Terrence Jones: HOH's Week 17 Silver Booster Award Winner

This was a rather abbreviated effort for the Houston Rockets as they had more than a week to rest as all teams transitioned from the first to the second half of the season.

This past week had a lot of excitement against two good basketball teams in the Dallas Mavericks and the Toronto Raptors.

The Rockets ended up splitting the week 1-1 although the game against the Mavs was one that was attainable had they had better control of the basketball and could match up better with their bigs.

We had done it before in the previous two games against them, so I don’t understand as to why the Rockets struggled they way did.

Feb 20, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard

Devin Harris

(20) goes after a ball in front of Houston Rockets forward

Terrence Jones

(6) during the game at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Nonetheless, it was an exciting, abbreviated week for Rockets basketball and I’m still darn proud to call this team my own.

But let’s talk about a guy that has played consistently well this past week and has not relented.

Because of this, excellence deserves to be recognized — today on that type of basis continuously, we will honor an individual player that made the most impact in helping the team, despite whether it resulted in a win or a loss.

We’ve dubbed it House of Houston Silver Booster Award…

And this week’s Silver Booster Award goes to…

Terrence Jones!

This the first time that Jones has been the winner of this award and with the week he has had, it’s totally deserved.

With him missing a good chunk of the first half of the season tending to a nerve injury in his right leg, he is progressing back into his old self just fine.

He’s rebounding, he’s blocking shots and he’s playing tenacious defense, you know, the things that he’s paid to do!

He’s not expected to lead the team in offense — we’ve got other guys for that — but he is expected to wipe the glasses clean and keep working toward being a feared rim-protector while Dwight Howard is out.

You guys remember when we drafted Jones, right out of the University of Kentucky.

He was like most John Calipari-coached players, extremely athletic and gifted but rather raw fundamentally.

He continued to bounce back-and-forth from the active roster to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers to work on his skills.

Jan 28, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard

Monta Ellis

(11) drives to the basket during the fourth quarter as Houston Rockets forward Terrence Jones (6) defends at Toyota Center. The Rockets defeated the Mavericks 99-94. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

But it’s safe to say that he won’t have to do that anymore.

He’s there and Jones is starting to morph not only back into his old self but a upgraded version.

Just call him Terrence Jones 2.0!

He was nearly unstoppable when he defending in the paint against the Toronto Raptors this past Saturday and that made me damn proud.

Of course, he could improve on his free throw shooting — another characteristic of players from UK — he’s averaging about 61 percent, which is not too far off his career average of 62 percent.

There was especially a situation down the stretch with 2:15 left in the game against the Dallas Mavericks this past Saturday.

If he had made both his free throws, the Rockets would’ve been a bit closer to try their earnest to beat their opponent.

He technically missed both free throws but was given another opportunity to shoot after a Dirk Nowitzki lane violation.

The Rockets would’ve been down four instead of five in such a critical stage of the game where every point counts.

He’ll work on that over time but he’s excelling at what he does best in terms of what I mentioned.

Terrence Jones: HOH’s Week 17 Silver Booster Award Winner

By Brian K. Patterson | Feb 23, 2015