That has coach Rudy Tomjanovich thrilled.

"I love that. Makes me feel good," said Rudy after Wednesday morning's practice. "I can't wait to see the big guy. I just can't wait until he's here."

But the Rockets can wait to start running plays for Yao. According to Rudy Wednesday, the team is focusing more on a motion-oriented offense, and surprisingly, they're not really running plays with the future five, or center, in mind.

"I was going to put this in last year," said Rudy. "Good basketball players play and I think [Yao] fits in everything. I think he fits in post-up stuff. I think he fits in movement stuff because he can pass and I think he has a good feel for the game, so whatever we put in he's going to be good in."

But any plays strictly for Yao?

"What are those... post-ups?" said Rudy with a smile. "We've been posting up since, what was his name... Naismith?"

"His pet play hasn't been invented yet. I don't know what it is. Let nature take its course. We had some plays that were just every day sort of plays, well when we got Clyde [Drexler], he and Chucky Brown ... something happened in their chemistry. Other players ran the same thing and it didn't happen. That's what basketball is about some times. If it was automatic, we'd all be running it. The human factor. Until he gets here, we won't know what that is."

Rudy knows though that the transition for Yao, not just to the offense, will be a difficult one.

"For anyone in that situation, it won't be easy," said the Rockets coach. "It's not the ideal situation. Everything is going to be difficult. The media coverage, the culture and all that. We understand that. We're going to try to make that as smooth a transition as we can [but] I think he's the kind of guy that has intelligence, has a poise about him, has a mental toughness."