Red Rowdy once more

This is me eating my words.

After saying that I was done with the Houston Rockets when they encountered a bad case of the coughs (a natural reaction to choking) in the playoffs, here I am again back on their side. To my defense, I did say that they can expect me back if they upgraded. And that's what exactly what they did.

After a flurry of activity in the off-season, that saw them adding eight new players, and hiring a new general manager and a coach, people are now projecting the Rockets to finish atop the Western Conference. They're even saying Houston may be in a for a parade year. Of course this sentiment has been echoed ever since Tracy McGrady joined Yao Ming in Houston. What's different this time is that the people saying these things are those who actually know the NBA inside-out and not Rockets-die hards who have a skewed sense of the team's capability.

I understand where the excitement is coming from. The formerly thin back court is suddenly crowded with the return of Mike James and former franchise player Steve Francis. They also pulled off a division coup when they pried Argentinian star Luis Scola away from state rival San Antonio Spurs to address the dearth in the power forward spot. And with Jeff Van Gundy replaced by Rick Adelman, Bonzi Wells may actually have a chance to play. Here's another bonus of the coaching change: fans no longer have to endure Van Gundy's soporific strategies in trying to win games.

I still have my reservations though. It's still just the preseason after all. Any predictions about the teams chances in April are a bit premature. After all, there are still 82 games left before the real real season starts after all. And when it does start, questions about the ability of Houston's superstar duo to finally deliver will again come up. It also doesn't help that Adelman has his own history of choking at the big stage. Just ask the Portland Trailblazers and Sacramento Kings. Their owners are still wondering how they lost championships they thought were well within their reach. (Ok, so those teams did come up against Michael Jordan's Bulls and Shaq and Kobe's Lakers but still...)

The team's two superstars, especially T-Mac after that disastrous "it's on me interview", are aware of this. Both have yet to fully express confidence about what the team can achieve probably wary that they may underperform again this year. During an interview, Yao expressed his take on their recent status upgrade. Asked to comment on suggestions that the current team is the most talented squad he has been on, Yao replied that people have said that to him every year but that means nothing until they win a title.

This was an excellent statement from Yao because in the end, the projections made by the experts are just that-projections. And no team will be awarded the title just because many analysts feel that that particular squad is the best. As ESPN analyst Jon Barry said during one of the preseason games, "That's why team play games, to prove who really is the best."

But like other Houston fans, I am hoping that the experts are right.

*Note: The article was written two weeks before the start of the NBA season. The Rockets has since opened by winning six of their fist seven games for the franchise's best start in more than decade. The team has also just recently recently lost six straight games. Happy times.)