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Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy spoke with InsideHoops.com and other major media outlets in a teleconference. Here are the questions and answers:

Jeff Van Gundy's Opening Statement: Bob Sura, who’s out to about anywhere from mid-December on, and Clarence Weatherspoon missed the entire trip to China. Other than that, we’re relatively healthy. We turn the ball over a lot. Hopefully, we’ll improve. We’ve got a bunch of good guys. How well we play, we will see over the course of the year.

Q: People are talking about Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming being the next Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal combination. Do you think it’s a premature assessment and what do they need to do to approach that level?

Jeff Van Gundy: I think first of all media-wise we’re always into comparisons: He plays like Michael Jordan or Larry Bird. If guys could play like them, they would be them and it’s hard to do that. I think, one thing in general about the Lakers, everybody focuses on how it ended between O’Neal and Bryant and now Phil Jackson’s book and all that, but what should really be remembered about their time together is over the last five years they won three championships, went to The Finals a fourth year and were beaten by the champions in round two the other year. It was a remarkable period of accomplishment and production for the team, Bryant, O’Neal and Jackson. So, I would say this: To be compared to Bryant and O’Neal, you’d have to win as much as Bryant and O’Neal. Certainly, the people they put around them were very good and helped them do that, but that’s why I think that’s premature. We have to win and win big and win championships for them to ever be compared to those guys. I would think also we have a lot to prove in general – individually and collectively. As a coach I have a lot to prove. I’ve proven I can get a team to The Finals. I haven’t proven I can win in The Finals. Those two players you just talked about also have a lot to prove. They’ve never been out of the first round. I just think all comparisons are a bit premature until we accomplish something.

Q: Could you talk about the break-up of the Shaq-Kobe alliance in terms of leveling the playing field?

Jeff Van Gundy: I think, first of all, the playing field was never level in the Western Conference; it was totally uphill. That’s how good the Western Conference is. I would say this year: Only 15 teams in the Western Conference think they’re making the playoffs, which is all of them. And only 10 of those 15 think they’re going to get home court advantage. Two teams that think they’re going to get home court advantage aren’t even going to make the playoffs. So, it’s a difficult assignment. I don’t think that trade leveled the playing field. I always thought it was very hard to win in the West anyway. And I also think that the Lakers certainly are a very good team still. They’ve got Bryant, who’s arguably the best player in the league, and they surround him with an All-Star in Lamar Odom and some other very, very good players. So, you know, certainl, O’Neal is the dominant player in the league and has been for the past decade – along with Duncan. The Western Conference is still brutal.

Q: You lost Steve Francis, an All-Star point guard, in the trade for McGrady. Can you talk about your point guard situation so far?

Van Gundy: Steve Francis, you’re right, he meant an awful lot to us last year. He had a very good year despite what the fantasy league experts stats-wise want to say. He had a very good year and the reason we were able to trade for a player of McGrady’s caliber is because Francis, [Cuttino] Mobley and [Kelvin] Cato all had very good years and Orlando saw great value in them. So, replacing him is very difficult. We don’t expect Charlie Ward and Ty Lue to replace his numbers, just to make us function well at both ends of the floor. Obviously, Bob Sura was in the mix there until he was hurt. And, most likely, in my mind starting camp, I was thinking of him as a starter. Now, Charlie [Ward] and Ty [Lue] will split that spot, at least until Bob gets back. We’ll probably start Charlie, but as far as minutes during a specific game it’ll be whoever’s going well.

Q: Based on your experience of having an impact player in the middle, can you talk about what the Heat can expect with Shaquille O’Neal in the lineup?

