Houston Rockets: Mid-Season Report

Credit: Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports

POINT GUARDS

Who do we have?

Patrick Beverley, Jeremy Lin, Aaron Brooks, Isaiah Canaan

How are they doing?

Last year, point guard was a place of great controversy for Rockets fans. Jeremy Lin starter all 82 games but then was clearly outplayed by Patrick Beverley in the OKC playoff series.

To start this season Kevin McHale named Beverley the starter. That would lead you to believe that an even bigger controversy was starting, except it hasn’t had a chance because of injuries.

Beverley injured his back in the first game and let Lin reclaim his spot. Then Lin had some knee issues just as Beverley was getting healthy and then just to put the icing on the band-aid cake Beverley broke his hand against the Pistons in December. So it’s been a really inconsistent year for the Rockets back court so far.

I will say this though, Lin has impressed me a lot. He has clearly worked on his defense last year and although it’s not great, it’s certainly a hell of a lot better than it was in 2013.

Aaron Brooks has been good as a fill-in, but when he has to pick up a significant part of the offensive slack, that’s when things start to go bad. I found that he has the strange statistic of having a higher 3PM% (40.7%) than FG% (39.9%), classic AB, just like the good old days.

Isaiah Canaan has been on the roster, but not made any sort of impact. He had been playing lights out with the Rio Grande Vipers in the D-League before his call up, and I think we could have a diamond-in-the-rough type player in the making. With Beverley expected to return soon, Canaan will most likely be sent back down to the D-League, but I am excited to see if he can make a bigger impact next year when Brooks is gone and he gains the 3rd PG spot in the roster.

Overall grade: Incomplete

Reason: With injuries all year, I haven’t seen enough to give this unit a proper grade.