Who is in? Who is out? I'm seeing rotation!

To start with... bad news. McGrady may be delaying his return. Again. Apparently he had a "rough" practice or something? What gives - did someone ask him to try to make a layup?

So, it looks like the Rockets will take on the Spurs sans T-Mac. Maybe he's waiting for the team's record without him to drop below .500 again before he returns in the "hero" role.

This got me thinking though. And yes, such action can be dangerous, and highly unproductive. When T- Mac does eventually hobble back onto the court, what should the Rockets' rotation be? Clearly, we have an abundance of guards and backup forwards that are going to re-adjust to T-Mac being back. Who sits and who plays? Or, rather, who should sit... and who should play? Considering that Ricky is the coach, the answers to who will and who should are completely different.

Yup, he still looks confused.

This is what the Rockets' starting lineup *will* be:

PG: Rafer. No matter how much he sucks.
SG: T-Mac.
SF: Battier.
PF: Hayes.
C: Yao.

The obvious response is "hey, that's what the lineup was before - and it clearly was not working!" This response would be correct. But Adelman doesn't have time for your impeccable logic.

Who will fill out the rotation?

Most likely we'll see Bonzi or Scola be the first off the bench. No matter how listless Bonzi has played over the last month. Scola is probably angry he's not starting - and he has a legitimate complaint. But Chuck Hayes would lose all value if we brought him off the bench - Chuck would never be able to matchup against quick/shoot-first bench players. And that might cost him his shoe deal in China. We can't have that. So Scola will play the backup PF and C roles - and he'll do it admirably, dammit!

After that, certainly Aaron Brooks has earned legit playing time. So we'll see him for 15-20 minutes a game. Luther Head has played scared the last 10 days, but he's the only consistent outside shooter we have right now. He plays, too. Just hopefully not in the 4th Q.

That's 9 in the rotation. Stevie and Mike James will just have to accept their role as Dikembe's audience for sideline standup routines.

Now, that doesn't solve the mystery of the Rockets season. It couldn't. T-Mac cannot make Rafer look competent. T-Mac can't magically teach Chuck how to catch or pass or shoot. t-Mac won't stop shooting fadeaway 3s either, this much I know. Change has to be made somewhere, right? Right?

Here's what the lineup SHOULD be:

PG: Brooks (F-U, Rafer)
SG: T-Mac
SF: Battier
PF: Scola
C: Yao

Why the change? Look, Hollinger was wrong. The Rockets are not winning 60 games or the Championship this year. Hell, they'll be lucky to sneak in as the 8th seed (which they will do, but that's for another column). Why not get Brooks and Scola prepared to go to battle for the '08/'09 season? It would create all sorts of interesting possibilities:

1st off the bench:

Bonzi (I keep telling myself he'll get in shape and start to care. I'm becoming more wrong each day, but....). This could also be Luther Head or Rafer (until we trade/cut his ass).

Also off the bench:

Now *this* is key. Scola can't play the whole game. Neither can Yao. But Chuck is too short to play the C position, even though I am aware Ricky tries to get away with it right now. No - instead we gotta give playing time to Carl Landry. He appeared in 3 games last week - each time showing hustle, athleticism and a very solid sense of rebounding and positional defense. Then he'd be ushered back to the bench after 8 minutes, never to be heard from again. I cannot figure out the reasons why. Maybe he made a pass at Adelman's wife... who knows? Landry has to play though. He needs 10-15 minutes a game. Otherwise, just send him to the D-League.

That would leave a regular rotation of Yao, T-Mac, Battier, Scola, Brooks, Bonzi, Head, Rafer and Landry - a solid 9 deep rotation. And Francis, James, Chuck and Kirk Snyder can battle them in practice to keep them sharp.

The purpose of this is that we could conserve a lot of energy from our starters in the late 3rd/early 4th, and then bring back Scola and Brooks to be the energy guys to play off Yao and T-Mac to close out games. Why Ricky won't let Yao and Scola play at the same time baffles me right now - it's not like they are Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph - they won't get in each other's way. PLAY SCOLA! More than 20 minutes!!

Besides, when is the last time you saw Bonzi, Rafer, Chuck or Luther Head dive for a rebound like this:

That's hustle. We need more of it. Go Rockets!

Still unable to discuss things rationally

Neither Lee nor I have really recovered from Tuesday's debacle. It's taking all of my strength not to completely freak out and give up on the Rockets.

