Yao Ming has been injured before and it was during the season before the Olympics and Yao had to take time off and get prepared for the Olympics. In fact, this is the 5th season in a row that Yao has had some sort of foot injury. This creates a problem for Houston.

From the outside looking in, it appears that Houston plays better with Ming in the lineup and McGrady in the lineup, they play more inspired with McGrady out of the lineup, and play the worst with Ming out of the lineup. Yet they are not a great playoff threat even with two all star caliber players. Something is wrong with the mix.

Should Houston put up with the latest injury and hold on to a Yao in hopes that he will be permanently cured?

How long will Yao Ming remain a Rocket?

Yao has announced his intentions.

“After much thought and reflection, I have decided to have surgery on my left foot,” Yao said in a statement. “This surgery will allow me to continue my career playing basketball, and I look forward to returning to the court. I would like to thank everyone who sent me their best wishes. I am very grateful to have the support of teammates, friends and fans as I dedicate myself to making a completely successful recovery.”

Though the surgery to repair the injury is expected to differ from his previous surgery, in which pins were inserted to strengthen the bone, the procedure to alter the operation of his foot is similar to the surgery performed on Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas in 2001. Ilgauskas, 7-3, also broke the navicular bone in his left foot in consecutive seasons, but he has not had a recurrence of the foot problems that at the time threatened his career. He has averaged 74.5 games per season in the eight seasons since.
source

So now Yao can be healed, maybe not be troubled with foot injuries again in his career, but will have to sit out a year. What would you do if you were the Rockets management? Is it time to trade Yao, we know Cleveland with part Chinese ownership, is interested. Is it time to trade McGrady as well and go in a new direction?

Yao has been a pro for 7 years and McGrady for 12, but Yao will be 29 this fall and McGrady 30, their trade value will never be higher.

Photo source Newscom

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Chase Budinger went 44th in the 2009 NBA Draft to the Detroit Pistons. Hey, things are looking good. They need some outside shooting. In the flash of an eye, Chase Budinger was a Houston Rocket. Hey, things…hey, there are not any starting spots on this team. But wait, maybe there are, at least for a while, because Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming are nursing the usual injuries and that might just open the door.

Chase put on an exhibition in the art of shooting in his second game in the summer league.

“I think the up and down pace of the game helped me,” Budinger told HOOPSWORLD after pouring in a team-high 25 points on 9-10 shooting in a 98-95 win. “That’s been my style all my life, so any time we’re running it’s to my advantage.”

It wasn’t unheard of for Budinger to fill the nets at Arizona, where he averaged 15.6 points as a freshman, 17.1 as a sophomore and 18.0 as a junior. His weakness was always the defensive end of the floor, which is what the Rockets want to see him improve on while competing in the Las Vegas Summer League.

“The biggest thing the coaches have told me to do is to play hard, play tight on my man defensively all the way up the floor, and value every minute I get out on the court.”
source

Ok, that was summer league and the defense is usually sparse and loaded with mismatches as coaches try to put young players into situations.

The real problem for Chase Budinger will be at the other end of the floor. Late in the game my Grandmother drove past Chase for a slam dunk and she was using a walker. No, really it was my grandmother.

Rick Adelman coaches the Rockets and preaches a complete game by every player. No D and no playing time. Better hunker down, Chase, or it will be a long regular season.

Photo source Newscom

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Think of Yao and LeBron on the court together for the rest of their careers and your first thought is why would LeBron want to sign with Houston?

But that is not the source of this discussion. The source is from Hoopsworld reporting that a Chinese group is interested in investing in the Cavaliers.

Not when the New World Development Company, representing a group of Chinese investors, is set to buy a 15 percent ownership interest in the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Hong Kong-based group is led by Kenny Huang, a Chinese-born investor who has in the past brokered marketing deals with the Houston Rockets
and New York Yankees.

On the surface, it may be merely the next most logical step in the growing relationship between the NBA and China, where basketball is wildly popular.
source

Now that would mean they would be very interested in prying Yao Ming from the Rockets and getting him paired up with LeBron in Cleveland.

Yao Ming is holding his breath for a title

Would it be a good fit? Maybe not, because Yao would have to move away from the basket to open up driving lanes for LeBron and that just does not make sense to me. But marketingwise it is a no brainer. It would create tremendous Chinese interest and don’t think for a minute that the NBA would not love that.

The NBA plans for world domination!
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A team posing as the Houston Rockets showed up at the Forum for a game 7. It was a testament to fortitude that the Rockets were still in this series at all. Just who were these Rockets, anyway? They were led by Scola and Brooks in scoring.

Who?

