A good team is usually good at two things: 1) Set the tone for a game This requires the starters have a very consistent performance. JVG's Rockets is clearly lack of offense variety, but is pretty good at setting the tone for a game. Rockets was seldom trailing behind by a big number in the first half. Yao often scored early easily and team had a very consistent defense effort. Rick Adelman should require more disciplines in the team. If I was the coach, I will try to use Yao, Chuck ,Shane, Tracy and Rafer as starting five and ask them to recall what they were doing two years ago and ask them to set the tone for the game. Luis can play more minutes than Chuck later. 2) change the game momentum Things do not always go your way. Sometimes the other team seems unstoppable at time. sometimes neither team can score a point. These all require someone sparks from bench with full energy. When defense is needed, Artest and Mutombo can increase the defense intensity. Mutombo may not in good shape now, but we all know what he can bring us when he is wagging his finger. Increasing the offense is a bit tricky. It requires the player to be immediately hot and willing to play team ball. I think Landry and Wafer are good candidates. Artest seems not that type of person (He needs momentum to be hot, this is same as Yao). I do not trust Aaron Brooks and think another backup point guard is needed for Rockets.
Change momentum is difficult. However consistency is the biggest concern now. If starters cannot play consistently, the team will not have confidence. As a side note, when a team changed from a defensive minded coach to an offensive minded coach, they usually wont lose their defense in the first year. The defense would fade away since the second year. It looks like that is what happened on Rockets. Always remember, defense is a team thing.
Your suggested starting five has recently displayed the following shortcomings: Chuck - offense liability. Shane - offense liability and not so good at defense most probably due to not 100% recovery from surgery. Tracy - defense liability, ball stopper in offense, knee still not yet recovered 100% (the recent missed dunk proves it) so he takes a lot of jack-up jumpers. Rafer - normally not playing good with TMac (don't know why? May be TMac wants the ball to be effective and that takes away the role of a PG) and inconsistent shooting. Yao - needs to have touches to warm up and that depends whether TMac and Rafer would feed him earlier. I would prefer Scola or Landry for Shane, Brooks for Rafer, and Wafer for TMac. TMac, Shane and TMac should not be starters due their recent lack of energy in 1st quarter. In other words, if we want to set the tone for the game, I would prefer players with intensity and hustling (like Scola, Von and Brooks).
Chuck, Shane and Rafer are very good team defender. Tracy can be a good defender too, if he wants. With this starting five, it sets the tone that this is a high intensity low scoring game. Another advantage is this. The offense flow obviously goes to Yao and Tracy, which gives them chance to gain the rhythm.
