The Houston Rockets have been one of the better teams in the NBA over the past couple of years with a lot of promise for the future, but even though they had grand plans of becoming NBA champions with both Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming running the show, there plans have changed recently as McGrady has been traded and Yao continues to struggle with injury problems.

Last season was a difficult year for the Houston Rockets as they had to make some tough decisions and had to play an entire season without their superstar center Yao Ming. That had a big affect from the online sportsbooks and sports betting sites. Not only was Yao sidelined for the entire year with a foot injury he sustained during the playoffs in the previous season against the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, but the fate of Tracy McGrady was about to be decided.

Even though he is one of the best offensive players ever to play this game, McGrady was constantly suffering from nagging injuries and never seemed to be healthy enough to make it through an 82 game regular season and into the playoffs.

With McGrady being as injury prone as he is and not getting younger at 31 years of age, the Houston Rockets finally decided to part ways with the two-time scoring champion by trading him to the New York Knicks.

Despite getting rid of arguably their best player, the Rockets still had many promising prospects in newly acquired Kevin Martin, Carl Landry, Trevor Ariza and the Most Improved Player in the league in point guard Aaron Brooks.

With this young core of players and veterans like Shane Battier and Brad Miller, the Houston Rockets could be a force to be reckoned with in the Western Conference, but where does Yao Ming now fit into the mix?

Next season will be a serious turning point in Yao’s life and basketball career as he has said that if his injured foot doesn’t heal the way it should over the next season that he will officially call it quits as he will retire from the NBA.

The Chinese superstar center is set to make $17.7 million dollars next season; the last year of his current contract. If he has a bad year and is plagued by injuries once again, I won’t be surprised to see him retire and walk into the sunset a rich man.

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