Jan 28, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Members of the Houston Rockets celebrate during the fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks at Toyota Center. The Rockets defeated the Mavericks 99-94. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Rockets sit at 33-15 with 34 games to go and in 5th place in the West. Prior to their last loss to the Pistons the Rockets were in 3rd place. That’s just how fast things can change in the brutally tough Western Conference.

The trade deadline is now only about two weeks away and much will be discussed and rumors will likely be flying during that time. Some will be just that, rumors. Some will be nothing more than smokescreens and some will simply be ESPN’s Chris Broussard throwing random things from Twitter off the wall to see if anything sticks.

So can the Rockets win a championship as they are currently put together? Short answer is, yes. As we stand now, barring major injuries as many as 8 teams in the west honestly COULD do it and the Rockets are among that group, with at least a punchers chance.

Jan 25, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Houston Rockets forward Josh Smith (5) and Houston Rockets guard Corey Brewer (33) in the second half of the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Rockets won 99-87. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

If James Harden gets/stays red hot… if Dwight Howard can stay healthy…if the “head-band of brothers” can continue to provide a huge lift off the bench, it’s certainly possible as the team is currently put together. But in the NBA just like in life much of success is about odds or probability. Some teams will be more likely than others.

Recently it has been reported that Dwight Howard could miss as much as a month. Does this derail the Rockets or their plans? Not likely, unless Howard cannot get healthy by mid-March.

In the West, because it’s just a jumble of a bunch of really good teams, to a large extent it doesn’t matter as much where the Rockets finish in the standings so long as they do make the playoffs. Fans will worry about various matchups but it’s going to be relatively random who teams face in the first round.

I’m sure the Rockets would at least like to have home court advantage in the first round but beyond that, they won’t concern themselves much with where they finish in the rank.

The Rockets have already made a couple of moves to improve the bench that everyone was so worried about heading into the season with the acquisitions of Corey Brewer and Josh Smith as well as the big jump in the development of Donatas Motiejunas.

So what the Rockets will be analyzing over the next couple of weeks is, what is their championship probability and what, if anything can they do to increase it.

At this point there are really only a couple areas of concern. Click NEXT.