Tracy McGrady has set a date for his 2009-10 debut: Wednesday, November 18th against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Sounds like a win.

According to Yahoo! Sports, the Houston Rockets forward is feeling pretty good with minimal pain after rehabbing his surgically repaired left knee for eight months. However, he is still waiting for the official go-ahead from team doctors. McGrady underwent microfracture surgery back in February to cut his 2008-09 season short after 35 games.

“Excited to get back and compete at a high level again,” McGrady said in an email to Yahoo. “For a full year I had to play on one leg against the best and I couldn’t compete with anybody the way I was feeling.”

Being without the seven-time All-Star and franchise center Yao Ming hasn’t kept the Rockets from an impressive start right out of the gates. You might even call them the biggest surprise of the season so far, winning four of six games with an overtime loss to the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Welcome back, T-Mac. You worked hard to get here.