Houston Rockets next year Finals contenders? No, they won't even contend for the playoffs

on 08 11, 2009

The Houston Rockets are going to struggle next year. Mightily. Yao Ming will not be there. He’s been ruled out for the entire 2009-2010 season because of his serious foot surgery. Yao’s the centerpiece of what that team does. They play slow it down basketball, feed the post, and let Yao create wide open perimeter shots for their shooters. The team is built around him. Without him, it’s mostly guys who can’t create their own shot. No Yao=No good. Their frontcourt becomes extremely thin without him. Ron Artest is gone. That hurts their offensive production, and especially their defensive toughness. It was a big loss. He actually showed signs of being a team leader last year, shockingly enough.

More hops than T-Mac

Tracy McGrady is going to be the same player after his microfracture surgery. He’s on the wrong side of 30. Younger players have the best shot of recovering well from this infamous surgery, which he is not. (Jason Kidd was the exception to the rule). Not to mention his chronic shoulder and back problems. Tracy’s really started breaking down the last few years. Odds are we’ll never see the same guy who twice led the league in scoring. He can’t carry a team anymore. He can still score 20 point a night, but his impact is different. McGrady’s not the same defender, either. The guy just has a ton of miles on his knees. He did come straight of high school, adding more 82 game seasons to his body than the average player. At what point next season will we hear the phrase “Team X wants Tracy McGrady’s big expiring contract”? He’s due to make over $23 million next year that will come off the books. That’s enormous, especially considering that the salary cap is going backwards.

That leaves Houston with a core of a questionable T-Mac, Aaron Brooks, Trevor Ariza, Shane Battier, and Luis Scola. Doesn’t sound like a playoff team to me. They’re only frontcourt power guys are Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes, undersized guys who aren’t going to score all that much. Even the upper echelon teams have reloaded, and the Rockets have gotten worse. The Rockets didn’t get any draft picks that will make an immediate impact. They didn’t even have a 1st rounder. For the record, why didn’t Joey Dorsey get any playing time last year? That might end up being a complete waste of a pick. Hate to break it to ya, Rockets fans, but I’m not sure if your squad is playoff bound anymore. For a team that had championship hopes coming into the 2008-2009 season with the promising core of Ming, McGrady, and Artest, this will be quite a disappointment.

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