Season Preview Rockets

[KG-MVP21]

I cannot believe Tracy McGrady is going into his eleventh year in the NBA. To me he still conjures images of a young, explosive guard on the cusp of leading his team deep into the playoffs.

But it's been eleven years. What has he been up to?

Last year, his nagging back woes once again reared their ugly head and he was forced to miss 35 games, a career-high for McGrady, and in the games he was playing in he was logging his lowest per game scoring averages since he played in Toronto. His field-goal percentage was atrocious and even though his team was (obviously) improved by his presence, he didn't really seem to be leading them the way a ten-year veteran should.

So I put forth this query: Is it time for McGrady to cede his number one role on this team to big man Yao Ming? At this point, we've seen what McGrady can do to opposing teams, but his one-man show doesn't fly anymore. Yao finally crossed into 20 and 10 country last season, and absolutely dominated in March with 27.6 points and 11 rebounds per game. He seems like he's finally coming out of his shell in the NBA, but he can't do that if he has to wait for McGrady to offer him the ball.

I'm not saying that McGrady has worn out his welcome in Houston, not at all, but I am suggesting that perhaps McGrady is not Dwyane Wade. He can't elevate his team while Yao plays a distant second to his scoring antics. His chronic back woes are one reason, since it makes him a tad unreliable, but more importantly he just never has been able to lead his team in the playoffs to victory.

I know that there is the argument to be made that he hasn't had the right team around him, but I've never bought that excuse. Yes, it takes a certain special something to win the Championship, but I'm talking about once in ten years eking out of the first round. I don't know for certain that Yao would be able to propel them there, either, but at this point I feel it's worth a try.

Yao really came into his own last season, and he had success this summer leading an underwhelming Chinese national team to the elimination round. None of this is guaranteed to translate into a successful 82 game NBA season, but it's a start.

And right now that's what this teams needs, a start. They've lethargically existed in the Western Conference, barely making any noise to get excited about, for years. They've consistently underperformed since the Steve Francis era and it's time to light a fire under this team to get the NBA world excited again.

Acquiring Shane Battier on draft night was a surprising move, but no team is going to be worse for having a player like Battier on their roster. They still have point guard issues, ones that Mike James (had they nabbed him back) wouldn't have solved. Their power forward position is a big question mark now, as it has been for years, and Jeff Van Gundy is on his last legs in the Lone Star State if he can't find a way to enter the new century with his outdated 'coaching' philosophies.

In other words, this team isn't exactly the image of stability right now, and they need to find some anchor to tie their season to. Personally, I think that Yao's time has come to try his hand at being that anchor, with one of the best supporting players in the league today to help him along the way.

McGrady has made a career out of refusing to play second to anyone, but he's also been downright petulant when he hasn't found team success (even threatening to retire the year he was traded away from the Magic). The two areas don't seem to align for McGrady if history is any indication, and this Rockets team is going to have to choose which of his cravings to satisfy. Eventually that choice is going to have to be winning, and that means eventually, their choice is going to have to be Yao.

PROBABLE STARTING FIVE

PG - Rafer Alston

Rafer had an unremarkable debut season with the Rockets last year, and it led them to heavily pursue Mike James, the player they let go to acquire him. When that didn't happen, they conceded that Alston is probably going to be their guy for the foreseeable future, which means finding a way to teach him how to turn his dazzling passing abilities into constructive playmaking abilities. A Van Gundy offense is very similar to a patient on life support, and Alston is going to have to act as respirator if the Rockets hope to make any kind of a dent in the ever-improving Western Conference. The Rockets have tacitly admitted that Alston isn't their first choice for the job, but he's what they've got so it's up to them to make it work until they can find a better solution down the road.

SG - Tracy McGrady

One of the most outstanding individual performers of the last ten years, especially when it comes to scoring the ball, McGrady in entering the point of his career where he has to stop blaming teammates and management and start using his supreme gifts to not only put wins on the board, but make his teammates better in the process. He seemed like he had reached that point two seasons ago in the playoffs when he was responsible for holding Dirk Nowitzki in check while also leading the team in scoring. He seemed to have taken that monumental step forward in his career, but then his body began to betray him last season. As he gets older, McGrady is going to have to find a way to elevate his game mentally as his body begins to show the signs of wear and tear. If McGrady's back is fine this season, then he enters his prime with a ton of years of experience to fall back on, he just has to figure out how to use it.

SF - Shane Battier

He is the kind of player whose defense and offense allow him to work in just about any system in the NBA. He was a crucial defensive cog in Team USA's attack this summer, while also being one of their steadiest three-point shooters. Both of those abilities will do wonders for this Houston squad as he brings many intangibles to the table on a team with very little versatility. He is also able, in a pinch, to slot in at power forward and ply his trade there, although asking him to do that too often this season could wear Battier out, which would be a shame if this team finally does have it together and makes the playoffs. It may have cost them a ton of potential in Rudy Gay to land Battier, but this team has no time to wait on potential and so the team has indicated by making this trade that, as they see it, their time is now.

PF - Juwan Howard

I like Howard, but he had a bad year last year. He has definitely lost some of the game he had in Denver, and would be ideally suited to a backup role at this point in his career. Unfortunately for the Rockets, they have no one on their depth chart to slot in front of Howard, unless rookie Steve Novak takes everyone by surprise and finds a way to supplant him. Barring that unlikely event, Howard is just going to have to hold down the fort here as best he can. He needs to find a way to pull down more than 6.7 boards per game to take some of the strain off of McGrady, who has to make up for his deficiency there. At 33 years old with no major injuries in his career, Howard has no reason to have slowed this much in two seasons, and his team is going to need him to find some bounce in his step if they're going to compete with the Garnett's and the Boozer's of the world in fighting for those last couple of playoffs spots.

C - Yao Ming

The only question that remains about Ming is whether or not he can turn last March into a whole season. Even his 22 and 10 output for the season last year would be more than adequate going into play this November, but he did that in only 57 games, and one of the career-long knocks against Ming is his inability to stay on the court without fatiguing quickly. It's a huge question mark going forward for this Rockets team, who need their man in the middle to be out on the floor for at least 35 minutes per game, especially since Dikembe Mutombo, at age 83, is backing him up. On a team devoid of depth up front, they can't afford to have Ming spending half of the game on the bench.

Tim Chisholm can be reached at timchisholm@telus.net.