From Contenders to Crippled, Houston Rockets Must Defend Playoff Hopes

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

There's a scene in my favorite movie, Independence Day, where Vivica A. Fox's character, Jasmine, and her on-screen son emerge from the rubble of a Los Angeles tunnel to survey the devastation caused by hostile aliens the night before.

“What happened, mommy?” he asks.

“I don’t know, baby,” Fox's character says, after seeing hundreds of toppled or burning cars and piles of debris where buildings once stood.

Melodramatic as the comparison may seem, I cannot think of a better way to introduce the 2009-2010 Houston Rockets.

You better not question my taste in cinema, either.

To say the team’s off-season was rough would qualify as the understatement of the year. The trail of destruction caused by injuries to Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest’s departure has left coach Rick Adelman with a collection of role players and a tough road to one of the final playoff spots in the rugged Western Conference.

The Rockets brass considers a post-season berth a reasonable and worthy goal. With the Phoenix Suns reduced to a defenseless circus, the L.A. Clippers trying to reverse decades worth of colossal embarrassment, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s youth, and the mess of epic proportions in Golden State, landing the seventh or eighth spot is not crazy talk for banged-up Houston.

It is, however, a sharp turn from the expectations of a year ago, when Artest’s acquisition was supposed to transform a first-round doormat into a championship contender.

McGrady underwent microfracture surgery after stumbling through an uninspired, painful and inconsistent season of play.

His knees failed him, and in turn, he failed the franchise.

Yao Ming broke his foot in the second round against the Lakers, again. Medical exams weeks later revealed the stress fracture in his smashed foot had worsened and could keep him off the court until training camp in 2010.

Rockets players suffer the kinds of injuries for which no executive can plan, ailments best classified as bad luck.

Though 99.9 percent of pro basketball injuries are unpredictable, the incidents in Houston are especially cruel.

So, here come the tattered and offense-challenged Rockets, just hoping to be good enough to become a contender’s first-round snack.

The projected starting center has played zero NBA minutes, with alarming defensive lapses sure to accompany his U.S. inexperience.

The alternatives in the pivot include a 6’6” defensive stalwart with an offensive game that’s, well, offensive, and a 6’10” sophomore who struggled to get on the court in his rookie year because of a prima donna attitude.

David Anderson will improve the more he plays; Chuck Hayes swears he has worked on his foul shooting; Joey Dorsey seems to have the right attitude after a summer of hard work in the gym.

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