Houston Rockets: Is Bobby Brown The Right Choice?

On the morning of the Houston Rockets’ opener against the Los Angeles Lakers, the fire still burns over their decision to waive Pablo Prigioni instead of Tyler Ennis and Bobby Brown.

On the morning of the Houston Rockets’ opener against the Los Angeles Lakers, the fire still burns over their decision to waive Pablo Prigioni instead of Tyler Ennis and Bobby Brown.

Now this is not a testimonial for Tyler Ennis, I believe that he was incredibly lucky to avoid the axe instead of Prigioni and I feel like it was his youth and similar skill set to Pablo’s that kept him on board.

The controversial opinion begins here, Brown was the correct choice by the Houston Rockets and he is the perfect fit to be our 3rd string point guard.

The whole idea of the 3rd string point guard is that they don’t play many minutes and are generally used in the last 5 or so minutes of a blowout game or to spell the starters with a minute left in the quarter.

Teams use this role in many different ways but in a general sense they bring in experienced veterans and good locker room guys, people who know how to control the tempo of a game and get a result for the team.

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The Houston Rockets have bucked the NBA trend in keeping Bobby Brown, but it continues the essence of the signings that the Houston Rockets seem to prefer when looking to go to deep into the bench.

Bobby Brown has shown he is capable of producing instant offense but is also able to dish it off and rack up assists.

Brown’s role in this team, will be much similar to that of Marcus Thornton last year. Bring him on with the bench, feed him the ball for a couple of possessions and see if he’s hot.

If he hits a couple of shots then he earns minutes for the rest of the game and if not he can sit.

Brown is a valuable role player for a team like Houston that struggles defensively. The Houston Rockets rely on playing at a break-neck speed for the entire game and try to rush the other team through their sets in order for their defense to be solid.

To play at such a fast pace means a lot of rotation, and with Beverley out for the next month or so the Houston Rockets offense is going to have to be firing on all cylinders if they are to stand a chance on their road trip.

In 2015-16 Brown averaged 29.3 points, 6.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds in the Chinese League, albeit against much weaker competition than he’ll be facing in the NBA.

Although this is the case, he gave us a taste of what he is capable of with his 23/4/9 performance against the Spurs with James Harden absent.

The most important aspect of all this is the fact that 70.6 percent of his field goals came unassisted, something the Houston Rockets always lack with Harden out of the game.

The issue with the Houston Rockets has always been how the ball stops dead when Harden is off the floor, and they find it difficult to find regular avenues to the basket.

With Beverley out, Brown will get the opportunity to work with Eric Gordon in the back court and that could be a frightening combination off the bench.

Gordon as also shown his willingness to distribute but also an ability to attack off the dribble, having two players who can attack, pass and shoot will cause havoc for bench lineups and should see the Houston Rockets running and gunning strategy continue to flow.

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As is evident in the video below, the sheer number of shooters on the floor creates the perfect environment for Brown.

The Houston Rockets really recruited hard on this point during the off season, and they have improved their spacing.

Brown makes good entry passes, and the spacing of his teammates allows him to find open space to drill the open 3’s.

Going back to his ability to score unassisted field goals, this has been mentioned as his major flaw and he has been described as a ‘black hole’.

Having a guy on your bench who is 100 percent confident he can come in and win you the game is exactly the kind of person you want on your side, and someone you want in your locker room.

Great shooters always think the next shot is going in and that mentality is something the Houston Rockets can utilize off the bench when Harden sits.

The Houston Rockets made a difficult, but correct decision to keep Brown on the roster.

Now it’s all about using him effectively.

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