Houston Rockets Are Humming Right Along
The countdown begins Houston Rockets fans.
In a little over a week from now, the Rockets season will commence with the expectations as high as they’ve ever been in years.
Last year’s abrupt Western Conference Finals exit left a bad taste in all of our mouths, yet we were proud of the progress the team had made through the playoffs.
Remember — nobody expected us to be there and there we were competing against the best.
The Golden State Warriors had way too much firepower for us to handle although we were in most of the games during that series.
There’s something special about playoff basketball and it made us all have a thirst for more and hopefully we’ll get it with a repeat of last year’s performance any beyond.
We certainly have the tools with a lot more addition rather than subtraction.
The adds? You who they are — Patrick Beverley, Corey Brewer, Marcus Thornton, Ty Lawson, Jason Terry as well as our draft picks in Sam Dekker and Montezl Harrell.
This front line is definitely going to be something reckon with and it may be tipping point to get us to the promised land.
What about the subtraction? We lost Josh Smith and Pablo Prigioni! That’s it!
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So compared to what we’ve gained the losses have been minimal.
Although I’ll never forget what J-Smoove did for us with his magnificent Game 6 performance in the Western Conference Semis against the Los Angeles Clippers, we’ll be fine without his streaky shooting tendencies.
And here’s a bigger decision I have to make — what to do with his No. 5 shooting shirt that I bought from Academy Sports and Outdoors?
Some of my friends have said to burn it but I won’t be that harsh and likely wear the shirt when I’m mowing my lawn or something.
But back to our nasty front line this season — we lead the league in the preseason in rebounds at 51.8 per game through six games.
Who’s leading the charge?
Dwight Howard (11.0 RPG) and Clint Capela (9.8 RPG).
Capela is finally coming into his own and we saw flashes of brilliance last season when he had fill-in when our big men were dropping like flies because of injury.
With the injections that Daryl Morey has added to this roster, we’re deep at nearly every position so if the injury bug does dip and take a bite, then impact of the pain will not be as pronounced as it was last season.
They’re also third in the NBA in preseason scoring averaging 108.8 PPG.
Who’s leading the offensive attack?
James Harden (15.8 PPG), Trevor Ariza (15.5 PPG) and Corey Brewer (14.4 PPG).
You’d almost want to interpret this as a triple-threat because shooting capabilities of all these guys are quite lethal and will be essential to the team’s success as we progress through the season.
As far as the rookies, Dekker has been averaging 6.2 PPG, 3.2 RPG while shooting 33.3 percent from the field, 27.3 from behind-the-arc and 33.3 from the charity stripe in 22.5 minutes of action per game. He has appeared in all six games.
Not too impressive but he’ll come around.
Harrell has 6.0 PPG, 4.8 RPG, shooting 52.9 percent from the field, 66.7 percent at the free throw line in 21.3 minutes per contest through four games. He’s certainly making the most of his time while he’s in there and rightfully so.
Harrell is essentially a first-round talent that slipped into the second and I think he’s is going to pay huge dividends for the Rockets down the road.
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And how’s Ty Lawson doing?
Just fine in my book — he’s averaging 9.7 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 3.0 RPG while shooting 55.0 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three and 66.7 from the free throw line.
But the interesting story as camp commences is the invite of undrafted rookie Joshua Smith.
With a 6’10” frame and at 360 pounds, he’s looks like a reincarnation of Thomas Hamilton.
Remember when we got him last decade Rockets fans?
That didn’t end too well.
But Smith is going to do everything thing he can to get noticed even if he doesn’t make this team.
Smith has struggled with his weight throughout the different levels of his career causing him to depart UCLA and play his last two seasons of collegiate ball at Georgetown.
He could be a diamond in the rough and I hope the Rockets can figure out a way to stash him as he could be valuable down the road.
He is averaging 7.4 PPG, 6.8 RPG while shooting 58.1 percent from the field.
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I had wondered who was this large mound of rebound was and where did we get him!
He just needs to keep doing what he’s doing as he seems to want to work hard as a pro but I’m just on the outside looking in.
So all in all, don’t let our 2-4 preseason record fool ya — this team is stacked and is ready to compete with the best, with new cast members comes new fusion which is a must to make this chemistry equation work.
Morey is the best in the business in doing that so I have no doubt we’ll be fine.
I’ll certainly be watching tonight’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans at 7 p.m. CDT on ROOT Sports.
The game will be at our beloved home, good ‘ole Toyota Center.
It’s almost that time — go Rockets!