Tracy McGrady has so frequently been out of the lineup that the Rockets are beginning to be fed up with him, and Yao Ming has quietly voiced his displeasure.

"They don't speak," an extremely plugged-in person tells David Aldridge. "And Yao wants him out."

Next summer McGrady will have an expiring, $22.4 million contract that many teams will likely be interested in taking.

Yao and McGrady still like each other personally, but it is an on-the-court matter.

One veteran scout who worked a Rockets' game recently was shocked by the deterioration in the still-29-year-old McGrady's game.

"I thought to myself, 'My God, he's old,'" the scout said. "It was amazing."