St. Jude

So, the Rockets are hovering at .500. This is what was expected of the club, if not more. With Yao out and Dikembe retired, they were hopelessly thin at center and proceeded to go on one of their scrappy tears through the league, as the Rockets are wont to do.

When your marquee players (McGrady and Yao) are fragile, this sort of thing is to be expected. Yao is a force when he's healthy, so it's tempting to wonder how good the Rockets would be with him actually healthy and on the roster. The problem, of course, is that 7 footers are fragile. 6'11 seems to be the cutting off point, as Dwight Howard has never suffered severe injuries and there are scores of players that height and shorter that seem to be perfectly fine. Past that point, there are a litany of big man injuries. The only one who comes to mind as being relatively healthy throughout his career would be Hakeem, whose only notable injury would be a broken eye socket from Bill Cartwright (likely envious of Hakeem's durability, as Cartwright [checking in at 7'1] had fractured his left foot four seperate times. So it goes.)

7 footers are definitely a valuable commodity. They don't have to worry very much about pump fakes, they clog the paint, and if you get a skilled one (Abdul-Jabbar, Olajuwon, Robinson, etc.), you can build a dynasty. Of course, you'll probably only get about 60-70 games out of them a season, but hey, that's nothing too terrible, as long as they're healthy for the playoffs (or so Shaq would have you believe.)

Of course, because of their injuries and their GM (who I will refrain from lathering in praise), the Rockets have decided to center themselves around being as efficient a team as is possible. To a degree, they are successful. Their players play solid defense, they take a lot of good shots, and except for Trevor Ariza, they don't take a lot of bad ones. They've gotten one of the most efficient shooting guards in the game in Kevin Martin (though they gave up one of the most efficient sixth men in the league to do so), and so far, their GM seems to have enacted his plan to near perfection.

So, why are they only a .500 team? Well, the best plans don't mean much if you don't have the talent to just get it done. Aaron Brooks is promising and about to come into his prime. Kevin Martin is a great second option on offense and can be your first option if you need him to be, but he's never been a great defender and that probably won't change. Luis Scola is good, but he's probably not an All-Star. He could be a starter for a playoff team, though, as could Ariza. Chuck Hayes is a good defender and the Rockets don't give up too much in the way there, but he's not Yao.

So, the Rockets will continue to play through the season, clawing at the playoffs and hoping that the Hornets, Grizzlies, and Trail Blazers have a meltdown. Then they wait for next year, pray that Yao stays healthy through May, and they make a thoroughly efficient run at the title. Not entirely hopeless. In fact, it's somewhat promising.

Given the history of this sort of thing, though, praying to St. Jude might not be a horrid idea for Houston fans.