If you listen to Houston Chronicle writer Richard Justice then the Houston Rockets have only one piece which should not be up for offer this offseason, and he is not American.  Yao Ming, the Rockets gentle giant, should be the only untouchable Rocket.

While the team has made strides in this season, they are a team heavy on talent but shallow on cohesiveness and if they want to become a championship contender rather than a playoff filler then this will need to change.

The first step Justice says he'd do is offer All-Star guard Steve Francis for All-Star forward Elton Brand of the Clippers straight up.  Brand was taken with the first overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Bulls and Francis second by Vancouver, but this isn't important, nor is the Clippers response.  Even if Los Angeles says no, writes Justice, the tone will have been set for the summer and the Rockets would be proactive rather than timid.

The plan is to make the Rockets a better team, not more talented.  This begins with a defensive oriented power forward.

With no first-round draft choice and little available cap space, Rockets GM Carroll Dawson won't have an easy summer.  To improve the Rockets must sacrafice, and to sacrafice something important must be given up for the betterment of the team.  

The team's biggest tradeable asset outside of Yao is Francis, and exchanging Francis for a power forward is a price the Rockets may have to pay.

'Perhaps more than any other position, point guards can be found in unlikely places. Some of the best have bounced around or been cut before finding a place they fit.'  The Rockets may be able to live without Francis, but will they be successful with him?

This is a decision that Dawson will have to make.