Then I remind myself of the situation. We were playing good, team basketball - even without our supposed leader and best player - and at one point surged to 20-17. Winning five in a row. I'm doing my best not to be too myopic in my emotional outlook on the season. Besides, we do have some definite bright spots we can focus on:

1. Luis ScolaOur 27 year old foreign rookie is really starting to find his groove in the NBA. 8 points, 5 rebounds, 52% shooting and a hell of a lot of hustle every game. Ricky even has him on the court to close out the games instead of Chuck Hayes now. Scola almost single-handedly kept the Rockets from choking on Tuesday. (Unfortunately he was no match for the natural disaster that is Rafer Alston.)

I am even the proud owner of a Rockets/Scola #4 jersey that I bought at the game during halftime Tuesday. Practically the only good thing to come from that whole evening!

2. Aaron Brooks

Granted, when the Rockets drafted Chris Rock's little brother, I was annoyed. I thought Glenn Davis was a better choice for us (not knowing we'd get Scola). I thought drafting a midget in round 1 was a wasted pick. I was wrong.

Aaron Brooks is Iverson-quick. He willingly plays defense (though he's still learning how to do it at the NBA level). He makes really good passes in traffic. He can score when Yao is being triple teamed. He knows not to give the ball to Luther Head when the shot clock is running down.

Yes, he's a true rookie, which is why he's not starting (and hopefully the only reason we still have Rafer on the payroll). But Brooks' quick growth puts me at ease and will only accelerate Daryl Morey's decision to hit the eject button on Rafer when the season ends. Since we are not winning a ring this year - I can rest comfortably knowing we at least have one competent point guard on the roster who will only get better by next year.

3. Yao Ming

Yeah, the tall guy is still on the roster. Not that Rafer or Luther are aware of this.

One day he's actually going to get mad enough to hit Calvin Booth with that elbow. Then the days of hack-a-Yao-with-impunity will hopefully be over. Yao's elbows have to be even pointier than Dikembe's - it has to hurt like hell if you get clipped with it. Yao needs to take advantage of this.

Of course, with 5 additional b.s. calls against him Tuesday, Yao is this much closer to losing it. He's like a race car in the red... and I'm just saying it's dangerous to have a race car in the red. He could blow. I still maintain that would be a good thing. Except for opposing players.

Anyway, T-Mac returns Saturday supposedly. Spurs come to town. We better not need 13 points in 30 seconds. Let's just keep a lead this time for the whole game. Is that asking too much?

I have foreseen your destiny!

Hey, New York Knicks........

Apologize!!!You cannot stop Yao. You can only hope to contain him. Or foul the shit out of him. But he shoots 90% from the line, so that doesn't work either. Isiah saw it coming, so he left the show early. Guess he doesn't like predictable endings. (and you can be sure I will post the YouTube clip of Yao gorilla dunking on Malik Rose's corpse as soon as it's online.)

Ohhhhh! And that's 4 in a row! Just as I called it a week ago. The "east coast swing" is a nice way to pick up cheap Ws.

Some game thoughts:

I told you Scola should be playing more! He was the difference in the game and negated the impact of David Lee completely.

Rafer... I gotta hand it to you. You played great in the 1st quarter. Tried everything you could to fuck it up in the third quarter (heaving 3s when Yao is killing inside is just stupid). Then you made up for it and closed out the game in the 4th with some tough defense, great passing and an actual made layup in traffic. I expect more of this from you. We can compete against anyone if you play like this.

Where the F was Aaron Brooks in the 2nd half? He killed the Knicks last time.

Bonzi? F-U. You are the reason the Rockets went from 12 up to 5 down. Nearly giving me a heart attack in the process. At least fake it like you want to play defense every now and then. You made Eddy Curry look energetic.

Shane Battier -- another solid, unsung performance that was essential to another victory. This is why we made the Rudy Gay trade. Rockets fans, always remember this.

And to the rest of the Rockets - when the 7'5" Chinese dude in the middle is scoring at will against an opponent that doesn't seem to care -- if you don't make sure he at least touches the ball on every freakin' possession -- you should all be benched. Yao could have scored 50 tonight if anyone was paying attention. I'll take the win, sure, but let's make it easy next time. Here's what he looks like. It should be easy to find him.

Go Rockets! Make it five for five on Friday! I'll be there!