In the perfect world, Hakeem the Dream takes Hasheem “We can dream…” under his wing and osmotically endows the kid with some ounce of self-respect, dignity, and desire, helping him learn to tie his shoes without assistance. Patrick Patterson continues doing his thing and becomes Otis Thorpe reincarnate while Rick the Ruler puts two and two together and deduces that the secret Valentines sent to his office were from none other than T-Will, opening the door to at least ten minutes per game. The aforementioned trio takes it lumps but goes on to lead the team to multiple titles in the next decade.
This won’t happen. In fact if even one of Williams or Thabeet pan out to be even members of this team’s long term rotation, you have to be ecstatic. For the first time since I can remember–maybe dating back to the tail end of the Francis era–I have absolutely no idea what the Rockets are going to do and it scares me. This is not to say that they have no plan or that the one they had was not executed properly, but just that the hand which has been dealt them is quite unfortunate.
Entering the deadline, there was atleast the mirage of ‘faux contention.’ That facade where, as I wrote, adding Nene/Wallace, gave you a lineup where you would never win a title, but you could be damn competitive and trick yourself into thinking it could happen with minor additions down the road. That is now gone.
But the long-mentioned goal of obtaining a superstar seems more distant than ever. From reports, we know that if one were to ever become available, Morey would not care for silly particularities like the player’s refusal to extend; he’d deal and take his chances. The problem is, we’re seeing that the Rockets don’t really have much to deal. The team came into the year betting on the stock of the Knicks picks, Jordan Hill, Aaron Brooks, and Chase Budinger, all four of which plummeted harder than Lehman, and now they really have nothing. Some of you screamed in frustration that Morey did not land D-Will, citing the failure somehow as a lack of effort, but nothing on this roster even approaches Derrick Favors in regards to high stakes potential. In fact, this team has no “blue chip” prospects. Thabeet and Williams stand as the men with the highest potential, but it’s a longshot either truly realizes his (in Williams’ case, not from a lack of ability, but rather obduracy..)
Worse yet, with players like Martin, Scola, Lowry, and Hayes, the team is still “kinda good”, locking them out of any chance for a top-5 pick. (One can only hope the loss of Battier is more than it would seem, helping this team’s chances at the summer raffle.) As it stands, this is a mediocre team, with a mediocre record, with older vets as its best players. Ouch.
The hope almost must be right now for some of this youth to develop, and then to package it along for someone else, perhaps even in the draft, with the help of the picks accumulated. (One imagines Morey probably regrets not pulling the trade this summer oft-speculated to have given him the chance for Cousins.) Then to build off of that player. Martin and Scola almost surely were not dealt due to a belief that a better deal could be had later; I do not think the Rockets could really think these two will still be around when the rest of the roster is ready to contend.
Thus begins the next era of the Rockets. Disappointments like Hill, Thabeet, and Williams should see high minutes, enough to thwart growing pains in coming years. From thereon, hope is all we have that something finally falls our way. In this new era of fraternity, they won’t land a savior through free agency; it will have to come from within and with a lot of luck. Let’s hope they have it for once because moreso than ever, it is clear that there is a very, very long road ahead.
‘Huq’s Pen’ is a psuedo-daily column of musings published by Red94 founder/editor Rahat Huq.
