Your 2010/11 Houston Rockets will have a different look to them this season. Yes, Yao is back in the lineup but gone are Tracey McGrady (left last season), Brian Cook and Hilton Armstrong. The team managed to resign Luis Scola and Yao Ming then went out and acquired Brad Miller from the Bulls. The team traded Tervor Ariza to the New Orleans Hornets as part of a 4-team deal that sent former New Jersey Nets Courtney Lee to the Rockets.
Head Coach Rick Adelman is happy with the team he has put in place for Rocket fans. They are deep and athletic and better able to run Adelman’s up-tempo pace and with Yao back in the lineup (and Brad Miller there to back him up) the Rockets are hoping for an offense fueled by defense. As for the rest of the Western Conference, GM Daryl Morey had this to say recently: "I think the West is as good as it's ever been. Our goal is to make the playoffs. I don't think it's gotten any easier. We're hoping it does, but we have to take care of our business. It's very difficult to make the playoffs. You don't take it for granted. But that will be our goal going in." In a much improved Western Conference, the Rockets will have their hands full keeping up with the Lakers, the Mavericks, the Thunder and the Spurs.
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When the Houston Rockets lost Yao Ming in the 2009 NBA Playoffs against the LA Lakers, the team knew that it would be a season ending injury; they just didn’t know it would be two seasons. Then, when Tracy McGrady went down with a micro fracture in his knee the rest of the NBA world breathed a little easier. Without their two stars, there is no way the Rockets would be able to compete, especially in the dramatically tough Western Conference. With a little more than a third of the season gone though, the Rockets are right in the middle of things. Sitting at 20-15, just four games behind the Southwest leading Dallas Mavericks and only 2.5 games from the San Antonio Spurs.
How is this possible? Well, after learning that Yao would be out for an extended period, the franchise utilized their Disabled Player Exception and signed former LA Lakers guard Trevor Ariza to a 5-year deal. The Rockets also managed to sign Center David Anderson after the franchise traded for his rights and paid his Spanish team FC Barcelona $500,000 to buy out his contract. The Rockets signed Anderson to a 3-year deal. In the draft the team used a trade to bring Detroit Pistons draft pick Chase Budinger to Houston. In February, the team then brought in former Lakers forward Brian Cook, forward Mike Harris was moved up from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and the team acquired backup point guard Kyle Lowry. So far, the team has four players who are averaging double digit points (Brooks-17.9, Landry-16.5, Ariza-16.0 and Scola-14.5) with three players who are getting close to double digits (Battier-8.5, Lowry-8.4 and Budinger-8.0).
In mid-December, the Rockets brought back Tracey McGrady against the Detroit Pistons where he had two points and three rebounds. After receiving little playing time, McGrady has since demanded a trade before the February 18th deadline. Said Rockets Coach Rick Adelman, “He wanted to play, he wanted to push it, unfortunately, you’ve got to deal with the whole group, not just one individual. He’s coming back from major surgery, he’s rehabilitating and who knows when he’s going to get there. Right now, he wasn’t there.”
The Houston Rockets franchise came into existence in 1967 as the San Diego Rockets and played four seasons in San Diego before relocating to Houston. The team joined the NBA as an expansion team for the 1967/68 season and used its first ever draft pick to select University of Kentucky Guard Pat Riley. In 1970, Riley was selected by the fledgling Portland Trailblazers but was immediately traded to the LA Lakers.
In 1971, the franchise was sold to Texas Sports Investments who promptly moved the team to Houston, becoming the first NBA team in Texas and keeping the Rockets nickname. For ten years, the Rockets would play mediocre basketball and after finishing the 1982/83 season with a 14-68 record, the team fired Del Harris and hired former Celtics Head Coach Bill Fitch. After obtaining the #1 draft pick in a coin toss, the Rockets selected University of Virginia Center Ralph Sampson who promptly went out and won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award though his Rockets failed to make the playoffs, winning only 29 games. Because of their record, the Rockets again won the rights to the #1 draft pick in the 1984 draft. They selected University of Houston Center Hakeem Olajuwon forming the first incarnation of the NBA “Twin Towers”.
