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Houston Rockets: Make A Play For Jeff Teague?

By Brian K. Patterson

Dec 29, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Jeff Teague (0) brings the ball up the court during the first half against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. The Hawks defeated the Rockets 121-115. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 29, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Jeff Teague (0) brings the ball up the court during the first half against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. The Hawks defeated the Rockets 121-115. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports /
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Make that three-in-a-row for the Houston Rockets.

Don’t confuse that with a win streak because it isn’t.

Nope, the Rockets have lost three straight and although they’re battling hard in games, something is still missing to get these guys over the hump.

With Josh Smith being recently added to the fold, this roster has now been restored to the original one that was just a few wins shy of going to the NBA Finals last season.

It was incredible news that we were able to land J-Smoove once again but something is still missing with this team as the losses continue to pile up and they continue to hover around .500.

Although we’ve seen flashes out of Ty Lawson, he isn’t nearly the player that we expected him to be for the Rockets this season.

The problem is that he and James Harden are both ball-dominant and they need the rock in the worst of ways to keep their offensive flow on point.

I thought that there would be some way that they’d co-exist but apparently there isn’t.

Not to mention the fact that his ongoing issues with the law continue to keep his value grounded and the interest for his services at an all-time low.

J.B. Bickerstaff has tried to solve this puzzle but apparently still hasn’t figured it out and Kevin McHale didn’t even get a chance, having been fired 11 games into the season.

On top of all of that, our presumed starting point guard in Patrick Beverley continues rotate on and off the training table, having missed 11 games so far this season because of injury.

We honestly haven’t had any consistent play at the point and I think that it’s hurting the Rockets tremendously.

If we fix that problem, then I think things will start flow a lot better.

But the Rockets don’t have a problem scoring points, they’re 7th in the NBA in terms of offensive efficiency, putting up 104.3 points per 100 possessions.

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It’s their defensive prowess — they’ve slipped to 27th in the NBA in defensive efficiency — tied with the Milwaukee Bucks — giving up 106.4 points per 100 possessions.

Giving up more points that they score is simple math — it doesn’t equate to success in the win column.

But let’s float an idea that I have to improve this roster.

The Atlanta Hawks are holding a fire sale for Jeff Teague as if he must go as soon as possible.

The Rockets need to jump in on this because he’s EXACTLY what we need.

He’s not the best of three-point shooters — neither is J-Smoove — but plays incredible defense and is certainly one of the best facilitators in the league at this moment.

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And he doesn’t have to be ball-dominant — he can just get the engine started and make plays for us on the defensive end.

But there’s a slight wrinkle to making this idea work.

As we know, the Rockets are over the salary cap and are ever-closer to approaching a hard $88.7 million cap imposed as the result of a couple of previous maneuvers made to keep this team together.

Adding J-Smoove added some money to that total spending figure although they don’t have to come out-of-pocket for it as the Los Angeles Clippers wrote a $460,000 check to cover his remaining salary on the season.

Jeff Teague is under contract at $8 million per year through 2016-17.

So to make this work, you’d have to trade Bev ($6.5 million), package Terrence Jones ($2.5 million) in the deal for Teague with some draft pick compensation or even Mike Muscala ($947,276) as additional compensation.

The ultimate goal is to not take on additional salary and you have to wonder if move like this straight up like this would make us worse.

Next: TJones: Possible Trades & Landing Spots?

Then you’d really have to bring in a third team to make it work.

It’s worth a shot and all-in-all, the Rockets need to shake things up in order to get out of this funk that they’re in.

Teague, 27, the one-time All-Star, is averaging 14.5 points, 5.5 assists while shooting 41.9 percent from the field, 38.2 percent from the three-point line and 85.4 percent from the charity stripe through 46 games this season.

Let’s do this Daryl Morey — get Mike Budenholzer on the phone!

Go Rockets!

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