HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

Over the last couple of seasons the Houston Rockets have been seemingly one piece away from contention. The team around Yao Ming was ready to contend, but with their superstar center absent the team fought to stay above .500. After failing to land a significant franchise player in trade, the Rockets finally cashed in all their chips this summer, sending out almost all of their veterans in exchange for draft picks and young players. On the one hand, they are much further from contention than they were at the end of last season. On the other hand, after failing to land a key player via trade, the only other available option is to draft one. You’ve got to lose a lot of games to draft a franchise player, and Houston looks set to do just that.

HOOPSWORLD takes a look at the 2012-13 Houston Rockets:

Five Guys Think…

At times this offseason held the potential to be a dream for the Houston Rockets, who were once in the lead for center Dwight Howard, but instead it turned into an absolute nightmare. They had significant cap space, which they partially committed to restricted free agents Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin. Originally it looked like their offer sheets would undoubtedly be matched, but that did not happen. So, the Rockets compromised their ability to land Howard for them and ended up stuck with the gluttony of power forwards they stockpiled with the intention of moving in a potential blockbuster deal. Now, their roster is unbalanced and the direction of the franchise is unclear. Unless general manager Darryl Morey comes up with something miraculous, the Rockets appear to be headed for last place in the Southwest and someone else will soon be coming in to clean up his mess.

5th Place – Southwest Division

– Yannis Koutroupis
 

The Houston Rockets have really been rebuilding ever since Yao Ming announced his retirement, they just didn’t accept it until this summer. They’ve unloaded most of the Rick Adelman players, who had a hard time adjusting to Kevin McHale, and they’ve turned to a youth movement that should help them land a franchise-caliber player in the 2013 NBA Draft lottery. There are interesting pieces, to be sure, starting with Jeremy Lin and Donatas Motiejunas, but the Rockets still lack the superstar they need to build around. That’s what they’re playing for this season, and it will show in their record.

5th Place – Southwest Division

– Bill Ingram

 
It’s going to be an ugly year for the Houston Rockets. Over the offseason, the Rockets took a risk by stockpiling young talent and making a run at a superstar like Dwight Howard. They struck out and now they’re stuck with all of the prospects who were never supposed to put on a Rockets jersey. Jeremy Lin will keep Houston relevant and give the fans something to get excited about, but Houston’s roster is a mess. They have way too many power forwards and they received next to nothing in return for outgoing significant contributors like Kyle Lowry, Chase Budinger, Samuel Dalembert, Courtney Lee and Marcus Camby. Houston wasn’t able to trade for a franchise player, but they may be able to land one in the 2013 NBA Draft. They’ve certainly positioned themselves to land a high pick.

5th Place – Southwest Division

– Alex Kennedy

 
We all understand what the Rockets were trying to do this past summer—acquiring as many assets as possible to make a run at Dwight Howard—but once that fell through, all they were left with was those assets. And to be honest, those assets don’t look particularly attractive when lined up alongside the rest of the Houston roster. Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin were nice, if expensive, additions, but neither one is the kind of star that leads a team to a championship. They, along with thirteen other guys currently listed on the roster, have three or fewer years of NBA experience. Five of them are rookies. In short, this probably isn’t going to go well, especially now that the team’s three best players—Goran Dragic, Kyle Lowry, and Luis Scola—are all playing for somebody else this season. Saddle up for a long year, Rockets fans.

5th Place – Southwest Division

– Joel Brigham
 

The Houston Rockets are in the midst of a three season playoff drought. Not surprisingly this is also the same amount of time the team has been actively searching for what has proved to be a very elusive franchise player. Still, there is plenty of young talent up and down the Rockets’ roster, but how this collection of youth translates into overall team success remains to be seen. Free agent signings Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin will face the pressure for the first time to handle starter minutes for a full season. How those two players handle the increased workload will go a long way in determining the Rockets’ fate for 2013.

4th Place – Southwest Division

– Lang Greene

Top Of The List

Top Offensive Player: The only remaining starter from last year’s squad is Kevin Martin, and he is also the only proven NBA scorer in the mix. He may not play much defense, but Martin can score from anywhere, he gets to the free throw line with ease, and he is a remarkably efficient offensive player. He may not be a Rocket after the trade deadline, but from the start of the season until mid-February, Martin will likely be Houston’s leading scorer.

Top Defensive Player: This is where things start to get fuzzy. There’s a very real possibility that Omer Asik will be Houston’s best defensive player this season; however, his propensity for committing fouls and his inability to score will make it hard to have him in the game for long stretches. Right now Asik is the only center on Houston’s roster, meaning he’s going to have to have a career year for the Rockets to be able to depend on him for starter’s minutes.

Top Playmaker: It remains to be seen whether or not Jeremy Lin can capture the imaginations of Houston fans the way he enthralled Knicks fans during his first month with the team last season. Once the league got a good look at Lin he became much more average, and without all those superstar players around him he’s going to have to be even more creative to get his game going. That said, Lin has good court vision and after letting Kyle Lowry go for basically nothing and watching Goran Dragic walk away, the Rockets will depend on Lin to run their offense.

