Houston Rockets Rumors: Predicting the 2019 playoff rotation
By T.A. Mock
The Houston Rockets have officially clinched a playoff berth. They’ve been running a deep rotation so, let’s look at how it’ll shake out in a few weeks.
It seems like the season was just starting to get going but here we are, just six games away from the conclusion of the regular season. It’s been a whirlwind of a season for the Houston Rockets, even still, they find themselves in a steep competition for one of the top spots in the Western Conference for the playoffs.
The roster has undergone massive amounts of turnover since the season began with nearly half of the rotation getting swapped out throughout the season. In an attempt to mitigate the loss of key roles players such as Carmelo Anthony and Luc Mbah a Moute, the Rockets went out and added James Ennis, Carmelo Anthony, and Michael Carter-Williams while also swapping Ryan Anderson for Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss.
Fast forward to the end of March, all five of those additions are now on other teams in the NBA. So much for retooling and going for it this offseason. Fortunately, the in-season acquisitions have fared much better for the Rockets and the struggles and growing pains the team went through are far in the rearview mirror.
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The crazy parts about these additions, who will get to in a minute, is that the Houston Rockets have become one of the deeper teams in the league because of them. Additionally, it has allowed more guys to get rest as the season has come to a close which will only make the team more dangerous in the playoffs.
However, the problem with deep rotations is you don’t typically want to run too deep in the playoffs. So, Mike D’Antoni will have to work his magic and get the rotation trimmed to be most effective in the playoffs. Of course, it can change at any time because of injuries, hot hands, and matchups but, for now, this is what the rotation seems like it’ll be come playoff time.