This from the Houston Chronicle this afternoon…

In an indication that Yao Ming will miss all of the 2009-10 season, the Rockets signed Trevor Ariza using the disabled player exception they expect to receive with Yao out.

The use of the injury exception would indicate he plans to undergo season-ending surgery, rather than choosing the more conservative option of immobilizing the injury again in the hopes that his hairline fracture would heal without surgery.

If Yao was to recover quickly from the surgery, Yao could come back and play next season, though granting the exception indicates that the league agrees that Yao will likely miss the season.

So it’s not all gloom-and-doom. Yao COULD come back next season. But listening to Houston sports radio and reading the Chronicle for over a week now, everyone has been resigned to the prospect that Yao will most likely miss next season, although it hasn’t been confirmed yet, nor has the treatment that Yao will opt to take.

The good news is that using this exception on Ariza gives the Rockets the flexibility to still use the mid-level exception on another free agent, perhaps Orlando center (like Marcin Gortat?). Go Daryl, Go!

Here’s more from the Chronicle on today’s announcement.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Injury and rehab, Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.