this season Rocket fans will have to endure another year of “what-ifs”; more importantly though, the career of Yao Ming will probably come to a sad and unfortunate end.

[SportingNews] [YouTube]