The Rockets have three unrestricted free agents and two restricted free agents and they will likely have to ante up for at least three of them. Yao Ming has a early termination option but he won’t be exercising that as he hasn’t played in a while and he seems to like Houston. F/C Chuck Hayes has a team option for this season and I think the Rockets will pick it up as he is a solid insurance policy inside. Luis Scola and Kyle Lowry are both restricted free agents. I see the Rockets without a doubt matching anything Scola gets offered but Lowry will only come back if the price isn’t too out of whack. SF Jared Jeffries has a early termination option in his contract and he might just exercise it. The Rockets might not care if he leaves.

The Rockets would have definitely been a playoff team if they had 29-year old center Yao Ming last season. They hope that the 7′6″, 310 pound Yao is ready to go in 2010-2011 after missing all of last year with a foot injury. Yao has played in 481 games (471 starts) in his career with the Rockets in which he has averaged 32.7 minutes, 19.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.9 blocked shots per game. He also is a good shooter from both the floor (52.5%) and the free throw line (83.2%) in his career. Yao is a force in the middle because of his size and that’s something the Rockets sorely missed last season.

UPDATE: (6/29/2010) - Yao Ming has opted in for $17.69 million bucks for the 2010-11 season for the Rockets taking him off the free agent market.

Houston Rockets’ point guard Aaron Brooks was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player after he set new career highs in points, assists and rebounds.  Brooks, who finished his third season this year, averaged just 11.2 points, 3.2 assists, and 2.0 rebounds last season.  He stepped up for the Rockets this season and upped his averages to 19.6 points per game, 5.3 assists, and 2.6 rebounds.  That is over 8 more points per game and 2 more assists, so you can see why he won the Most Improved Player Award.  He also improved his field goal percentage, going from 40% last year to 43% this year.  He was also one of the best three-point shooters in the game, shooting 40 % from behind the arc, over 3% better than last season.  The Rockets needed someone to step up for them, abd Brooks did in a big way since they were without Yao Ming for the whole year and Tracy McGrady never worked out for them.  Brooks led the Rockets to a winning record of 42-40, but it wasn’t enough to get the Rockets in the playoffs were every Western Conference playoff team one at least 50 games.  Rockets’ fans should still be proud of the way Brooks and the rest of the club responded without a go-to guy to start the season.  Brooks showed that he can be that guy for the Rockets and he was well deserving of the Most Improved Player Award.

Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill and Jermaine Taylor all have a lot of potential to produce for the Rockets down the road. 22-year old forward Jordan Hill has the highest upside of this trio of player. Hill played in 23 games (0 starts) for the Rockets after the trade from the Knicks and he averaged 16.2 minutes, 6.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. Hill played in 47 games (0 starts) overall last season for the Knicks & Rockets in which he averaged 13.3 minutes, 5.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game. He could be a starter soon for the Rockets. 21-year old SG/SF Chase Budinger brought instant offense off the bench for the Rockets this year which is probably his best role moving forward. Budinger played in 74 games (4 starts) for the Rockets this season and he averaged 20.1 minutes, 8.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. 23-year old shooting guard Jermaine Taylor could also force himself into the playing rotation for the Rockets next year. He played in 31 games (4 starts) for the Rockets this season and he averaged 9.8 minutes, 4.1 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game.

The Rockets shot 54% from the floor last night but they didn’t play any D allowing the Hornets to shoot 63.8% from the floor and that did them in. Trevor Ariza had his best game of the year last night for the Rockets finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 2 blocked shots. Kevin Martin also had a solid game with 24 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals last night. Luis Scola pitched in with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in this game. The Rockets finish the season with a 42-40 record.