It’s mere days after the NBA Draft – the spectacle were teams get the opportunity to make a big splash and get someone who can help them either immediately or after a few seasons of experience.

The above average and elite teams of the league have to settle for the low-ceiling talent in the draft…and rightfully so…assuming they just completed a fairly successful season and expect to be competitive for the foreseeable future.

In this category would land the Houston Rockets.  While they only made it to the second round of the playoffs, they certainly can stake a claim on being the second best team in the NBA.  After pushing the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers to seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals, things looked promising for the Rockets.

We've seen this a lot...

But we all remember Houston center Yao Ming getting injured toward the middle of the series.  The remaining Rockets battled valiantly – but to no avail.  No Yao Ming, no chance at being a championship caliber team.  And there’s the rub.  As good a team as Houston is when they have all of their pieces, the one piece they can ill-afford to lose for any extended length of time would be the oft-injured Ming.

That’s exactly why the Rockets are now facing a grim situation.  They have found out that Yao Ming will probably miss the entire 2009-2010 NBA season, and quite possibly some of the following season as well.

This is a direction-altering discovery.  Now you have to change the course of your decision-making with regard to Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest and Shane Battier.  Key players in a successful team, they would guarantee only perhaps a playoff berth – but not much else.

I’m really hoping that Yao Ming, the Rockets, and the NBA, all get better news.

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