Can we all agree the Yao Ming experiment hasn't worked? Let us count the ways.

First, limiting him to six- and seven-minute increments is silly. To have Rick Adelman's decisions dictated by the clock instead of the game won't work.

"You try to get him the minutes, and sometimes it's not a good situation," Adelman said. "Maybe he's got it going a little bit, and all of a sudden, you've got to take him out."

The Rockets have plenty of other things to fix during this 0-4 start, but Yao is a good place to start. If he's playing well, if he's productive and blending with his teammates, Adelman must have the freedom to extend his minutes.

Indications are the Rockets will ask their medical staff to allow Adelman to do just that in the days ahead. Yao may never again be the 37-minute workhorse he was two years ago, and the Rockets are prepared to live with this new reality.

But while they'd like to have him on the floor for additional minutes, an even higher priority is gaining permission to extend his minutes at certain times of the game. Let's face it, if he continues to be sloppy with his fouls and slow with his defensive footwork, he won't be out there 24 minutes very often anyway.

No coach should be asked to make decisions on anything other than winning, and Adelman hasn't been able to do that in the three games Yao has been available.

Besides, what makes anyone think limiting Yao to 24 minutes a game will extend his career? There apparently was no science to that number. It simply was an attempt to decrease the pounding on Yao's surgically repaired left foot.

"It's up to the doctor," Yao said. "I feel normal. I feel I'm good. I feel I can run and jump."

Smiley N. Pool/Chronicle

Playing time is only one of many things that may have contributed to the problems through the years. Yao's relentless training regimen included distance running, jumping rope and hours on the basketball court.

Those things have mostly been eliminated, so Yao's foot will be tested only during practice and in games. But the hard truth is that either it's going to hold up or it isn't.

If he's going to be an NBA player, he should be treated like an NBA player. Limit him to 25 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever. Regardless of the number, Adelman must be allowed to coach with the goal of winning and nothing else.

At the moment, the Rockets are frustrated, and part of that frustration comes with an uncertainty over playing rotations and an 0-4 record — and Yao's role.

"It's the hand we're dealt," Shane Battier said. "We're trying to make the best of it. Who is the best unit to play with him? Are we running our offense through him? Is he an auxiliary big guy? Those are things we're trying to figure out."

Yao is on the floor for such short stretches that it's tough for his teammates to gain a comfort level with him. Too often players defer to him and end up standing around watching him.

Comfort zone elusive

Adelman has encouraged them to run the offense, and if the ball swings one way, then the other and if it ends up in Yao's hands, so be it.

"We want our guys to just play," general manager Daryl Morey said. "We don't want them to feel like they have to get the ball into Yao."

And Yao isn't on the floor enough to get comfortable with his defensive assignments. At times, he has looked as good as ever in the low post, but at other times he has looked slow and out of sync. No surprise there.

Maybe there's no real answer to any of this. Morey has assembled a nice collection of players in the hopes of trading for an impact player - Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Josh Smith, etc.

None of those players is available, and they may not be available. Until then, Adelman may need some time to figure out his playing rotations to balance his needs on both ends of the floor.

His best defensive players - Jordan Hill, Kyle Lowry, Courtney Lee, Battier and Erick Dampier (when he arrives next week) - are not his best scorers. His best scorers - Kevin Martin, Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola, Chase Budinger and Yao - aren't his best defensive players.

First things first

"We've got a lot of good players," Battier said. "For the most part, that's a good problem to have. But there's some difficulty in finding the right mix."

Lowry understands the dilemma.

"Some people are going to have to sacrifice," he said. "Coach is going to have to make some decisions and get the rotation so everybody knows what they're doing."

Adelman probably knew he'd need a few weeks to get things sorted out. An 0-4 start has increased the urgency, and at some point, urgency can become tension.

"We've just got to stay together and not start going our separate ways," Martin said. "That's when it gets ugly."

The Rockets probably aren't going to win a championship with this group, but they're good enough to go to the playoffs.

There will have to be a more defined playing rotation and a sense of everyone's role. But that will only come when it's clear what the Rockets have in Yao.

The first thing they can do is have him on the floor enough to help the team and to be able to make a real evaluation on what he's going to be in this next chapter of his career. Everything else might flow from there.

richard.justice@chron.com