The Houston Rockets are a part of a three-team deal that also involves the New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings.  In this deal, the Rockets have finally rid themselves of the injury prone, prima donna that is Tracy McGrady.  T-Mac is going to the Knicks, while the Rockets get Jordan Hill and Jared Jeffries in return.  The Rockets also are getting a great player from the Kings in Kevin Martin, along with Hilton Armstrong.  The Rockets had to give up Joey Dorsey and, unfortunately, Carl Landry to the Kings.  The Kings also got Larry Hughes from the Knicks.  Landry was Houston’s top young player and is one of the best 6th men in the league.  This season he is shooting 55% from the field and is averaging 16.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 0.8 assists, and 0.9 blocks in just 27.2 minutes per game.

Although Landry will be missed, this was a good deal overall for the Rockets.  Kevin Martin is a star in this league, averaging 19.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.1 steal.  He has been struggling a little from the field this season (40% FG), but I expect that to improve since the Rockets are a much better team than the Kings and he is just staring to get into the flow of things since he was also injured for a much of the season with a broken wrist, playing in only 22 games thus far.  Another reason this was a good deal for the Rockets is that they also get the option of swapping draft picks with the Knicks in 2011 (unless it’s the #1 pick), and will get their 2012 first-round pick (unless it’s a top-5 pick).  So, that means the Rockets have gotten a great guard in Kevin Martin, more depth in the front court with Hilton Armstrong, Jared Jeffries, and Jordan Hill, all while having some young talent to look forward to in the 2011 and 2012 NBA drafts.

29-year old power forward Brian Cook has done almost nothing to help the Rockets this season. He has played in 14 games (0 starts) for the Rockets this season and he is averaging 2.7 minutes, 1.2 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game. Cook is also shooting a lot of bricks whenever he comes into the game as he is only hitting 33.3% of his shots from the floor. Don’t expect Cook to help the Rockets at all the rest of the season.

Trevor Ariza is bending rims all around the NBA with his shooting. He is hitting only 37.8% from the floor, 30.3% from three point range and 64.5% from the free throw line this season for the Rockets and that is pathetic. As awful as Ariza has been shooting he is still putting up decent numbers somehow. He has played in 49 games (all starts) for the Rockets this season and he is averaging 38.1 minutes, 15.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game. It appears to me that Ariza is a little stretched out as a starting player because he’s hurting the team as much as he is helping it right now.

Tracy McGrady has only played in 6 games (0 starts) for the Rockets this season and he is averaging 7.7 minutes, 3.2 points, 0.8 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. He is only shooting 36.8% from the floor so far this season. The Rockets have not played T-Mac in a long time as the team was going good and he was crying about playing time. He has a huge contract which expires at the end of the year which gives him value. Look for his time with the Rockets to be nearing a close with the trading deadline just a couple of weeks away.