So what do the Rockets need to do, in your opinion, to jump from mediocre to elite?
When people ask this question usually they're asking "What players should the Rockets get and how?" There's really a much more important part of a overall team improvement than just the player part but I'll throw out one scenario. I wrote above
"As to my plan, it's basically as the article states. Largely keep the players the team has and make incremental improvements for the next year. Right now (meaning post trade deadline) I see this team as a 47-50 win team for a whole season given a reasonable (average) amount of injuries. I really want to keep Dragic and Lowry next year and then figure out who to keep between Lee and Martin. Using that nucleus, bringing Motiejunas in and improvements to Parsons game plus whatever the draft brings (if anything) would yield a team capable of winning 50-54 games. At that point, you're knocking on the door and the options available for the future expand.I'm sure you don't like it and that's fine.The likelihood of it happening is slim. We will see what Morey has planned. "
What I wrote above was a general way I would proceed given where the team is at now. You're asking how to get to elite so I'll add a piece. Using what I've said above, sign Kevin Garnett this summer as a free agent. There's your elite team. Probably won't happen as he'll likely want to stay in Boston but if he's available, I think the Rockets have to consider him seriously.
As to the other, more important part of team improvement, it really gets down to over-all management improvement and all it's various aspects such as player development, coaching, scouting, etc. I'm not going to go into that as I don;t know enough about the inner workings of the Rockets to comment. I will give you a podcast link where Henry Abbott and David Thorpe discuss many of these topics. Long talk but well worth it. It's excellent.
http://espn.go.com/e...play?id=7755610