The 2011–12 Houston Rockets season was the 45th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the 41st based in Houston. This was the first season since 2001-02 without Yao Ming, who retired from the NBA on July 9, 2011. The off-season saw team draft a pair of first-round picks, forward Marcus Morris from Kansas was drafted 14th overall and Madrid sensation Nikola Mirotić was drafted 23rd overall. Forward and 3-point specialist Chandler Parsons from Florida was taken with the 38th pick in the second round. The season is most memorable when ex-Celtic and former Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale was hired to be their new head coach for the upcoming season. The Rockets finished with a 34–32 record, missing the playoffs.

Key dates

• June 23: The 2011 NBA draft took place at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. ^[1]
• July 9: Yao Ming announced his retirement from professional basketball.

Draft picks

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College/Team
1	14	Marcus Morris	PF	United States	Kansas
1	23	Nikola Mirotić	PF	Spain	Real Madrid
2	38	Chandler Parsons	SF	United States	University of Florida

Roster

2011–12 Houston Rockets roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB From G 6 Boykins, Earl 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) 133 lb (60 kg) 1976–06–02 Eastern Michigan F 10 Budinger, Chase 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 218 lb (99 kg) 1988–05–22 Arizona C 29 Camby, Marcus 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1974–03–22 UMass C 21 Dalembert, Samuel 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 250 lb (113 kg) 1981–05–10 Seton Hall G 3 Dragić, Goran 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1986–05–06 Slovenia G 9 Fortson, Courtney (DL) 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1988–05–23 Arkansas G/F 5 Lee, Courtney 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 200 lb (91 kg) 1985–10–03 Western Kentucky G 7 Lowry, Kyle 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1986–03–25 Villanova SG 12 Martin, Kevin  6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1983–02–01 Western Carolina F 2 Morris, Marcus 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1989–02–09 Kansas F 25 Parsons, Chandler 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 227 lb (103 kg) 1988–10–25 Florida PF 54 Patterson, Patrick 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1989–03–14 Kentucky F/C 4 Scola, Luis (C) 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 245 lb (111 kg) 1980–04–30 Argentina F 20 Simpson, Diamon 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 230 lb (104 kg) 1987-09-08 Saint Mary's College of California F/C 0 Smith, Greg (DL) 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 250 lb (113 kg) 1991–01–08 Fresno State C 32 Thabeet, Hasheem 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) 263 lb (119 kg) 1987-02-16 University of Connecticut	Head coach Kevin McHale Assistant coach(es) Kelvin Sampson J. B. Bickerstaff Chris Finch Brett Gunning Greg Buckner Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended (DL) On assignment to D-League affiliate Injured Roster Last transaction: 2012–04–06

Pre-season

Due to the 2011 NBA lockout negotiations, the programmed pre-season schedule, along with the first two weeks of the regular season were scrapped, and a two-game pre-season was set for each team once the lockout concluded.

Regular season

Standings

References