One of the best one-two punches in the NBA over the last five years or so has been the Houston Rockets international superstar center Yao Ming and scoring machine shooting guard Tracy McGrady. When these two are healthy and on the floor at the same time the Houston Rockets are one of the best teams in the league, but they have not been able to stay healthy in their short time together in Houston and the Rockets have suffered because of it.

Last season the Rockets started to look very promising as they were able to make it into the playoffs led by Yao Ming without Tracy McGrady taking the scoring load and sitting on the bench with yet another season ending injury. The Rockets defense was top notch with arguably two of the best defenders in the NBA in Ron Artest and Shane Battier, but that wasn’t enough for Houston to get past the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the playoffs.

The Rockets were able to take Kobe Bryant and the Lakers to seven games, which was impressive to say the least, but they lost Yao Ming to another foot injury and fell just short of making an appearance in the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets.

Despite the second round exit and another injury to Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets looked like a promising team coming into this season and for a few reasons.

One, the Rockets were able to add yet another defensive stopper and promising young player in Trevor Ariza in the offseason through free agency. Two, Tracy McGrady would be back at some point in the season are ready to get this team back to contender status in the Western Conference.

With these two things going for the Rockets this season it seemed as though Houston would be a force to be reckoned with yet again. Unfortunately, McGrady’s return to the floor has been postponed once again as the Rockets front office and head coach Rick Adelman don’t want to bring their leading scorer back too soon.

Obviously, after sitting out for nine months now, Tracy McGrady is getting antsy and practically begging to get back on the floor for Houston, but the Rockets aren’t having it as they insist that he stay on the bench a little bit longer.

Who knows what this might mean, but I believe holding out McGrady might be because they are planning on trading and avoiding bringing him back in fear of another injury and losing out on his current value.