With this combination of length, skill and quickness, the Rockets became immediate contenders for the title but would have to go through a few seasons of growing pains. The first postseason for the Twin Towers, they were eliminated in the first round. In their second season together, they eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Finals and went up against Larry Byrd and the Boston Celtics for the NBA title. They would lose in six games to the Celtics but would return to the playoffs the following season but were eliminated in the second round by the Seattle Supersonics. Over the next three seasons, the Rockets would bow out in the first round leading to the firing of Bill Fitch and the hiring of Don Chaney.
In the 1990/91 season, Don Chaney won the NBA Coach of the Year with a 52-30 season but his team was again eliminated in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers. The following season, after getting off to a 26-26 start, Chaney was fired and replaced with former Houston Rocket Rudy Tomjanovich who finished out the season. In his first full season, the Rockets won 55 games and were again in the playoffs. This time, however, they were eliminated by the Seattle Supersonics in the Conference Semi’s. The Rockets were sold to former stock trader Leslie Alexander and Tomjanovich led his team to a franchise record 58 game winning season led by Center Hakeem Olajuwon who won both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. In the playoffs, the Rockets faced the Suns in the Conference Finals and came back from a 0-2 deficit to win the series and advance to their first NBA Finals series. Against the NY Knicks, the Rockets again found themselves in a 2-game hole but Olajuwon came alive and averaged 27
points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks a game to win the series and the Finals MVP trophy. The Rockets traded and obtained guard Clyde Drexler but still managed to win only 47-games. In the playoffs the Rockets would be the sixth seed and defeat the Utah Jazz in the first round, the Phoenix Suns in the second to face the 62-20 San Antonio Spurs in the Conference Finals. After disposing of the Spurs, the Rockets met Shaquille O’Neal and the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals. Houston would go on to sweep the Magic en route to their second NBA Title in as many years.
The Rockets would only win 48 games but Olajuwon would become the NBA’s All-Time leader in Blocked Shots but would be swept by the Seattle Supersonics in the 2nd round of the playoffs. The following season the rockets would move Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown for the “Round Mound of Rebound” Charles Barkley. His joining the Rockets would put three of the Top 50 all time players on the same roster, Olajuwon, Drexler and Barkley. Although Barkley would battle injuries throughout his Houston tenure, he became the 2nd leading scorer on the team, (averaging 19.2 points a game) and an exceptional rebounder (averaging 13.5 rebounds a game). The team would finish with a 57-25 record and would be eventually eliminated by the Utah Jazz in the Conference Finals. Scotty Pippen joined the core of the team but Barkley was again hampered by injuries in the lockout-shortened season but the team managed a 31-19 record and would advance into the playoffs where they
would meet their demise at the hands of the LA Lakers. The following season, the Rockets traded up to draft Steve Francis with the third overall pick. Pippen was traded to Portland and Barkley suffered a career-ending injury. The Rockets would miss the playoffs for only the 2nd time in 15 seasons.
Following the 2000/01, the Rockets drafted 7’6” Chinese start Yao Ming in the 2002 NBA Draft and missed the playoffs by one game. The following season (2002/03) Head Coach Rudy Tomjanovich stepped down as coach after being diagnosed with Bladder Cancer and was replaced by Jeff Van Gundy who would lead them into the playoffs only to be ousted by the LA Lakers once again. Tracy McGrady joined the team and along with Yao, led the team to a 51-31 record but would again lose in the first round of the playoffs; this time to the Dallas Mavericks. Injuries would strike the next season as Yao would miss 70 games causing the franchise to release Van Gundy and replaced with former head coach and television analyst Rick Adelman. The change would matter little as the Rockets were again ousted in the first round, this time by the Utah Jazz. McGrady would suffer a season ending injury and Yao would suffer his second in the 2008/09 playoffs agains the LA Lakers. They would fall 4 games to 3.
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