The Rockets would like to think that staying healthy was their only problem. It wasn't.

It was the biggest problem. Though they kept winning for a while after Yao Ming was lost for the season, stretching their winning streak from 12 to 22 games, they were never the same and usually missed him desperately.

Though Tracy McGrady did not miss a game with the back problems that plagued his first three seasons in Houston, he did miss 16 games with a knee condition that flared up in the playoffs. Rafer Alston, remarkably durable in his first two seasons with the Rockets, had three injuries in the last month of the season. He began the playoff series on the bench with a pulled hamstring and ended it on the bench with a sprained ankle.

As Rockets officials evaluate their ...More