Get me a point guard!
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The competition will be tough in the NBA’s Western Conference and the Houston Rockets are well aware. In the playoffs, with Beverley out with a torn wrist ligament, the Rockets cobbled the position together with the ancient combination of Jason Terry and Pablo Prigioni, both almost 40 years old. Morey bought low on a somewhat troubled player who had made an enemy out of most of the decision-makers in Denver and made a few very poor choices off the court, so a seamless fit is far from guaranteed.
Dealt from Denver in the offseason, Rockets guard Ty Lawson gets to face the Nuggets right off the bat. Superstar James Harden looks ready to roll and build upon a phenomenal season in which he averaged 35.8 points, 7.8 assists and seven rebounds in four dominant performances against Denver. Off the court, he’s obviously been a self-destructive endangerment to himself and law-abiding motorists.
The most exciting fact about Houston’s schedule is that they have no sets of four games in five days.
It will be interesting seeing how the Rockets manage minutes in this one, as during the preseason head coach Kevin McHale spread the minutes around in a balanced fashion.
Most of the other rankings look like they coincide with players getting on up there in age as well as young players making strides in development. “I like Ty. All the stuff he does naturally and instinctively are things that we value”. “This is the turning point”, Lawson admitted. “I don’t care what anybody has to stay about it”.
“I don’t want to let my teammates down”, Lawson said. I’m specifically interested in seeing the dynamic between Lawson and MVP candidate James Harden. Either he was going to go out on a limb again to bolster his roster or the Rockets would risk being stuck in the mud while the rest of the contenders in the West took a step up. The Rockets will begin the year without standout big man Dwight Howard, who is suspended for the opener due to flagrant fouls in the postseason, but he has returned to practice after a lengthy layoff because of a back issue.
If Lawson offers up 43/36/80 shooting splits with nine assists and six or so free throw attempts per game, as he did in the 2013-14 season, then the Rockets will have added a near All-Star level contributor without sacrificing much of anything. Howard continues to deal with injuries and it is something Houston is hopeful is not becoming a chronic issue. “The more games he plays, the more he can help the team”. Why we do anything, to see if it works. Aside from Lawson, it’s largely the same group that went to war last season, and Harden likes that continuity.
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I suspect the Rockets will do better than anticipated in swing games, and my gut tells me 62 wins is more Houston’s speed this year, which is in fact seven games higher than schedule analysis tells us.
