Even With Trevor Ariza, the Rockets Are Only Going Downhill

A few months after going seven games with the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers, the Houston Rockets now find themselves at the bottom of the Western Conference, a pit that teams sink into and don't emerge from for nearly decades.

After Ron Artest left the Rockets to sign a deal with the Lakers, reports began flying in that small forward Trevor Ariza has joined the Rockets.

Even with the signing of the athletic swingman, Houston is going into a slump that will take years to come out of.

Losing a core of three All-Stars is detrimental to any team, but when you're in the tougher conference and in the hardest division in the NBA, it means a lot more. With the San Antonio Spurs getting stronger, the Memphis Grizzlies adding more youth and experience, and the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Hornets still with MVP candidates on their teams, the Rockets find themselves as the outcast, without a suitable leader.

Yao Ming's career has taken a tailspin, Tracy McGrady is constantly battling injuries and Artest has just bolted for arguably the best team in the basketball world.

The Rockets are in trouble.

While Aaron Brooks, Shane Battier, and Luis Scola are very solid players, they alone cannot compete with the Western Conference powerhouses.

Brooks is still young and inconsistent. Battier, while a great defender, is not a suitable scoring option. Scola, who is probably the most stable out of the entire Rockets organization, is not team-leading material and is not ready to take the reigns from three former All-Stars.

The addition of Ariza is a considerate contribution; he played his first full season last year while having career high's in points, minutes, assists and steals. His defense has remained as one of his strong points, but it cannot fill the shoes of Artest, who has won a Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The Rockets are losing a defensive specialist who averaged 16 points, five rebounds and three assists over his 10-year career.

A team that was within one game of reaching its first conference finals in 13 years now is looking to stay afloat in a difficult conference. Could the Rockets be the next Memphis Grizzlies of the Southwest division and be thrown into a decade of obscurity before getting the right lottery pick?

Sorry Houston, but you're going to need more than Trevor Ariza to replace one of the strongest cores in the NBA.