Players like Jon Barry, Mike James, David Wesley, Bobby Sura and Scott Padgett shot a combined 41.2% from long range on 648 total three attempts in the final 49 games, fueling the Rockets to a 35-14 record (.714 winning percentage) to close out the season.

On the flip side, Rafer Alston (32.7%), Keith Bogans (31.4%), Tracy McGrady (31.2%) and Wesley (36.5%) last season were a far cry from the lights out bunch of the year before.

And while the Rockets clearly have made big strides this offseason in regards to athletic talent, do they have the shooters to match their successful formula from two years ago, or will this again be a weakness?

When I asked that very question of McGrady, he did his best Jim Mora "Playoffs?!" impersonation.

"A weakness?" winced McGrady. "Nah, I think we got a lot of shooters."

Then he paused, looked up and started to list them.

"Casey Jacobsen .... Steve Novak .... So no, I don't think we're lacking that at all."

While I was concerned that the first shooter McGrady thought of was Jacobsen, a guy who may or may not make the squad, and that he could only list two, both bench players, it was still somewhat of a relief to hear him say he was comfortable with the shooters that they have on the roster.

After all, there are positives.

For one, Shane Battier (39.4% on threes last season) is clearly an upgrade as a starter. Novak is being called by McGrady the best shooter he's ever played with. Alston has shot better in past seasons and has stated he worked hard on his shooting in the offseason.

Rafer Alston on Wednesday

Just the same, the bulk of the guard minutes is expected to go to Alston and Bonzi Wells, both guys who haven't been confused with 40% three-point shooters. Backup roles could go to new additions like Kirk Snyder and Vassilis Spanoulis, both unproven marksmen.

In Bonzi's case, he wasn't afraid to confess that his game is inside 22-feet.

"I don't really shoot threes," admitted Bonzi to me on Thursday. "I understand what it is and I understand that the strength of my game is to step inside the three and go to the basket. I'm not going to try to step outside of the box of my game. I like to play to my strengths."

Wells shot just 45 total three-point attempts last season in Sacramento, hitting just 22.2%.

"In Sacramento, we had so many shooters, you know," continued Wells. "We had Peja when he was there. Mike [Bibby] shoots a lot of threes, Brad [Miller] shoots a lot of long jumpers so I was just trying to find my niche more around the basket, posting up guys and putting them in a bad way to get it to our shooters. I was just in that kind of a situation and basically it's been like that most of my career."

When I asked Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy if this roster was capable of having similar three-point success to the 2004-05 squad, he left the door open.

"I'm not sure. We're hopeful. We added some shooting but it's just up in the air to know if we make it or not," said Van Gundy. "Certainly if you're a good team in the NBA, minus a couple -- the Clippers didn't shoot a lot of threes -- but now it's such a predominant part of the game that you have to be efficient. And you're right, last year we were a very poor shooting team and also very poor at defending the three-point shot, so we have to do a better job both ways."

Whether the role players will knock down the plethora of threes that will be available to them, or the Rockets change their style to be less dependent on shots beyond the arc remains to be seen, but McGrady knows there will be open shots to be had, and he drew big laughs in hammering that very point home.

"The way I play, all the attention that teams like to give me when I have the ball on my pick and rolls [and] those guys are just standing out there wide open," said McGrady with a big grin. "I do all the work for them - they just sit out there, twiddle their thumbs and wait on the [bleeping] ball to come so they can shoot the ball. What a job they have on the offensive end. Ain't that something."

It sure is something. For the team's sake, let's hope they can knock them down.