Houston Rockets: Four things to establish in first month of season
By T.A. Mock
#1: Establishing how the rotation will work game to game
We’ve taken a crack at figuring out how the depth chart and rotation will shake out for the Houston Rockets before but team reports have since come and out players have been added and cut. Still, this is an incredibly deep team that Mike D’Antoni considers to have seven legitimate starters.
That is, seven players who could start are nearly any team and will get “starter minutes” on this team. Those guys would obviously be Harden, Paul, Capela, PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon, Carmelo Anthony, and James Ennis. All seven of these guys are extremely talented and make this team deeper than we’ve ever seen.
However, having seven guys that will play starter minutes makes the rotation a little complicated, especially considering there are more than seven guys on this team that deserve playing time. Of them, there are Brandon Knight, Michael Carter-Williams, Marquese Chriss, and Gerald Green. Then there are the young guys that still have a ton of potential. The Houston Rockets have the good kind of depth issue but it’ll take some sorting out to ensure that this team is maximizing talent.
More. Three reasons why Clint Capela will be a top three center. light
It appears the starting lineup will consist up Paul, Harden, Gordon, Tucker, and Capela. However, that unit only figures to be the “starters” for a few minutes before someone is subbed out. It’ll be interesting to see how/when MDA will choose to make this swap. The good news is that, regardless of how he chooses to do so, guys will get plenty of rest in order to be ready for the end of the season and playoffs.
Knight and MCW are good ball handlers and passers off the bench that can help out with the second unit distributing. MCW is also a really good perimeter defender and the Rockets are working on making him more of a lockdown guy on the wing. Green is also capable of excellent offense in spurts.
Chriss along with Nene and Isaiah Hartenstein should be more than capable of providing big man minutes when needed. If the Rockets prefer to go smaller, Tucker and Melo could also play minutes at the five as well. Regardless, MDA has his work cut out for him with this rotation but I’m sure it’s a challenge he relishes.