You know those reality shows on VH1? They suck you in because they're fun to watch, but there really isn't anything to them.

You can throw these teams into that category for the upcoming NBA season.

The .99 cent menu at Wendy's Division

20. Golden State Warriors
The Warriors this offseason made the craziest man in the NBA - Stephen Jackson - its team captain. Since then, he has expressed that he wants to be traded, along with being suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. Shortly after that suspension was handed down, Jackson went on to score 22 points, grab 7 rebounds and play all 48 minutes of a preseason game last week. The Golden State Warriors, everybody!!!

19. Detroit Pistons
Last year, the Pistons could have taken Kansas point guard Mario Chalmers to pair in the backcourt with Rodney Stuckey. They took a guy with a sleep disorder. This offseason, Detroit was still in need of a point guard...the Pistons passed up on Jrue Holliday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague and Eric Maynor to select Gonzaga small forward Austin Daye - a poor man's Tayshaun Prince. Detroit also took two more small forwards in the second round, apparently hoping to become the Golden State of the Midwest. That or the Pistons are planning on dealing Prince at some point this season. Detroit also doesn't have a true center and are hoping Kwame Brown, in his 9th year, will become a solid starting center. The kids of Hot Air Balloon Guy have a better shot at being normal adults than Kwame Brown does of becoming a decent center.

18. Houston Rockets
Aaron Brooks. Brent Barry. Trevor Ariza. Luis Scola. David Andersen. Those names don't represent members of the cast of some TV movie about prison life. Those are the starters for Houston until Tracy McGrady returns in December from a knee injury. And based on his history, McGrady will play 12 games, aggravate a previous injury, and be out for the season. Either that, or he'll be traded since he's in the last year of his contract. Couple that with Yao Ming being out for the season with a foot injury, and the Rockets season will be about as successful as those people who appear on "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" after "Real World/Road Rules Challenge."

17. Washington Wizards
The Wizards traded away the pick that became Ricky Rubio for Mike Miller (career averages of 13.9 points and 5 rebounds/game) and Randy Foye (13 points/game). Rubio played Minnesota and decided not to come to the NBA, and Miller and Foye will add firepower to a group that includes Gilbert Arenas (coming off a knee injury), Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. That group will be allowed to run with new coach Flip Saunders (.597 winning percentage in 13 years) and Washington could sneak into the playoffs if it learns to stop somebody. The Wizards finished 2008-09 24th in the league in points allowed with 103.

The National Coney Island Division

16. Miami Heat
Miami was middle of the pack both offensively (98.3 ppg-18th in the NBA) and defensively (98 ppg-12th) last season. The offensive numbers should improve, especially if Michael Beasley (13.9 points/game in his rookie season) can keep his head in the game. Having Jermaine O'Neal for a full season should keep the Heat's defense solid, too, but having Jermaine O'Neal healthy for more than 55 games in a season is about as likely as "Real Chance of Love" winning an Emmy.

Part IV coming tomorrow

When you lose your team's superstar and best player, you're bound to go through a rough transitional period - especially when another top-tier talent can't stay healthy.

For those reason, I see the Houston Rockets, which finished 4th in the West last season, as one of the teams that have played well recently that will struggle through the 2009-10 season.

Houston Rockets
The Rockets made it out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in 12 years this past spring. The team played admirably in its second round series with the eventual champion Lakers - despite losing center Yao Ming (career averages of 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds/game) in game 3 of the series. Ming has since been diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his left foot - an injury that is career threatening for a man of his size. Yao will have surgery to repair the broken bone in his foot and has been ruled out for the entire 2009-10 season, leaving Houston with little-used (and little talented) David Andersen as its starting center.

Yao's injury allowed the Rockets to apply for the disabled player disabled player exception, an exception to the NBA salary cap that grants the injured player's team money to sign a free agent. The Rockets were granted the exception, and used about $5.7 million on free-agent Trevor Ariza. That's a solid move, but Ariza will be asked to do much more than he did as a Laker. He doesn't have the game's best player and one of its best big men to play off of now.

Another question mark is Tracy McGrady, who, like Hamilton, I expect to be traded at some point this season. McGrady has never led a team to a playoff series win in his 12-year career. The Rockets got out of the first round last season while McGrady nursed an injury and watched from the sidelines. Since arriving in Houston prior to the start of the 2004-05 season, McGrady has missed 113 games and played in an average of just 59 games a season. He is also in the last year of his deal and has a contract that's an astronomical $23,239,561. McGrady is also currently nursing a knee injury that will likely keep him sidelined until December.

Without Yao - and by making the assumption that McGrady will miss an extended period of time due to injury this season - the Rockets should look at getting McGrady off their books and look to 2010. Houston is in the toughest division in the league (the Southwest with Dallas, New Orleans and San Antonio), so even with T Mac, Houston will finish no higher than fourth in the division and will miss the playoffs. Why not get that huge, bad deal out of the way and pull a Celtics in 2006-07 and tank the season and get in the John Wall sweepstakes?

Part III coming soon