Yao Ming

Should the Kings target Yao Ming this summer with a max level deal?


  • Total voters
    45
Too old for a rebuild and injury prone. Yao is my favorite player in all of the NBA, but he's not a good fit for the Kings.
 
Make him 5 years younger and give him two new feet and we can talk. As is, probably just too big a risk. Could really scuttle a good young team financially and be another Ralph Sampson move.
 
Definitely a huge risk, but what if for some odd reason he stayed healthy?
We instantly become championship contenders. Not only that, the Sacramento kings would become one of the hottest teams in the league. I don't know, I might be willing to take that risk.
 
And we would gain about a billion new fans. Might have to make kingsfans.com compatible with chinese characters.

Personally, if Yao Ming could be had on a fairly short contract, say 2 years, I definitely would go for it. But if he's opting out this year I assume he wants a longer one, probably 4 years.

Tough decision. A healthy Yao would probably immediately put us in the playoffs and we could improve quickly from there as our young guys gain playoff experience. But then it could also all go down in flames at any time with another injury.

If we were to sign Yao, I would be very excited about our immediate future but I would also hope that some kind of insurance policy could be worked out for the injury scenario. And that's not a metaphor, I mean real financial insurance.
 
If we really wanted to go after an injury prone center who has missed as many games as he has played in the past 3 years, then go after Oden. If I'm going to take on a risky investment, I'm going with the guy who's 7 years younger.
 
Ok, there is a difference between an injury prone player and a player in the mist of a career ending injury. Yao is one of my fav guys in the NBA and I wish him the best but this is not some ligament tear we're talking about. His injury is serious. His injury is career-ending serious.

I was at a party and had a casual conversation with a surgeon, a foot specialist who had performed the same operation that Yao had. He said the full recovery rate for such a procedure is about 20%; and likely a lot lower for someone of Yao's size because blood doesn't circulate to the foot as well for a 7'-6 dude and as a result the injury never heals. If the doc is right, that means an 80% chance that Yao is facing early retirement. You dont' want to throw money at that kind of risk.

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I doubt that this will be a career ending injury for Yao, but I do think it will affect his mobility going forward. With his build and statue though, I don't see that as a large problem, unless it leads to future injuries. He just needs to stay big to block shots (no jumping required).

Stability in joints is a good thing, especially for big bodied individuals. What worries me is his age, and need for a huge multi-year deal to consider moving from Houston. Sacramento also is a smaller market, and the Chinese government will have something to say about where Yao can play I imagine. Overall, it would be a good move if it didn't take more than a 4 year deal to get a healthy Yao to Sacramento, but there's too many variables to do more than wish and speculate.
 
Sacramento also is a smaller market, and the Chinese government will have something to say about where Yao can play I imagine.

Having stayed in Asia for many years and in China in particular, it's obvious to me that the Chinese government don't give a s#@* where their athletes play as long as compensation is paid.

The Monarchs signed two Chinese players a few years ago. The PRC generally leaves that decision to the athletes.

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