Adelman is starting his second season in Houston and also has more confidence now in frontcourt players like Luis Scola, Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes, who can come off the bench to replace Yao. Dikembe Mutombo backed up Yao last season, but Mutombo has yet to sign a new contract.

"I'm very comfortable playing two of those guys together and that would help keep Yao's minutes down," Adelman said. "We had to play without him last year and those guys had to play, so I think having a versatility, we have some more things we can go to offensively."

Until then, Yao said he's not afraid to test his foot and go full-bore in practice to rebuild his stamina.

"The foot feels all right. I can't say it's like brand new, but it's like it's my foot," he said. "I can't wait to go, for the first preseason game, the first regular-season game."

Yao isn't the only Rockets player whose health worries Adelman.

Tracy McGrady said Monday that his left shoulder is arthritic and his left knee is healing slower than expected from surgery in the spring. Alston had surgery to repair ligaments in his right ankle and forward Shane Battier had surgery to remove bone spurs in his left ankle. Battier now has inflammation in his left foot that will keep him out at least four weeks.

"I never had a team where I had four starters have surgery," said Adelman, starting his 18th season as a head coach. "That's been one of my major concerns, how these guys are going to come to camp, where they are physically and how we are going to monitor that as we go through this first month."