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In explaining his transfer from Los Angeles to Houston, Howard said it was a matter of direction. “I just looked at both teams,” he said. “I felt Houston was going in one direction. They’ve got a lot of young players, they’ve got a good coach and I just felt like having him as a coach, he could really help me in the post and help me develop like I want to. That was mainly the big reason right there and having the opportunity to grow with the team, a young team, like the Rockets. That’s the reason why.”

No doubt about it, what drives Howard is his goal of playing on a championship team. “My resume, I’ve accomplished almost everything that you can accomplish in the NBA but winning a championship and getting MVP and I’ve come close to both of them,” he continued. “So that’s my goal right there. That’s the reason why I play. I have fun but that’s my goal. I might have fun, I might joke a lot but I’m serious about winning a championship.”

With his refurbished lineup, McHale said the Rockets can now compete with anybody. Last season, the Rockets clawed back from a 0-3 hole to survive two do-or-die games only to succumb in Game 6 to Oklahoma City in the first round of the playoffs. Harden was the Rockets’ top scorer in five of the six games with Parsons the exception when he hit 27 in the 105-103 win in Game 4.

Time is on the Rockets’ side as McHale’s nucleus is extremely young. His starters average only 24.6 years old. Only Camby, 39, and Garcia, 32, are over 30. Seven players are 24 and below. The downside is a lack of experience that could be a factor in deciding close games. Writer Jan Hubbard called the Rockets the NBA’s greatest experiment, “full of potential but still needing to learn how to play together and how to compete with great teams with more experience.”