James Anderson Incoming

So, James Anderson has been brought in to replace Daequan Cook. Not a huge loss because we were not getting anything out of Cook, but the question is whether we'll be able to get anything more out of Anderson.

I remember a lot of people were thinking that the Spurs had got a steal with Anderson when they picked him up in the 2010 draft, but he never got on the floor with them, nor with the Grizzlies. Aaron McGuire, author of the tremendous Gothic Ginobili Player Capsule series, couldn't find a whole lot about him to like. (By the way, he's now successfully completed his capsule series, and IMO it's one of the best basketball resources on the internet - quite thorough pieces of writing on almost every non-rookie player in the NBA. There's over 370,000 words all told, so reading them all is quite a task, but if you ever need some human-readable information on an NBA player, this is the place you should go).

What worries me was that he was never able to get on the court with the Spurs. We've seen time and time again that you don't need to be a sublime talent to get playing time with them, you just need commitment to their principles both defensive and offensive and at least one consistently effective and useful skill. That Anderson was unable to do so implies that he was lacking at least one of those. My hope is that the issue was something along the lines of him struggling to internalise the Spurs' intricate and option-heavy offence. If that's the case, then the Rockets' system will suit him much better because it is so much more free-form and probably closer to what you would see on a college team (although I don't know much about what sort of system he played in at Oklahoma State because I don't watch college ball). But apart from that, I can't think of a good reason that he would fail there but succeed here.

Perhaps with more years behind him he will have matured to the point that he's willing to work hard to fit in? He's going to be thrust into a completely different locker room culture with the Rockets, one devoid of the wise-old veterans of the Spurs. I'm a great believer in the theory that a lot of guys' games are shaped by the locker-room environment of their teams, and it would seem that the Spurs' is more conducive to becoming a great pro than the Rockets' is (which is not to say that the Houston locker room is bad, it's just that San Antonio's is peerless in that regard). But perhaps finding some youthful running mates will bring out the best in him. I guess we'll see.

At the end of the day, there are two scenarios where he's going to see time on the court. Either one of Harden, Delfino or Parsons is out, or one of Patterson and Morris is out and Parsons ends up having to play a lot of 4. (Actually, there was an interesting TrueHoop post recently that suggested that the Rockets should be playing Parsons at PF a lot more as the plus/minus data seemed to show it was paying dividends. Dunno if bringing in another wing is a precursor to trying to play small more often though). I don't think he'll be good enough to break into the rotation as I don't think he'll be able to beat out Delfino for minutes, but if he doesn't display Cook's ballhogging tendencies then he's probably an improvement.

ST

At the end of the day, there are two scenarios where he's going to see time on the court. Either one of Harden, Delfino or Parsons is out, or one of Patterson and Morris is out and Parsons ends up having to play a lot of 4. (Actually, there was an interesting TrueHoop post recently that suggested that the Rockets should be playing Parsons at PF a lot more as the plus/minus data seemed to show it was paying dividends. Dunno if bringing in another wing is a precursor to trying to play small more often though).

ST

Yes, Parsons have played very well at the 4, but against other 3s playing the 4, he is not strong enough to play against the Smiths, Gasols, etc. and he has a bruised shoulder which I'm not enterely sure that is fully healed.