For the moment I shall ignore all rumors about Jerry Stackhouse but after last night it seems the Rockets may have already settled on the 15 players... okay the 13 "active" players that will be on the roster for Opening Day. Yao and Tracy obviously being inactive as of Halloween, but due to quirky NBA rules, Morey and the gang have to keep them on the 15 man roster. So lame. I much preferred being able to stash guys on the inactive list with fake injuries.
The one really big piece of bad news is that Joey Dorsey has most likely sulked and half-assed his way off the team. Leaving me with about 50% less material to write about this upcoming season. As if I weren't already facing an uphill climb without Yao to praise and T-Mac to belittle?!?!
That aside, here's what (as of today) looks to be the 2009/10 roster:
60% of our salary cap
C - Yao Ming (essentially deceased for 2010 purposes)
SF - Tracy McGrady (only mostly dead)
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starting lineup (probable)
SG/SF - Trevor Ariza
PF/C - Luis Scola
SG/SF - Shane Battier
PG/midget in traveling circus - Aaron Brooks
PF/C - Chuck Hayes
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scrubs/bench
PF/C/SF - Carl Landry
PG/resident bulldog - Kyle Lowry
SF/PF/token white guy shooter - Chase Budinger
SG/rookie beyotch - Jermaine Taylor ("sing it again!")
PG/practice dummy - Will Conroy
PF/C - David Andersen (he's here to keep Luis happy)
PF/C/blog killer - Pops Mensah-Bonsu
worthless waste of cap space - Brian Cook
This leaves no room for Joey. It also leaves no room for Jerry Stackhouse... unless the Rockets plan on cutting Budinger, Taylor or Pops. Or can somehow find a sucker to take Brian Cook's contract off our hands. Brent Barry is also still on the roster, but he will be traded or bought out or forced into early retirement soon enough.