Houston Rockets: 5 Things To Look Forward To This Season

Well, Red Nation… The season has returned! Last year was only a distant memory. Being down 0-2 in the playoffs was all a distant memory. The Damian Lillard fiasco was all but a distant memory. A painful, but distant memory.

A year ago, everybody in Red Nation thought that we had the West wrapped up and ready to take down the Heat Empire… or what was the Heat Empire. Somebody beat us to it. But, no matter. This is a new team. This is a new day. This is a new season. We are in a pursuit. A pursuit for that coveted title. And it is our job, nay, our DUTY, to cheer on our boys to victory whether we take a win or a loss.

Now that I’ve gotten the obligatory DJ Khaled/Red Rowdy pep speech out of the way, it is October 2nd. The preseason starts on October 7th against… guess who? The LOATHED Dallas Mavericks. I’ll get to the current Maverick, “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” later. I am here to provide five things to look forward or look out for this coming season. Number one is:

1. Backup Big Men – Now, in the summer the Rockets had one of THE BIGGEST strikeouts in free agency in trying to get Chris Bosh, who resigned to the Heat this summer. They traded backup point guard Jeremy Lin to the Lakers, they lost… Chandler Parsons… to the Dallas Mavericks. (ANYWHERE BUT DALLAS!) However, the biggest loss I think they’ll suffer is the fact that they traded Omer Asik to New Orleans.

Apr 30, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets center Omer Asik (3) dunks the ball during the first quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers in game five of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports

Omer Asik is a very good defensive center. The only reason why the Turkish Hammer was on the bench was because Dwight Howard was there. He was a starting-caliber center on the bench. They will miss him very much so.

The question is: Who will back up Dwight Howard? D-Mo? He had a great Summer League and FIBA World Cup, could it be his time? I’ve always likened D-Mo to a Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Arvydas Sabonis type. And he can shoot threes if he wanted to! Oh, how I love big men that can shoot.

Or, Clint Capela? Could he back him up? He is 6’10”, 245 lbs. Don’t know much about him, but they must have drafted him for a reason. A third option could be Joey Dorsey. He has been a Rocket before. He is 6’9″ and 275 lbs and he has hustle. He doesn’t necessarily need to score. My memories of him are of him rebounding the ball. They will miss Asik, but it will be interesting to see how the Rockets will replace him.

2. The Bench– Now, if you look at the Rockets bench this year, 9 out of 10 people would know these people: Jason Terry (Former Rocket Killer), D-Mo (Rocket Folk Hero), Francisco Garcia (Dude who almost got into a fight with John Lucas III that time), and Troy Daniels (Game Winning Three in the playoffs last year, Kiss of Death 2.0). THAT’S IT. Maybe women would know Nick Johnson, due to his boyish good looks, but I digress.

The point is, this is a brand new bench. Hell, I don’t know half of these people. But last year, the bench was a problem: They could not score. They were next to last in the league in bench production. Also, they could not keep a lead half the time. The thing is the bench has been lacking, and by giving the bench a defensive edge to it, it’ll help. They will score on the bench. They have Jason Terry and Cisco at the least, along with the Vipers, Covington, Canaan, D-Mo, and Daniels. The rest are for hustle and defensive purposes only. It should be interesting to see how the bench improves from last year, because there isn’t anywhere to go but up in this case.

3. “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”- Now, about HIM. After he left to go to Dallas, he left a pretty good sized hole in the offense. Replacing him in the starting lineup would most likely be Trevor Ariza. Another former Rocket who bombed the first time he was here.

Sep 29, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza (1) poses for a photo during media day at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

There were mixed feelings about this move, but I think the reason he bombed was because the Rockets asked him to be the main player in the offense a few years ago after Ron Artest left. The Rockets don’t have that problem now. Trevor has that elder statesman feel to him on the team. Harden and Howard are the cornerstones of the team, the ones that do most of the work.

All Trevor will be asked to do is stay back, play defense, shoot an outside three from the corner every now and again. Basically, he wouldn’t be asked to do much, just be productive. Trevor doesn’t have to put up 17 and 5 every night. He doesn’t have to do much scoring, just play defense. Covington or Garcia can do the offensive workload. Basically, Small Forward by committee.

4. Power Forward – Now the league has a lot of All-Stars that play the power forward position. LaMarcus Aldridge, who murdered us in the playoffs, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Blake Griffin, Lebron James, Chris Bosh, etc. T

he Rockets are deficient at that position. The closest thing the Rockets have to a “Stretch-4” is Terrence Jones. Now, T. Jones has talent. Very good talent. But since the Rockets have been starting him, Terrence Jones has been eaten alive by the elite power forwards of this league, which is probably why they swung and missed on Chris Bosh. They needed a power forward to compete in today’s league.

T. Jones has shown growth in his years in the league offensively. He has a good offensive game, including a decent post-up game. He can shoot threes, which as aforementioned, is always a plus. He had a career high 36 points and 11 rebounds last year. He’s also developing a reputation as a shot blocker. He just needs to work on his 1-on-1 defense guarding some of the elite power forwards. If he can work on that, I think Terrence Jones can be the new X Factor of this team.

5. James Harden – He said it himself, folks. It begins and ends with The Bearded One, James Harden. Yes, sometimes he depends too much on the refs to bail him out. But I think he is still transitioning from being a “role player” in OKC to being “the man” in H-Town. Yes, the defense he plays is sometimes nonexistent… OK, most of the time nonexistent. He tried to fix that this past summer on Team USA. He didn’t exactly look like Patrick Beverley, but he got a few blocks and a few steals.