Rocket's present and future(what is your take?)

Well with our newly acquired Battier, the path we chose to take is the "Win Now" mode.

So we have a 3 year window:

Based largely on TMac's back
and also considering Battier's age and Yao's contract.

With our current peices. Do you think we can Win Now?

My personal opinion: Realistically no. We probably will make the playoffs and grind through the first round(just barely), but most likely won't even sniff the WCF this year.

Given we make the playoffs every year the next three years, in addition to a miraculous playoff run we may take home the trophy as a Cinderella team one of those three years. THERE IS A CHANCE! Of course there is.

You've always got to be prepared, even for the worst. So as much as nobody enjoys doing this, we also have to look at our worst possible scenarios, correct?

Let's say we don't WIN IT ALL, and we continually exhaust our assets and picks over the next three years to WIN NOW. What can happen?? At this point Tmac will no longer be TMAC, Yao(in his prime) will be looking for his second max contract soon and we still haven't found TMac's successor. We all know TMac came here for Yao and Yao's main reason to resign was TMac as well. If Tmac retires at the end of this contract, Yao will most likely walk as well.

Let's say we do WIN IT ALL one of these three years with that awesome playoff run against all odds, then what? TMac will still no longer be TMAC, But Yao might actually be more likely to stay. Yet we still don't have any successor for TMac.

Right now, I am not sure if we are Top 5 in the West or even Top 8 in the NBA. And that's being generous. So I'm down to this. If everything stays at this pace, I think it is highly unlikely we will win a ring in the next 3 years(although possible). At the same time I think it is somewhat likely, if the current tenure at the Rocket's ends up fruitless, Yao may walk as well. So sad to see things this way but honestly I am very much more concerned about the future of the Rocket's than the present. Atleast now we will be in the playoffs. Without Yao we will be lottery pick every year.