- I’m ready for the regular season to be over. Let’s get on to the real games now that the ‘3’ seed is essentially in the books.
- Kevin McHale is always entertaining when covering Rockets games because of his unbelievable candor. One can tell he’s still salty about the way things ended with the Rockets, and its hard to blame him – it wasn’t his fault the team got off to the start they did last year. He was way in over his head to begin with. On Tuesday, in studio during the Rockets-Warriors game, during a timeout, NBA TV cut to a replay of James Harden proceeding into his patented crossover set-up dribble, preparing to challenge Draymond Green in isolation. Harden gets by Green, only to have the ball swatted away at the rim. “He took 19 dribbles,” McHale said, in the midst of some monologue regarding the unnecessity of personal challenges. The commentary was humorous in light of the fact that a) Harden has been playing that way on like 30% of his individual possessions all year and b) the Rockets have had, to date, one of the best offenses in NBA history. I think whatever he is doing is working, Kevin.
- Where would the Rockets be this season without Nene? He’s on the books this year at a paltry $2.9million and then is unrestricted this summer. What already looked like a steal last summer has turned out to be one of the best bargains in the league. Nene filled in when Capela went down and stepped up when Capela and Harrell got pushed around by bigger players. There’s no way he comes back for peanuts again, does he? But despite his performance, will there even be a market? He’ll be 35 this year, and can only provide a limited role. Either way, here’s to hoping Clint Capela and Montrezl Harrell continue developing.
