The Houston Rockets announced today that they have added former Marquette guard Jerel McNeal to their preseason roster which probably doesn't make much sense on the surface considering the Rockets had 18 players on their roster before this move was made.

Still, knowing that Daryl Morey is probably the savviest NBA general manager this side of me on NBA 2k11,  I'm willing to make an educated guess that this move has more to do with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League than anything Rockets related.

Take a walk down memory lane with me, if you will, all the way back to when I broke the D-League's new allocation rule change over at Aol FanHouse:

In accordance with the NBA, the NBA Development League will implement a rule change with regard to how D-League rosters are assembled. Beginning this season, up to three players cut last from the roster of an NBA team before the D-League Draft will be allocated to that team's D-League affiliate provided they sign the standard D-League contract.

Remembering that, along with sources telling me early last week that McNeal was looking at entering the D-League player pool, and this seems like Morey taking advantage of this new rule to ensure that McNeal can play for the Vipers (who utilize the Rockets' system) right out of the blocks instead of having to spend one of the Vipers' early-round draft choices.