You know, Scola and Brooks. Oh, you were probably wondering about that Yao guy and the one named McGrady. Those two were not seen at the scene. It was more up to Battier and Artest. My thoughts exactly, do you want to trust your playoff fortunes to Battier and Artest?

Pau Gasol in the 3 man jumping drill

It did not matter as Pau Gasol and half of Hollywood led the Lakers to a huge 51 – 31 advantage at half and then just coasted to victory. Pau had 21 points and 18 rebounds. Kobe had a slightly off day with 14 points.

With Gasol scoring 21 points and grabbing 18 rebounds, the Lakers looked like the conference’s top-seeded team, not the maddeningly inconsistent one that was pushed to the decisive final game by the undermanned Rockets.

The Lakers dominated the paint on both ends, forcing the Rockets into turnovers and bad shots, and owning the backboards. They had an 8-0 lead a few minutes in and widened it to 25 points on Gasol’s jump hook shortly before halftime.

source

Now the Nuggets and Chauncey Billups come into tinsel town on Tuesday. Stay tuned.
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Houston has McGrady go down to injury.
Detroit has Iverson go down to injury.

Enter stage left…Ron Artest.
Enter stage right…Rip Hamilton.

It is the Rip and Ron show. Together they return. Separately they drive their teams to new heights.

Yes, Houston, we have a winner and it is delivered by Ron Artest.
Yes, Detroit, we can beat the Boston’s and Orlando’s as long as we have a big time performance from Rip Hamilton.

Ron Artest?

When the Houston Rockets acquired Ron Artest, you read in this space that he was brought in as a replacement for Tracy McGrady, not as a complementary piece. I wrote that at the time because I believed that Artest was the perfect fit for the Rick Adelman system – a fit that McGrady could never be. Adelman knew that, he communicated it, and GM Daryl Morey made it happen.

source

Rip Hamilton?

The Pistons are 2-0 since a back injury took Iverson out of the rotation, and those two wins came over two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference: Orlando and Boston. Hamilton recorded 31 points (11-18FG) and six assists against Orlando, followed by 25 points, nine assists, and six rebounds against Boston. The chemistry that’s been missing is back, and it’s no coincidence that it’s returned as Iverson sits.

source

Oh, by the way, the Nuggets came into Detroit tonight and Chauncey Billups put up plenty of daggers for 34 big ones, but Rip had 21 and the Pistons won the game.

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The trade rumor mill is cranked up and some of them are just outstanding. The silly part is they may all come true, because while you are still harping on the Pistons for trading All Star Chauncey Billups for AI, GM Joe D only took him for a free tryout, increased attendance, and a salary of 22 mill that comes off the books. In other words, you don’t know why a team trades for a player.

This rumor you have to love just for the shear unbelievableness. Is that a word? If not, it should be just for this case and this case alone.

Anyway, it looks like the final straw for the little 3 in New Jersey of Kidd, Jefferson, and Carter. Vince was the last one left.

Vince Carter to the Rockets. How messed up can you get? You have body breaking down Yao, gotta have the ball and never will win a playoff Tracey McGrady, and never going to move to Detroit Ron Artest. Now you want to add, gotta also have the ball and never going to win the playoffs Vince Carter to that lineup?

The Nets and Rockets have exchanged trade proposals and continue to talk, according to league sources and sources close to the Nets. One scenario has Carter and Josh Boone going to Houston for Ron Artest, Carl Landry and Luther Head.

source

If the trade does go through then Ron Artest would be shipped out of town and head back to New Jersey. Why do some teams just think individual talent will win games?

(This story was posted in Hoopsworld)

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Man, today there was this crazy thought rolling through my head. What if the Pistons had kept Chauncey Billups and Iverson had stayed on the Nuggets?

Nowhere to go with that thought, so how about taking a look at how some of this player movement and coaching movement is working out?

Chauncey Billups from Detroit to Denver
Denver is 7 – 3 in their last 10 games and in 1st place

Allen Iverson from Denver to Detroit
Detroit is 4 – 6 and in second place.

Ron Artest from everywhere to Houston
Houston is 7 – 3 and in 1st place

Jermaine O’Neal from Indiana to Toronto
Toronto is 3 – 7 and dead last in the Atlantic Division

Rick Carlisle to coach Dallas
Dallas is 8 – 2 but only in 4th place in the Southwest

Terry Porter to coach Phoenix
Phoenix is 5 -5 and in second place behind the Lakers

Mike D’Antoni to coach the Knicks
3 – 7 and 4th place in the same division as the Celtics

Mo Williams to Cleveland
9 – 1 in the last 10 and first place over the Pistons

This is a fun one
Elton Brand from L.A. Clippers to Philadelphia
Baron Davis from Golden State to L.A. Clippers
Corey Maggette from L.A. Clippers to Golden State

76er’s 4 -6 3rd place
Clip’s 2 – 8 5th place
Warriors 1 – 9 but still in 3rd place

Which just begs the question, what if Chauncey Billups had never left the Pistons?
Photo source Newscom

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Tracy McGrady and Joe Smith playing the little known sport of basketball wrestling

Are the Rockets the most screwed up team in basketball or destined to win the championship?

