SG - Tracy McGrady
McGrady has been an NBA celebrity ever since he signed a contract with the Orlando Magic in 2000 and won the league's Most Improved Player award. However, that celebrity has started to dim as people are beginning to realize that as talented as McGrady is - and that is very - he doesn't have the indefinable intangibles that make a team win. Aside from the storied Playoff failures he is a player that has quit on one team while they were losing (the 2003-2004 Magic) and entertained thoughts of retirement a few years later when Houston was having a rough go of it (2006). He's continually expressed frustration with the process of team building and has an obsession with instant results.He has made no apologies for his me-first interests on every team he's played for despite also insisting that he needs more help from those around him. If Houston can make it deep into the post-season this year then McGrady will pass into his 30's with a newfound pedigree for winning. However, if he flames-out again the fact that he's crossed the big 'three-oh' will no doubt only expedite his departure from Houston.
SF - Ron Artest
If coach Rick Adelman wanted to be really daring he could put Artest at the power forward slot and start Shane Battier here, but given the size of most of the Western NBA power forwards (Pau Gasol, Carlos Boozer, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, etc) the safe bet is that Artest will start at his natural power forward position. He has a preexisting relationship with Adelman from their Sacramento days, all positive, and so there is a chance that he'll actually behave this year and play up to his potential. However, people have been throwing around that circumstance for years without satisfaction, so just because he is in a contract year that shouldn't insinuate we'll be seeing a golden boy Artest. If he can play his game and stay relatively healthy then his importation will have been a success. If not? At least he's an expiring contract.
C - Yao Ming
The frustrating thing about Yao Ming is that he should be the undisputed best center in the NBA. He's huge but he's also skilled. He's world famous but he still works at developing his game. He has all of the tools and he knows how to use them. However, he is only able to use them for precious few games per year. Yao, like McGrady and Artest, is a fragile body that has every fan holding his or her breath every time they make contact with another body or the floor. For all of the strategic and personality reasons that one could knock the Rockets down a peg or two for, the fact that Yao simply hasn't been able to stay healthy far exceeds any other. Talking about Yao in any other capacity at this point seems not only fruitless but irrelevant. Until he can prove that he can stay healthy there is no reason to expect that he will and, thus, there is no reason to expect that the Rockets are going anywhere when their best player can't stay on the court.
http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=249762&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nba
