The 2011–12Houston Rockets season was the 45th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the 41st based in Houston. The off-season saw team draft a pair of first round picks, forward Marcus Morris from Kansas was drafted 14th overall and Madrid sensation Nikola Mirotić was drafted 23rd overall. Forward and 3-point specialist Chandler Parsons from Florida was taken with the 38th pick in the second round. The season is most memorable when ex-Celtic Kevin McHale was hired to be their new head coach for the upcoming season. The Rockets finished with a mediocre 34-32 record without the playoffs.
Due to the 2011 NBA lockout negotiations, the programmed pre-season schedule, along with the first two weeks of the regular season were scraped, and a two-game pre-season was set for each team once the lockout concluded.