Posted July 1st, 2009 by mvn
Tags: Basketball, Houston Rockets

Houston Rockets in shambles

Injuries have derailed one season after another for the Houston Rockets. If it wasn’t Tracy McGrady out for the playoffs, it was Yao Ming. Or both. Now, after Houston had its best playoff performance since the Akeem Olajuwon days, arrives this absolutely crushing news: All Star center Yao Ming is out with a broken foot, probably for the entire for the 2009-10 season and possibly beyond that.

For now, the Rockets have privately told league peers it could be a
full season before Yao might be able to return to basketball. Multiple
league executives, officials close to Yao and two doctors with
knowledge of the diagnoses are describing a troubling re-fracture of
his navicular bone. Three pins were inserted a year ago, but the foot
cracked in the playoffs and isn’t healing.

“It sounds like he’s missing most of next season, if not the entire
82 games,” one league executive who has had recent discussions with the
Houston front office told Yahoo! Sports. “That’s all that [the Rockets]
will concede quietly, but they know it’s probably much worse.”

Rockets GM Daryl Morley is a savvy operator and he must now realize, if he didn’t before, that he should plan as if Yao Ming never plays another game of NBA basketball. If Yao ever comes back, he may be fragile [well, even more so] and unable to play more than 20 or so minutes a night. And he may be susceptible to constant re-injuries in his feet, which have not been able to withstand the rigors of an NBA season. He’s had 4 surgeries in the last 3 years and his injury problems appear to be worsening rather than improving.

This puts a new spin on things for the Rockets. They’ve been trying to trade Tracy McGrady and his contract worth $22 million next year and they have to decide whether or not to re-sign erratic, but talented forward Ron Artest, who will want at least $40 million in a multi-year deal to return. It seems to be the smart thing to do right now is just to rebuild and hope to hit the lottery ASAP. I’d let McGrady’s contract expire and allow Ron Artest to leave, thus freeing up a ton of cap space. Trading Shane Battier for a draft pick, which Houston tried to do to move up into the first round of last week’s NBA Draft [Houston didn't have a pick], is probably something the team should continue to do.

Houston spent a ton of money buying players from other teams after the draft. Jermaine Taylor was bought for $2.5 million from the Wizards and the Rockets also bought Chase Budinger from the Pistons and Sergio Llul from the Thunder. All three of those players could stick with the final roster this season, particularly if Houston chucks it all and begins to rebuild the franchise.

Written by mvn

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Houston Rockets in shambles

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