Tracy McGrady has been working with Tim Grover and physical therapist David Reavy for weeks trying to get himself back into playing shape.

Reavy is so convinced of the progress that he suggested recently that the Rockets superstar could be ready to go by October 1 and back in the lineup when the season starts, a recovery plan that would have him healthy weeks in advance of the average patient. Reavy and company have been working on a plan to even McGrady's body out again.

"His whole body was imbalanced from basically his shoulder blades down to his feet," Reavy says. "He was developing a lot of back problems ... He was developing strength in an imbalanced fashion. And what I see in Tracy, in general, he had no core strength, he couldn't hold a plank."

So Reavy and Grover devised a rehab plan that would help bring it all back -- the work is already paying dividends.

"[Tracy] took a hard fall seven years ago in 2002 and he said he was never able to dunk off his left leg [since]. We got him dunking off his left leg four and a half months post micro-fracture, which is basically unheard of," Reavy says. "The results that we get here are basically unprecedented because we take the force off the injured area, we make the body absorb the force equally, so that it can heal properly and faster without the loading that it's constantly getting before.