Houston Rockets Off Season

[eagle eye]

The NBA off season is the biggest circus on the planet with the ultimate highlight is the deal that wasn't between the Dallas Mavericks and DeAndre Jordan. That whole situation is a joke and reinforces the notion that a man's word isn't binding until it's in writing. The link below is from SBNation.com talking about the hows and whys Jordan backed out of his verbal commitment to the Mavs only to stay in LA with the Clippers for less money!

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/7/8/8914295/deandre-jordan-mavericks-clippers-nba-free-agency-2015

The Rockets off season was pretty quiet but if you look at it Houston made the Western Conference finals missing two big pieces of their team puzzle, Patrick Beverly and Donatas Motiejunas and still took the heavily favored Warriors to 6 games. Houston was a minor player in the Lamarcus Aldridge sweepstakes until he signed with San Antonio. This article from SBNation sums up the Rockets off season very well and it also accounts for the fact that the free agent signing deadline is July 18th and and points out that Rockets GM Daryl Morrey pulled a last second deal to get James Hardin. Good stuff can still happen.

http://www.thedreamshake.com/2015/7/7/8901343/rockets-nba-free-agency-2015-bargains-patrick-beverley-corey-brewer

I realize that pro basketball has lost favor and is not all that popular on this site but, I have changed my mind slowly over the past two or three years. I'm not all in the way I used to be but I find the NBA is worth a look. I may never follow the Rockets and NBA with any fever but it's a fun game to watch. Maybe if the Lamar team gets back to be a winning program more people will pay more attention to the pro game too. One thing I see is a need to upgrade the refereeing which is so spotty it's embarrassing. It's hard to imagine any scenario where replay using electronic help can make calling of games, other than the reviews of shots and out of bounds plays that are being done now. The nature of the game doesn't lend itself to extensive review. Other than tighten up on policing the refs and do a better job of training and being more strict of your critique of the officials work I can't see any other way to improve officiating.

[eagle eye]

The latest news coming from the Bleacher Report is that Houston is about to agree to terms on a new contract with G Jason Terry. Great, just what Houston needs is a 37 year old guard who completely disappeared in the playoffs. I wouldn't be sorry to see Terry and JR Smith go. Both guys were useless especially in the finals against Golden State. I'm waiting for that 11th hour deal similar to the one that landed the Rockets James Hardin. I don't think there are any free agents as impactful as Hardin available but I'm not counting out a trade either. Frankly, I wasn't sure if Hardin was all that great a deal. He was the sixth man in Oklahoma City and was unproven as a starting guard so you never know where you'll find a diamond in the rough. The Rockets GM has a lot of respect around the league so we will have to trust in that.

[eagle eye]

Houston made a last minute deal to upgrade the talent on their team. They traded several bench players who weren't much more than dead weight in the playoff this year for Denver point guard Ty Lawson. The guy has pretty good career numbers in the neighborhood of 19 PPG, 9 assists and 43% shooting for four players who didn't combine for these numbers. Two of the players had names I couldn't pronounce anyway so it makes my life easier. The Rockets send Kostas Papanikolau, Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson and a lottery-protected 2016 first-round draft pick to the Nuggets in exchange for Lawson and a 2nd round pick. The wild card here is Lawson is in rehab for a 2nd DUI he got in Denver recently. He will undoubtedly be suspended for a couple of games. At least that is the guess from a guest on the ESPN's The Blitz yesterday. I wish I could remember who it was but he's someone who is a NBA expert following the Rockets. His supposition is based on suspensions for similar violations around the NBA. The kicker is this is Lawson's 2nd DUI so it could extend to 5 games which isn't terrible in the grand scheme of things. If Houston has a decent support system to help Lawson he may be able to deal with his alcohol issues and if not Houston just inherited a problem child. If he's focused and playing well he can take some scoring pressure off James Hardin and solidify the Rockets backcourt. Now it will be up to GM Daryl Morey to find some quality backups to shore up the Rockets bench. Speaking of Morey, in the deal for Lawson, who had 2 years remaining on his deal in Denver for around $13MM this year and $12MM next year, Morey got Lawson to agree to give up the guaranteed money on next year's deal. Basically Houston got Morey on a one year deal to see if he's the real deal or not. It's a sweet deal for Houston who virtually gave up nothing that hurt the team for a guy who could really upgrade the talent on the team if his head is right. As for Lawson, he's happy to be coming to Houston who was the number 2 seed in this year's playoffs and took Golden State to six games in the Western Conference Finals before losing and Houston was missing two important players for the playoffs, DeMo and Patrick Beverly. Now it looks like Beverly and Lawson will split time at PG or maybe there's a 3 man rotation with Lawson, Beverly and Hardin.
Houston did lose Josh Smith to free agency. This off season Smith chose to sign with the LA Clippers rather than remain with Houston. Now, I have to admit it confused Josh Smith with JR Smith of Cleveland and that's unfortunate because Josh had a decent run in the playoffs while J R sucked. If I'm Cleveland I'm looking replace J R because he almost literally disappeared in the playoffs. I suppose we are trading Josh Smith for Ty Lawson. Hopefully, a happy Ty-Law is sober and playing his ass off because he's with a contender in Houston and away from the sad-sack Nuggets.

[eagle eye]

Seems like ex-Rockets like LA. Pablo Prigioni is now a Clipper as he was signed earlier this week. What's wrong with Houston that nobody wants to stay? Is it just the money? Or is James Hardin really the humongous douche he reported to be? We may never know.