Jermaine Taylor gets first career start

Former UCF star Jermaine Taylor made his first NBA career start when the Houston Rockets hosted the Los Angeles records. Rockets officials are seeking verification from the Elias Sports Bureau, but Taylor is believed to be the first ex-UCF player to ever start in an NBA game.

via Former UCF star Jermaine Taylor makes first NBA start against the Lakers, scores career-high 15 points for Houston – Knights Notepad – Orlando Sentinel.

The thing I find most interesting about Houston Rockets rookie guard Jermaine Taylor is that he’s pretty much the anti-Moreyball player.  Like Billy Beane, Daryl Morey has always seemed to target players who had some flaw so irredeemable that other GM’s overlooked their NBA-level qualities and dismissed them entirely.

But Taylor is exactly the type of guy that Morey avoids.  The college star with the prototypical body and athleticism who is good at everything, but not NBA-level at any one thing.  Those jack-of-all trade guys are the ones who usually flop.

Taylor’s best quality seems to be his competitive spirit.  He’s extremely physical both defensively and offensively, getting very rough with Kobe Bryant at times last night.  The shot is weak: he was accurate from ‘3’ but I don’t expect Taylor to ever be known for his shooting; his release is far too slow and carries too high of an arc to get off against coverage.  I do think though that he can develop into a penetrating spark off the bench at some point.

My hope is that Taylor continues to see minutes.  My personal preference would be that the team continue to sit Martin and rest Scola, giving Taylor, Jordan Hill, and Chase Budinger heavy minutes in these final few games.  However, I don’t see this happening.