Ira Winderman

The concept of getting paid not to play is a relatively new one in the NBA.

The concept of chemistry is not.

It is why the Pacers kept cutting checks to Jamaal Tinsley last season even though those checks could not be personally delivered, with the veteran guard banished.

It is why the Timberwolves, Grizzlies and Mavericks are this season taking the same tact, respectively, with Mark Blount, Marko Jaric and Shawne Williams.

Yet even if those players had actually been issued a jersey this season, it is not as if they would have had a significant impact on their team's performance.

But Tracy McGrady is different. Tracy McGrady is a seven-time All-Star (and possibly an eight-time All-Star if the current balloting support holds up).

And yet Tracy McGrady can't get his jersey.

Oh, he got it once, in almost an act of defiance of Rockets management, but he has yet to make it back to the active roster from his latest knee troubles.

Whether McGrady is ready to play seemingly has become secondary to this story.

Instead, a team that shouldn't be having this much success has developed a chemistry that lacks a definitive go-to guy.

It's Trevor Ariza taking control one night, Aaron Brooks the next. Or it's Carl Landry or Chase Budinger or even Luis Scola.

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And it's Chuck Hayes working his hustle inside and Shane Battier doing the same on the perimeter.

But, mostly, it's Rick Adelman doing what he did so deftly in Sacramento, getting a lot of a players to play well a lot of the time.

No, the goal in Houston is not a championship, not with Yao Ming out for the season. But stealing a playoff series in the suddenly muddled West is not nearly the longshot it seemed when this motley crew assembled at camp.

Which, of course, brings us to that single statistic that will haunt McGrady until it disappears: Seven trips to the postseason, no trips to the second round. Never. Ever.

The hope is Yao returns next season. The likelihood of McGrady, an impending free agent at season's end, returning is miniscule.

No, you can't tell a Tracy McGrady to stay away. He can't and shouldn't be Tinsley-ed.

At this stage, to make it back to the Rockets' rotation, McGrady not only has to prove he can be an everyday player, but also accept the everyman approach of this Rockets season.

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Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.