"Led by 6-foot dynamo Aaron Brooks and Lakers cast-off Trevor Ariza, the Rockets are making a strong case for playoff candidacy. Already they have a better record than both the Jazz and the Blazers, teams considered to be playoff locks. If Rick Adelman can continue to get this kind of effort from his players and avoid further injury, the Rockets will sneak into the playoffs and give the Lakers hell in the opening round."

Followup article to Hakeem's tutoring, post Laker game

We might get a chance to see JT, Landry might also be playing the 3

While publisher Random House will reportedly not publish Tim Donaghy's book "Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA" because of liability concerns, deadspin.com printed what it calls excerpts of the book.

I find it pretty interesting, even if there is no supporting corroboration.

Check out this video, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about...

Good discussion of the huge gap in player usage rate on offense of Memphis (very high) and Houston (very low w/o Yao, TMac). For the stats oriented amongst us, this is the defining question of Houston's 2009-2010 season.

The Rockets waived Brent Barry today. So the roster is finally official and Joey Dorsey can breathe easy.

The Rockets told guard Will Conroy he will be waived later today, reducing the roster to the required 15 players, Conroy said Thursday.

From what I've heard, the replacement refs pretty much suck. Turns out, as much as we like to complain about them, the NBA's referees have a pretty tough job, and they generally do a good job (Javie's still a dick).

So it looks like Stern and the NBA are basically giving into the referees' remaining demands, and they should be back on the court in time for the start of the season next week. Hooray.