The NBA Needs an IR/DL

Called it an injured reserve, call it a disabled list... I don't care. The NBA needs to bring it back.

It's not right that a guy like Yao Ming, who is out for the season, counts against the 15-man roster. Also, there should be a way to hide Trevor Arzia and Kyle Lowry. When you think about it, the Rockets only have 12 healthy spots right now. One of those belongs to Jermaine Taylor, who was recalled from the Vipers today because the Rockets need more players with Ariza out.

The Rockets want Taylor to get a chance to play and develop with the Vipers, and quite frankly, with the way their talent has been poached recently, the Vipers need Taylor. It's also possible that the Rockets might want to send down Jordan Hill since he didn't really play with the Knicks and it would be great way for the 9th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft to learn the Rockets system. However, since the Rockets can't bring in any talent to fill the spots of the injured, Taylor and Hill must be with the big club to provide healthy bodies.

If the Rockets could place players on an IR or DL, they could bring in players to replace them without having to recall a guy like Taylor or without having to worry about assigning a guy like Hill (note: I have no idea whether or not the Rockets plan on assigning Hill. I am only mentioning his name because he has NBA D-League eligibility).

Granted, from a Vipers standpoint, it probably wouldn't help the current short-roster problem. I am guessing the guys to get called up to take these injured spots would have been Antonio Anderson (thus keeping him from Oklahoma City), Mike Harris and Will Conroy.

But, hey, the goal of the Vipers is to help the Rockets win an NBA Championship, right? I think the Rockets have done a great job of using the Vipers as best they can within the given limitations of what they can do.

Hopefully in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement this will be one of the additions. Now that there is a legitimate source from which to find players to replace injured NBA players, it seems only logical. And boy would it ever help the NBA D-League attract more of the world's best non-NBA players. Sure, some would still take the money to go overseas, but I think more and more with NBA dreams would stick around in hopes that they might get their chance to show what they can do since there would be more opportunities.