Are the Rockets still a solid team and a playoff team next season?

Nah, with Artest departing, it's the end of the line for Houston for now. They have no choice now but to rebuild and prepare for a Yao-less future. With Yao's future uncertain and T-Mac becoming injury-prone, the Rockets will have to build around a young team. Sure, Brooks and Wafer are pretty talented and Scola has a solid inside game, but they still lack the experience and mental toughness to take the team deep into playoff contention. Ariza was a solid contributor for the Lakers, but I doubt if he can make the same impact on any other team. The team still needs some capable scorers to fill in the huge void left by their 2 superstars.