Jeff Van Gundy: Well, I would say this, having coached (Patrick) Ewing and then playing without a center for the last years I was in New York, the biggest difference is, when you don’t have a center everybody wants to have one. And then when you have a dominant center, some of the players get frustrated that some opportunities that used to be there aren’t there as much. I think it’s a very difficult thing. Playing a post-up offense is very difficult. It seems easy but it’s very difficult. It takes longer on the shot clock. It takes more precision, particularly with the rules the way they are today where you can zone things up. It takes away a lot of the openness of the lane where guys who used to have a lot of driving room, now it’s a little more difficult. With O’Neal, really driving to the lane is not as difficult because very few centers want to come off his body and help because of how well he offensive rebounds. I still think [Dwyane] Wade will have a lot of room to drive the ball. I think most people are talking about down there, you want to surround him with enough shooting. But just as important is that you have enough balance in your team – offense, defense, post-up scoring, perimeter scoring – because when you’re so built around one player, if that man takes an injury – which O’Neal has averaged 65-70 games a year the last few years – what are you going to do in those 10-17 games that he’s out. You have to have enough balance to be able to overcome on those nights because of injury that he’s not able to play.

Q: Can you talk about your expectations of the Nuggets with the addition of Kenyon Martin?

Jeff Van Gundy: I think Denver … last year I just thought they played great basketball the whole year, even when they went through their rough-patch time. I thought they handled themselves well. Obviously [Carmelo] Anthony had a huge year. I think what was overlooked was Marcus Camby’s play. I thought Camby’s play at center last year was off the charts. I had history with him and know how good he is because Marcus is very valuable because he doesn’t need the ball to be effective. He’s a very smart, very unselfish rebounder, shotblocker. What people don’t realize is even though it’s not an orthodox shot, he’s really improved his ability to make 17-foot jump shots. So, when you talk about last year I thought they were tremendous.

In the summer, I thought they had a great summer in that they got Kenyon Martin for draft picks. You don’t get big time talent like that usually for draft picks. They were able to – because they were under the cap and had extra picks and New Jersey was going through some cost cutting measures – they were able to take advantage of their situation. You’ve got to give Kiki Vandeweghe a lot of credit for that. Having seen him up close when I was in New York on a nightly basis, Kenyon Martin is one of the most versatile defensive players in the league. He can guard threes. He can guard fours. He can guard fives. Great quickness. Great tenacity. Great passion. Underrated offensive player. A very good rebounder. Runs the floor extremely well both ways, which is often overlooked. When you talk about Camby, Nene and Martin as a threesome, I don’t know if there is a better rotation in the league. And then when you put Carmelo Anthony in that group, I’m talking the whole frontcourt, I think it’s a very well balanced, versatile frontcourt. I would say at times, I would not be surprised to see Kenyon Martin playing whoever the better forward is on the floor offensively, with Carmelo Anthony guarding some fours at times, especially the smaller fours.

Q: Can you talk about Martin and Anthony playing together for years to come?

Jeff Van Gundy: Well, I don’t want to get too much into the prediction business but from the outside looking in, to me they’re set for, what, the next decade at the three and four? Certainly I love how they complement each other. Carmelo Anthony is one of the great scorers in the league and Kenyon Martin, no one is as versatile defensively and on the boards and guarding both forward spots, and he’s an underrated scorer. I just like how they complement each other and I just think that Denver has done a great job rebuilding their entire situation. Kiki deserves a lot of credit for that and Jeff Bzdelik has done an unbelievable job. I know maybe a lot of people outside of the NBA don’t realize how good of a job he’s done there in changing their whole culture and environment.

Q: What area would you like to see Yao Ming improve the most this season?

Jeff Van Gundy: When you’re talking about a player of Yao’s stature, as far as size, most people think about offense and what he’s got to do there. I look at the overall game. I think offensively, Yao’s improvements will come, or in general, his improvements will come with greater conditioning. He’ll be able to go longer and harder and play a little bit more minutes. He average nearly 33 last year, up from 27 the year before. We’d like him to be in condition enough to be able to 35-38 minutes. I think secondly, on the offensive end, his ability versus teams who front him and/or double-team him. He’s got to be more efficient out of that. Defensively he’s got to continue to improve in his transition defense and his pick-and-roll defense. Obviously, when you’re a man of great size like he is, that’s the two areas you’re most vulnerable to and I thought Yao showed a lot of improvement in those areas last year. He needs to continue to improve on those areas this year.