If T-Mac Is Back, What Does That Mean for the Rockets?

Even Morey seemed determined to be cautious about expecting too much, too soon, but when pressed about how he thought McGrady looked, he said, "More or less, I would have to say, very good.

Even Morey knows what McGrady has done this off-season in his recovery from micro-fracture knee surgery, working extensively with Tim Grover in Chicago, McGrady expects to return among the elite in the NBA.

Grover, a long time trainer for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade this past season claims he'll have McGrady jumping the way he used to in his Toronto days.

While that may be a stretch, as McGrady is now 30 years old, and gone through a lot of wear and tear on his body, it's an interesting thought to one of the more quieter NBA headlines going into the ever fast approaching season.

Coming off the worst season of his career with an assortment of injuries and averages of 15.6 points per game, 4.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on career low shooting percentages, it'd be one of the NBA's top stories if he were able to come back and produce at the level that made him a seven-time All-NBA player that perennially finished in the top 6-8 in MVP Voting.

McGrady was terrible last season, certainly, but he wasn't as bad as either Rockets fans or the media perceived him to be. Garnering a reputation as a "quitter," he even drew comparisons to a former Rocket, Scottie Pippen.

For those who don't know Scottie Pippen, when Pippen was traded to the Rockets, he was being traded to a team with two former MVP's in Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley.

Paired with those two, the Rockets were expected become the NBA's elite once again and rise as NBA champions once again.

Not only did the Rockets underperform from their lofty expectations losing in the first round to the Lakers, Pippen created controversy in the locker room, particularly with Charles Barkley.

Pippen's negative attitude, and poor performance throughout the season, and in the playoffs (32% from the field against the Lakers) sparked a feud throughout the Rockets locker room.

Eventually and ironically, the feud ended when Pippen asked to be traded, and dismantling a core that if had put egos aside and meshed together better offensively, could have formed one of the scariest trios in NBA History, and that accounting into the fact both Barkley and Hakeem were past their prime.

McGrady hasn't done anything nearly as harmful to the franchise as that, in fact he's led them to the playoffs three of the four times in the past five seasons, while establishing himself as one of the best in the game, with numerous All-NBA selections, and Top 10 finishes in MVP Voting.

Going back to last season, as poorly as he played on a whole, there were glimpses when he was healthy that proved it was more a psychological problem paired with his injuries that contributed to his inconsistent play.

There was the game against the Suns, in which he scored 27 points, primarily all of that coming in the second half. The game against the Wizards in which he sparked a Rockets comeback scoring 16 of his 20 points in the final quarter to lead the Rockets to victory.

The monster triple-double against the Nuggets totaling over 20 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, or the other near triple double, one assist shy against the Warriors.

The back-to-back stretch against the Celtics (26 points) and Blazers (30/8/8) with other numerous 20-point games showed McGrady was still capable.

A large part in that could be attributed to his mind-set, his body language on the floor was as if Ron Artest was brought into to reduce the role McGrady had on the Rockets, while it was an experiment in hopes all three would play to the best of their abilities where the Rockets would take off.

Not to mention on offense, both McGrady and Artest are ball-holders, with questionable shot selection. The ball clearly should have been in McGrady's hand when the majority of the time it was Artest's.

Pile that with his consistent injuries, at times limping through games, or being unable to even run the break, it was a sort of worst case scenario for McGrady. The way I look at it, there's no where but up.

"He's way, way ahead of schedule," Morey said. "He's already playing. I don't think anyone could have predicted he would be playing now. He still has a long way to go. There is a lot of rust to shake off."

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