[CHRONIC] Rockets roster full, maybe set. But is it enough?

http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2010/07/rockets_roster_full_maybe_set.html

Now, we wait. Rockets training camp opens Sept. 25.

There will be press conferences; Brad Miller on Tuesday, Luis Scola and Kyle Lowry on Wednesday. Daryl Morey will keep working the Blackberry because you never know. But he does not expect major changes, and he is OK with that.

For now at least and probably for the foreseeable future, this is the team. The Rockets have 15 guys signed to guaranteed contracts, including a lot that they did not have at this time a year ago — a pair of seven-footers, with nine All-Star nods between them, a shooting guard successor to Tracy McGrady and a collection of young prospects to develop.

The question now becomes, "Is that enough?"

That of course depends on another question, "Enough for what?"

Assuming Yao Ming remains healthy, because there is no point in asking the other questions if he is not healthy, the Rockets should be solid in the mix of Western Conference playoff teams, and since the pack is usually so tightly grouped, that could place them anywhere from second or third to seventh.

If Yao is a force come playoff time, the Rockets should go back to that Leslie Alexander goal of a few years ago, "a deep playoff run." That year, Yao dominated the Trail Blazers for a game, and then forced them to tear apart an outstanding defense to deal with him. The Rockets won in six, then took the eventual champion Lakers to seven games.

They are a better team now than then, with Aaron Brooks the league's most improved player last season, Kevin Martin replacing McGrady, who was out in that postseason, and with the bench considerably deeper, depending on the development of the second-year prospects — Jordan Hill, Jermaine Taylor and Chase Budinger — by next postseason.

The Rockets need to make the improvements they did not last season. More than anything, by far, they have to get much, much better defensively. After that, and with all that has happened in the past 13 months, the Rockets' prospects seem to be back where they have been for years.

It's still all about Yao. He has more help than he perhaps ever has had in the NBA. This could be his best team. (McGrady was out in the 2009 postseason and Yao was not all the way back in 2007.)

The pursuit of Chris Bosh serves as a reminder that the Rockets are among many teams that need a whole lot of things to go right to contend. They do not have the wealth of stars — which is why they went after Bosh — to be among the teams to beat. Retaining Lowry and Scola and signing Miller has left the Rockets without any glaring holes, and with excellent depth. It takes stars to be more.

If they don't come up with that sort of a home run by next February — and Morey is not kicking back on a beach, yet — they need a few of their own to play like stars.

Once again, for the Rockets, that will take Yao. The more things change...

• • •

If you do wish for another move, the pursuit of a full-sized point guard — or combination guard that can fill in at point — might be the way to go.

A third-string guard is not a real great priority. You are still talking about someone that won't play a lot, and the Rockets right now have no roster spot available. But the Rockets season went south when Kyle Lowry was hurt last season.

The Rockets have done too much rebuilding and Leslie Alexander is spending way too much for a chunk of the season to be sacrificed to a turned ankle. And if you can give a few minutes to someone with more heft on Deron Williams, that would not be a bad thing, either.

• • •

Miller's addition will likely return Chuck Hayes to his role as a power forward/defensive specialist.

Odd to say, but the Rockets missed Hayes last season.

It puts to mind a Bruce Springsteen tour many years ago when he was in his LA/Julianne Phillips/Human Touch/Lucky Town phase. I mentioned after the show that I missed Roy Bittan, the piano player from the E Street Band, which did not seem to make a lot of sense since Bittan was actually still with Springsteen on that tour, playing keyboards in that Shayne Fontaine version of the band. But I missed him, anyway.

He was no longer in his previous role, featured and at times starring.

Hayes was that way last season. As a starting center, he would have some good moments, but he needed all his defensive abilities to make up for the shortcoming of being so short. He sort of blended in to the mix.

Even with all the extra playing time, he was missed at power forward, where he could enter the game when a Dirk Nowitzki or LaMarcus Aldridge was going nuts and the Rockets needed a defensive hammer.

In some ways, that's an even tougher job, playing only when a great scorer is going great. The Rockets did not have that last season. It's a much smaller role. It does not come up every game. But it was, at times, valuable.

With this week's move in the middle, the Rockets not only added Miller, they regained Hayes.

• • •

If you need something Rockets-related to follow in the remaining free agent developments, hope that Shannon Brown does not return to the Lakers. LA's addition of Steve Blake was a good one, but if there were two Western Conference point guards that could not handle Aaron Brooks' quickness, first and second on the list were Blake and Derek Fisher.

Brown would be a key to those games if the Lakers bring him back. If not, the Rockets would have an advantage at that position to help counter the Lakers advantages elsewhere.

• • •

There were a couple sentences in the Racine (Wisc.) Journal Times about Yao Ming on Monday:

"Houston officials are hopeful All-Star center Yao Ming will be physically sound for the regular-season opener. But I'm hearing the Rockets aren't about to rush their star back too soon and he could miss up to the first two months of the season."

Rockets officials report that Yao — who is back in China for his annual charity game — is entirely on track to start training camp and the season on time. More specifically, Daryl Morey said the suggestion that caution could lead the Rockets to hold Yao out of as much as the first two months of the season or that the Rockets have considered it is "totally false."

• • •

After another strong summer league, John Lucas III could land in Miami or might go to Chicago, potentially costing Yao Ming his Shanghai Sharks point guard.

Will Conroy, come on down? Either that, or Ish Smith, when training camp rolls around, it might be a good idea to buddy up to the big guy.