NBA: Who is the best duo from each franchise’s history

Best duo from Houston Rockets history: Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming

This is a bit of a controversial pick considering how many times the Tracy McGrady/Yao Ming-led Houston Rockets lost in the first round and their alternating positions on the injured list, but when both were healthy, they created plenty of headaches for opposing head coaches. Their combined .174 WS/48 doesn’t lie.

Yao, who the Rockets selected with the first overall pick in the 2002 Draft, surprised a lot of hot take artists that declared him a bust before he played a single NBA game with his footwork in the post and his mobility on the defensive end.

Eventually, Yao added a mid-range shot to his repertoire and with those skills wrapped in a 7-foot-6-inch frame, he quickly established himself as one of the game’s best two-way bigs.

Combine that with McGrady, who the Rockets traded for prior to the 2004-2005 season following back-to-back scoring titles with the Orlando Magic, and Houston went from a so-so fringe playoff team to a legitimate championship contender.

With Yao’s aforementioned abilities and McGrady rising over smaller wings or getting to the hoop at will, they often shouldered the scoring load for Jeff Van Gundy’s defensive-minded Rockets teams. Unfortunately, it often caught up with them in the postseason.

In the McGrady/Yao era, the Rockets finished in the top 10 in defensive rating each season, but they never ranked higher than 15th in points per 100 possessions (they were also a slow-paced team for the era). The iso-heavy offense was often their downfall, and once both men’s respective bodies began to break down, that quelled any remaining title hopes.

Unlike the Olajuwon era, the McGrady/Yao Rockets era will be remembered as much for what they didn’t do instead of how good they were, which sucks.