Houston Rockets

Somehow, the Houston Rockets keep squeezing into the tiny crevice that is basketball’s dreaded purgatory – the final spot in the NBA Draft lottery, reserved for the best team that didn’t make the playoffs the year prior. The Rockets have filled that miserable void for two consecutive seasons, finishing with winning records that yielded next to nothing. At some point, the scale will have to tip.

Two major offseason transactions should propel the Rockets’ drive to somewhere. First, the team parted ways with head coach Rick Adelman and replaced him with former Minnesota Timberwolves coach and executive Kevin McHale. It was a move predicated less on Adelman’s results – which were quite good – and more on his method. The Rockets expect McHale to place a higher premium on player development, a necessary undertaking given the sudden influx of young, unproven talent onto Houston’s roster.

As the new arrives, the old departs. Franchise cornerstone Yao Ming is officially retired, ending a two-year rehabilitation saga that didn’t solve his injury problems as planned. Though bittersweet, Yao’s retirement marks a new era of Rockets basketball, leaving vacant the role of “star” or “centerpiece.” Houston has unsuccessfully attempted to acquire a superstar player in recent years, and yet, there is a small, minuscule chance they could find the answer from within.

The current group is no doubt talented, starting in the backcourt. Between breakout point guard Kyle Lowry and steady scoring dynamo Kevin Martin, Houston boasts one of the top guard tandems in the conference. The ever-consistent Luis Scola is still around to man the power forward slot, and between Courtney Lee, Patrick Patterson and rookie Marcus Morris, Houston possesses a wealth of young, two-way talent.

From there, the roster gets a little whacky. In the past year, general manager Daryl Morey brought in a host of young lottery picks cast aside rather quickly by their original teams. The list includes Terrence Williams (truly a jack of all trades, master of none player), 7-foot-3 hand-eye-coordination disaster Hasheem Thabeet, former New York Knicks power forward Jordan Hill and most recently, former Timberwolves point guard and Syracuse standout Jonny Flynn.

Morey will hand to McHale an unfinished roster in need of molding and re-shaping. Changes will be made at some point – likely fueled by Morey’s continued pursuit of a superstar player to replace Yao – but if there is a season in 2011, the Houston Rockets will proceed with a fresh, new approach. Perhaps the first step will be to determine what exactly that approach should be.