Huh?

Yeah, you heard me, are they screwed up or going to be winners? Or maybe is it winners or whiners?

And now we get the news that T-Mac is hurt again, both the shoulder and the knee.

“My knee is about 75, 80 percent right now,” McGrady, 29, said. “It took longer than expected. I was expecting to recover 100 percent in four months, but e_SLps the doctor told me it would be six months or even more. My shoulder had, after surgery, kept bothering me. I had another MRI and discovered I have arthritis in there, so I have to have surgery again on my shoulder. That’s something I have to deal with again this season, but my knee should be ready by opening night (Oct. 29).”

source

NBA Tracy McGrady factoid – What did T-Mac lead the team in last year? Assists. Surprised? So was your intrepid author.

So Tracy McGrady is going to play with nagging injuries all year and Yao Ming has missed tons of games (over 80) in the last 3 years and then you add Ron Artest to the mix?

So what does Tracy think of Ron Artest?

McGrady said after last season that the Rockets needed one more player to get over the hump. Hello, Ron Artest, whom McGrady described Monday as a godsend and a beast.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” McGrady said. “I know I get criticized a lot for not leading my team out of the playoffs, but it’s hard. When you don’t have those pieces you need to elevate you to the next level, it’s hard. I don’t care how good a player is; it’s really hard.

“If you don’t have that, it’s tough. Now, I have that. We’ll see what happens.”

source

This team should be loads of fun as they either self destruct or bring destruction on the other teams.

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Yao Ming – will the big fella be around for the 2012 Olympics in London?

Yao Ming and the Chinese team were eliminated in the Olympics by Lithuania. It was a quiet exit for the super tall super star. Not quite what the Chinese were envisioning.

Now it looks like Yao may be done as a Chinese National basketball star.

“That is four years away,” Yao said later. “In 2004, I thought that 2008 was far away. Now I look at 2012 (the next Games in London) and maybe it doesn’t look so far. But since 2004, I have had three major surgeries.”
source

Don’t get me wrong, China had a great Olympics all around, but Yao was a disappointment.

There were two Chinese athletes that China was really counting on. Yao and Lui Xiang the former world record holding hurdler.

Lui had to remove himself with leg problems that had started months ago.

Much of the Chinese advertising effort was based on Lui Xiang first and then Yao Ming.

Now you have to wonder if either one of them will be in the London Olympics in 2012.

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Here Ron Artest thinks he is a Rocket already and leans into take off position

It does not take a rocket scientist to tell if Ron Artest at his best will improve the Houston Rockets. He will.

Artest wanted to be reunited with Coach Rick Adelman. Rick was his coach in Sacramento when Ron started playing there.

So the trade was made…

A source close to the Kings said Tuesday a trade has been agreed upon sending Ron Artest to Houston for former Sacramento point guard Bobby Jackson, first-round draft pick Donte Greene, next season’s first-round pick and cash considerations of approximately $1 million.

source

Like a lot of NBA trades, one team is clearing out the trash or reducing salary cap or trying to get younger while the other team is picking up an aging NBA star. That is what we will call Ron Artest, an aging NBA star. Please don’t snicker.

The other NBA teams will have to perk up and pay attention to the Rockets. With Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and Ron Artest in the starting lineup, the Houston Rockets will be a team to contend with in the playoffs. That is right, the playoffs.

Now that brash prediction does not hold if Ron Artest once again self destructs.

To keep Ron from self destructing will be Coach Rick Adelman’s job.

When Artest, a mercurial small forward, was traded to the Kings from Indiana in January 2006, he flourished under Adelman. The Kings went 26-14 down the stretch with Artest after starting 18-24, then pushed the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs to six games in a competitive first-round playoff series.

As recently as this summer, Artest had shared his admiration for Adelman, saying he wished his free-agency year had come that season because of his ability to play well under the veteran coach. It is an ideal reunion for Artest, who decided not to opt out of his contract by the June 30 deadline and almost immediately expressed regret for doing so.

By the way, Donte Green, the 6′10″ forward going to Sacramento, appears to have a bright future as a scoring forward. We will have to keep our eyes on his career.

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