It Was Earth All Along

I don’t know if you heard, but over the Summer, the Houston Rockets essentially swapped Ron Artest for Trevor Ariza. The former is a bit of a wildcard, known for ill-advised 3s, elite perimeter defense, and something about snake eggs. The latter is a superb athlete, a tremendous wing defender, and an emerging shooting threat.

So why is it that the Houston Rockets were so woefully underestimated coming into the season, when the only significant difference between last year’s playoff team and this year’s would-be playoff time is the (occasionally bad) shot creating abilities of Artest?

I…I don’t know. Count me among the many that refused to acknowledge Houston’s potential. I didn’t see where the points were going to come from, even if Ariza is a young, talented player on a perfectly reasonable salary. Call me crazy, but I wasn’t sold on Aaron Brooks’ ability to score consistently, much less run an offense. And I saw some problems among their rotation of bigs, which had fallen to three productive if undersized power forwards in the absence of Yao Ming. Not only is none of that true, but we’ve seen virtually the opposite. Ariza may not be capable of producing shots at an elite level (as his .383), but his ability to get out in transition and connect on reasonable 3-point attempts has been crucial to Houston’s surprisingly competent offense. Aaron Brooks may not have the most efficient lines, but he’s proven that he has the speed to be a Tony Parker-esque penetrating and scoring point guard, albeit one with a much better touch from outside. And those Rocket bigs? The ones who were supposed to have problems against traditional centers and more physical lineups? They have Houston as the 7th best offensive rebounding team in the league, the 13th best defensive rebounding team, and provide an interesting amount of versatility with the defense of Chuck Hayes, the scoring of Carl Landry, and the savvy of Luis Scola.

In terms of efficiency, the Rockets are a perfectly average team. But considering that Yao Ming is on an extended vacation and Tracy McGrady is just starting to see the court, that’s more than commendable. It stands testament to just how good of a coach Rick Adelman is, and just how far pure effort can get you in the NBA. A limited roster of second round cast-offs and undrafted diamonds (or at least opals or something) int he rough is just 6.5 games behind the Los Angeles freaking Lakers. And all they’ve done to get there is everything they said they would based on everything they’ve always had. Daryl Morey simply waited as pundit after pundit (and blogger after blogger) penciled the Rockets into the lottery, biding his time until the scoreboard and the standings could sway the collective opinion in a way he never could.

Oster-Tags: Aaron Brooks, artestarizathon, Carl Landry, carllandrymustprotectthishouse, Chuck Hayes, chuckhayesisthemannowdog, Daryl Morey, giantsnakeeggs, Houston Rockets, Luis Scola, Rick Adelman, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza