Whoever wants to air that of what money does not give happinessThere you have the 2020-21 Rockets as an example. Metaphorical, at least. After years in the elite with the best open streak in the playoffs (eight in a row, all of the era James Harden), the franchise faced a change of cycle that ended up being inevitable. And he did it with the bitter aftertaste of What could have been but was not, especially in those 2018 playoffs in which after being the best of the season, the Rockets had on the canvas the untouchables Warriors (still with Kevin Durant). With 3-2 in favor, came the injury of Chris Paul, the missed triples, the tembleque… you know. The ground disappeared when there was only one step left to the finish line. There, although it lasted a couple of years more, that team had actually died.
The Axis Dispatches (Daryl Morey) -bench (Mike D’Antoni) -track (James Harden) jumped through the air after an unapproachable bubble playoff loss to the Lakers. A culture that ended up being harmful, with Harden in the center of the target, and a team abandoned in its leadership and entrusted to a new owner, Tilman Fertitta, who has already earned a reputation for stingy. They all came out, the last one a Harden who had to spoil his history in Houston, the city that made him an NBA MVP because, after all, The end justifies the means. After not being comfortable with neither Dwight Howard nor Chris Paul nor Russell Westbrook, everyone pointed to everyone and The beard appeared at the center of all cross messages, transmuted into the famous culture. Westbrook, after just one year, also asked to leave. The feeling in the Rockest ended up being, basically, the last to leave to turn off the light.
Stone and Silas build in the tempest
I stay? A new general manager like Rafael Stone, trained alongside Morey. A new coach like Stephen Silas, the son of the great Paul Silas and one of those immaculate appraisal assistants who swapped a seat alongside Rick Carlisle (an extraordinary teacher) at the Mavericks so he ended up being an electric chair in a Rockets where he smelled rotten when he was still putting things in his new office. And a team that was a strange conglomerate of players or very veteran and theoretically unmotivated in that context (PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon), or young for so much fuss (Christian Wood) or united by the misfortune of injuries between very serious and devastating: John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Victor Oladipo, David Nwaba…
With Harden riding the circus to get the ticket to Brooklyn (again: The end justifies the means), the script followed the planned line: 2-6 in the eight games played, with his head elsewhere (and delighted that it was aired well), by James Harden, the ninth worst defense in the league, an attack below the average (17th) and the tenth worst net rating. Highway to nowhere.
Since then, the Rockets have rowed 9-9 overall, 6-3 without Harden and five wins in a row. They have since the transfer (January 14) the third best defense in the NBA, to tenths of a percentage of those of the Lakers and Clippers, and the eighth best net rating with a +4.4 that pushes what can a still discreet attack, but more and more effective. In their five straight victories the Rockets have beaten three of the teams in their platoon, that lot of teams for defining their position in the West behind the great LA contenders: Blazers, Mavericks and Pelicans.
The Rockets’ unexpected good health spans every line on the franchise’s sports front. Rafael Stone weathered the end of James Harden and settled for the best he could get, a pragmatic realism based on making a clean slate and not rotting what was already in the basket. His merit has more to do with a pre-season market window in which he bet on Jae’Sean Tate for just $ 1.4 million and Sterling Brown for $ 1.6 million. The first is a 25-year-old rookie who was not drafted in 2018 and has passed through Belgium and Australia. The second is a 25-year-old guard whose place in the NBA was in question after being nearly cut from the rotation at the Milwaukee Bucks. Stone, and this is an undisputed triumph, he signed Christian Wood for three years and 41 million, a robo for an interior of 25 years who is emerging as a big star and is aiming for the All Star and Team USA working block for the Olympics. While others doubted how an expansion of their role would translate to a team other than the filthy Pistons from last season, Stone bet. And he won, it is becoming clear.
Stone also pulled a couple of first rounds for Robert Covington, a player who on the basis of being considered undervalued has ended up being slightly overvalued. And has been collecting, to see if a flute sounds, to players like Dante Exum, constantly crushed by injuries, and Kevin Porter Jr: 20 years old, star talent and a head so bad that it fell until the 30th draft (2019) and the Cavaliers ended up giving it away, desperate.
Silas is coming out absolutely strengthened from his debut as head coach. From the preseason he elegantly managed the goring by James Harden, protected and held together those he knew would still be there and was making his way, working as and when he could with those who wanted to do it and stepping on the gas in defense as soon as Harden left. The locker room, and the front that was made to shield against the chapapote Harden proved it, it was sewn with the needle of veterans who have already seen the worst of this business, like John Wall and Cousins (former partners in Kentucky) and a PJ Tucker who has put aside the resentment about his contract and his future. Victor Oladipo, who rebounded in the Harden operation, is another very good player already attached, hardworking and with an optimal spirit for a block that has clung to the (always a great fuel in sport) we againts the world, to nGoodbye expects us to do this, that and the other.
Christian Wood, new franchise player
Wood is the hub of these new Rockets, a player who improves almost game by game and is at 23.6 points and 10.7 rebounds per game with a visible growth as a defender, more versatile than in Detroit within more aggressive schemes in the coverage of the pick and roll. Oladipo is an excellent defender, just like Tucker, who continues to contribute what he can at 35 years old, and to a lesser extent Danuel House and an improved Eric Gordon (leg issue) compared to his terrible last season, in which he played (when did) crunch from injuries. But the real hard glue is in the rotation with Sterling Brown, David Nwaba (1.8 million contract and Achilles tendon rupture overcome) and Tate, a forward small (1.93) that has stabilized as a starter and has caused (muscle and versatility in defense), a huge finding, comparisons with Tucker himself and Draymond Green himself by profile behind and his good touch when generating attack.
Silas’ new block has little room for a shooter like McLemore, a role that Mason Jones has covered well, rookie not drafted with a contract. two-way, Y Raises Oladipo (who ends contract at the end of the season, important matter) as a key figure next to Wood. The Rockets don’t need miracles from DeMarcus Cousins, who has helped where he could and had his best moment in a long time (too much): 17.3 points, 14.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists in the three games in the which was a starter in the absence of Wood A problem on defense and with poor percentages, DeMarcus has appeared as a proud and stabilizing figure, with a very significant and very loud public barrage to James Harden shortly before the transfer.
Y Nor do they need John Wall to be the one from 2017 again, although they are counting on a good version of the base, who had not played for two years and has one of the worst contracts in the NBA (he is 30 years old and has almost 133 million to collect until 2023). The point guard has played at a good level (almost 18 points and 6 assists on average), above what is expected physically and without him. turbo of yesteryear but more energy than could be expected. Y with an also optimal attitude as a glue of a team that does not have the theoretical path of previous seasons nor is it going to be as dangerous as in its highest format with James Harden as Alpha and Omega. But who wants to establish himself in the race for the playoffs, build optimal culture where there were only ruins and scratches on the surface of what may be a new project of the first level, with an excellent trainer and a new franchise player who is about to become all star, the excellent Christian Wood. Interesting New Times in Houston: money does not give happiness…
