Houston Rockets Players Shine In Training Camp

Oct 14, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kostas Papanikolaou (16) is defended by New Orleans Pelicans forward

(2) during the second half of a preseason game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Rockets 117-98. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Frontcourt

Trevor Ariza has struggled somewhat, although without Harden and Howard on the court, it takes him out of his role that he was brought to Houston to do.  He should settle in just fine once the starting lineup is back intact.

Kostas Papanikolaou has played better when playing at the three.  Papanikolaou has averaged 9.5 points in 24.2 minutes per game, has rebounded well and thus far has not been over-matched on the defensive end.   Papanikolaou overall has shown a toughness and a savvy that the Rockets didn’t get from Omri Casspi who essentially was in his role last year.  Here is a clip of a nice fake and up and under against Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

Oct 13, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Rockets forward

(4) shoots during the second quarter as Phoenix Suns forward

(43) defends at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Jeff Adrien appears to have cemented his role on the team and has stood out as the most likely backup power forward.  Adrien is relentless on the boards and is your classic “garbage bucket” player with put backs and turning loose balls into buckets, averaging seven points in 15 minutes per game.

Adrien has picked up where he left off in his breakout year last year with the Bucks and could also be insurance, just in case the Rockets do make a big trade at some point in the season.  Terrence Jones is the starter and has played well but must seek consistency and aggressiveness that he displayed in moments last year.  Jones is also the Rockets most valuable young asset at this point in trade.

Tarik Black has been the surprise of the camp.  Black has shown terrific rebounding, 7.5 per game in only 20 minutes a game.  He has also played well on defense and is doing all the little things that backup 4’s need to do, including a monster block seen here.

Being on only a partially guaranteed contract Black is making it hard on the Rockets when it comes to paring down the roster to 15 as he likely was not seen as one of the keepers but has out played some who were.

Oct 7, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard

(14) shoots against Houston Rockets forward

(20) at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

On the other hand Joey Dorsey has struggled.  He has yet to find his role and to be honest has looked lost out there at times.

Dorsey however, is not likely going anywhere unless it’s in trade as he has a two-year guaranteed contract.  Dorsey, brought in to be the “banger” off the bench has to get comfortable in that role and show the defense that he showed in Europe or the Rockets are going to be in a difficult spot with him

Donatas Motiejunas has outplayed Dorsey as the backup center as well.  D-Mo looks more mature and poised to take the next step of growth than at any other time we’ve seen him and has averaged almost 10 points in a little more than 22 minutes a game.

Decisions To Be Made

Training camp is half over.  McHale will want to accomplish a few more things in the remainder of camp.  One, is to get the starting five all on the court together for at least a couple games.  Two, get Jason Terry on the court and determine if and how he fits.  And lastly, to continue evaluating all the players vying for backup roles and decide who the 15 players that will comprise the final roster are going to be.

At this point, once they make a move with Covington, as noted here at House of Houston, they still have four players to trade or release.  The two relatively painless cuts will be Josh Powell and Akil Mitchell.  Mitchell should be with the Vipers this year.

Then it gets a lot tougher and comes down to two guys from the group of Smith, Francisco Garcia, Black and Dorsey to be released or traded.  Smith is going to have to out play Canaan to stick.  Beyond that, unless Black cools off, there could very likely be another trade coming for what would have been the last cut.

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