Top Clutch Player: It will be interesting to see who emerges as the Rockets’ best clutch player this season. To be considered clutch a player you have to make big plays when the game is on the line, and the Rockets are unlikely to be in that situation late in games this season. That said, those situations will arise, and someone will rise to the challenge. It might be Jeremy Lin, or perhaps Kevin Martin, who is always money at the foul line and will often have the ball in his hands. This position is very much up in the air, waiting for someone to step forward and take it.

The Unheralded Player: While we would be hard pressed to find a heralded player on the Rockets’ current roster, the most unheralded player on the squad could be second-year forward Chandler Parsons. The latest in a long list of quality second round picks for Houston, Parsons’ effort and intensity helped rocket him into the starting lineup and make Chase Budinger expendable last season. Parsons suffered from the inconsistencies that rookies so often face, but when he was at his best he was a significant factor for the Rockets last season.

The Best New Addition: With so many new additions to the Rockets this season it is difficult to single out one as the best, especially since most of them are unproven at the pro level. If the marketing hype is to be believed, Jeremy Lin will carry that label this season, though it’s wise to be cautious in placing huge expectations on Lin’s shoulders. He’s a decent point guard with potential, not the phenomenon that he was for a brief period of time in New York last season.

– Bill Ingram

Who We Like

1. Jeremy Lamb: Given that the Rockets are going to lose Kevin Martin at some point in the next year, either via trade or free agency, it’s good that they have drafted essentially a younger version of him in Jeremy Lamb. Like Martin, Lamb is a pure scorer who pays little attention to the defensive end. He can score from anywhere, though, and will likely be someone who fills the stat sheet for Houston for years to come.

2. Donatas Motiejunas: The Rockets are tempering expectations when it comes to Motiejunas, saying he could be Josh McRoberts in a worst-case scenario, but also hoping he will turn out to be more of an impact player in the mold of Andrea Bargnani. There is a lot of buzz around the organization surrounding the arrival of Motiejunas, and he looks like a foundational piece in Houston’s rebuilding effort.

3. Shaun Livingston: Whether or not Shaun Livingston even takes the court for the Rockets, who are quite deep at point guard, he is sure to be a positive influence in the locker room. The only player on the team with more experience than Livingston is Kevin Martin, who has one foot out the door. Livingston will have a key role to play in helping Jeremy Lin – not to mention Scott Machado and Toney Douglas – evolve into the best point guard he can become.

4. Royce White: Royce White might be afraid of flying, and he might not be sure what his best NBA position will be, but he can certainly play basketball at a very high level. In summer league play he posted three double-digit rebounding games, had assist games of seven and eight, and scored in double figures twice. White can do just about anything he’s asked to do, which is good, as the Rockets will likely ask him to wear a number of different hats this season.

5. Omer Asik: Of all of the new additions in Houston, none will bear the weight of responsibility that Asik will bear. Fair or not, he’s the only true center on the roster, and while he’s a career backup, he’s now a high-priced commodity, courtesy of Houston’s strange free agency tactics. He wasn’t a very good offensive player for Chicago, and his free throw shooting makes Shaquille O’Neal look like Larry Bird, but the Rockets have made Asik a rich man and he has to respond by holding down the middle this season.

– Bill Ingram

Strengths

Potential is a scary word, but it’s the word that defines Houston’s primary strength for the coming season. They have so many young, unproven players that they will be depending on some of them realizing their potential quickly to keep the team competitive this season. They have amazing depth at power forward and point guard, and the recent addition of Carlos Delfino gives them some competition at small forward, as well. Everyone will have to fight for minutes in Houston, and the hope is that the competition will bring out the best in a number of different players.

– Bill Ingram

Weaknesses

The front court is likely to be troublesome for Houston, as they don’t have a player who would start at center on any other team. Asik is a solid defender, but he also fouls at a high rate, so the center position is likely to be a glaring weakness for the Rockets. There also isn’t much veteran experience in the mix to help calm the team when the opposition makes a run. It remains to be seen where the defensive effort will come from, as players like Jeremy Lin, Kevin Martin, Patrick Patterson and Jeremy Lamb are suspect at best.

– Bill Ingram

What Needs To Be Said On Opening Day….

We have a young group, and we can be professionals here. We thought and expected Dwight Howard to be in this locker room. But he’s not, and we need to focus on who is here. Jeremy, welcome to Houston. I’m confident you can continue to be as successful as you were in New York, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to attack here. Kevin, I’d like to see your leadership become a lot more vocal. I remember when you were a young player in Sacramento who needed veterans as mentors. Well, we need you here now. Can you step up into that role? Guys, I expect to give out a lot of opportunities and to allow a lot of rope. What you do with it is up to you.

– Anthony Macri and Brett Koremenos

The Burning Question

Will the Rockets earn the top pick in the NBA Draft this season?

Having missed out on every major free agent or trade target, including the likes of Chris Bosh, Marcin Gortat, Pau Gasol, Nene, Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard, the Rockets have done the only other thing possible in their ongoing effort to replace franchise player Yao Ming. Namely, they have put the team in a position to lose enough games to draft their next star player. The draft lottery offers no guarantees, but this strategy is as sound as any other possible scenario for the Rockets. If the team overachieves, however, and manages to stay at or near .500, as unlikely as that seems, the Rockets would be right back where they have been for the last three seasons: picking somewhere in the mid-teens and facing the same questions all over again at this time next year.

– Bill Ingram