As I write this, the Houston Rockets are on a six-game winning streak and are entering an eight-game stretch in which they should be at least even odds to win every night; they currently occupy the 8th seed in the playoff standings. Barring some catastrophic injury, I fully expect them to make the postseason.
The Rockets aren’t just cleaning up on an easy schedule. They hung tough, without key players, against contenders in OKC and the LA Lakers. Most encouraging is that there’s a discernible catalyst: the team’s wins aren’t just flukes because they come in correlation with an extreme change – the insertion of Chandler Parsons and Samuel Dalembert into the starting lineup.
It’s a fair bet also that the Rockets continue to improve. Samuel Dalembert still isn’t fully in shape. Chandler Parsons is still learning the NBA game, and Patrick Patterson told me just the other night he’s in preseason form (after the ankle surgery.) There’s really no reason to believe Patterson won’t return close to the production levels from his rookie season that left many experts in amazement. And if Patterson’s 2011 is any reference, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this year’s #14 overall pick, rookie Marcus Morris back with the varsity and paying dividends for his bosses.
The point is, things right now are looking swell in Rocketsland. There’s a decent enough chance that Houston even ends up with a lottery pick despite its own success.
Having said all of the above, the Rockets won’t win a championship this year or even next unless some major acquisition is made. I don’t have to explain it, you all know the song by now – ‘the Rockets need a superstar.’
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If you add Dwight Howard to this current roster, factoring in the expected improvements of several key players (Parsons, Patterson, Morris) and holding constant the production of others (Lowry, Martin, Lee, Scola), given the current landscape of the West, there is no reason to believe that output product is not a contender. Looking at the impact Samuel Dalembert has had on this team, you can extrapolate that to an exponential degree and imagine how Dwight would affect this team. But how do you get that into Dwight’s head? What is Dwight thinking?
I’m not a professional athlete. I don’t know how they think. But I want to understand and get inside their minds and explore the gateways of influence acting upon them. How does a superstar perceive his surroundings and his peers?
There’s ample evidence that proficiency in athletic endeavor doesn’t necessarily correlate with ability for assessment of talent. Look no further than Charles Barkley’s incoherent ramblings on TNT or Michael Jordan’s partiality to Kwame Brown or Charles Oakley (over Bill Cartwright; he opposed that trade) for proof of this point. But how does a superstar view role players?
It’s been widely reported that Dwight Howard would prefer to team up with Nets guard Deron Williams. But the Nets are awful and have no talent outside of D-Will and have shown no ability to procure supporting talent, unlike the Rockets. Let’s say the Rockets go on to finish 5th in the West, putting up a surprising fight of some sort in the postseason. Does that even register in Dwight Howard’s mind? When you yourself are great at something, do you look for conditions/environment to amplify your greatness and success or do you seek comfort in fellow greatness? Would you rather head a firm ripe with capital and infrastructure, claiming majority ownership shares or is your desired path a near-startup partnership model with a similarly brilliant mind? I guess since last summer, mindset has been the theme for discussion: how comforting is it to look to that other guy?
What about perception? We know perception is reality, earning many stars plaudits they probably don’t deserve, based on former rep. How do you break into that brotherhood where other All-Stars send you texts? If you are already made, what does it take to accept someone else into the club? I don’t know if Deron Williams and Dwight Howard are that great of friends, but on the basis of merit at the least, Howard accepts Williams. What would it take for him to accept Lowry, a younger, healthier player with (I never thought I’d be writing this) strikingly similar production…? Does pedigree play a role? Does it hurt you not having been a lottery pick? What if the coaches do the right thing and select Lowry to make the All-Star team. Is one All-Star selection enough to gain acceptance in the mind of an established NBA superstar? Or do you need some level of longevity? When did Deron Williams become Deron Williams? (Who can forget Tracy McGrady’s “DeRon played well….is it DeRon?” from the 2007 playoffs.)
What role is played by friendship? By all accounts, Courtney Lee and Dwight Howard are pretty good friends. Can friendship suffice to influence an employment decision, particularly when the friend isn’t really a big player in the grand scheme of things…? Was their shared success with the Magic, in the form of a trip to the Finals, a lasting memory? In Howard’s mind, was Lee simply a beneficiary going along for the ride he engineered, or did the guard play an indispensable role?
Lastly, who controls the gateways of influence? What impacts a decision and who are the people helping it be made? Certainly there are agents and other men in suits of whom we have not heard. But what do they present? What is enticing? Would they present a PowerPoint enumerating statistical documentation of the Rockets’ expected efficiency with Howard in the lineup? Probably not. So how do you get across to a star, without the glitz and glamor, and without the big name, that you have what he needs and are the place where he should be if he wants to succeed? How do you present that in a familial manner?
People bring up Hakeem but who really bases employment upon previous location of a mentor? It’s not the case of pursuing a doctorate under a desired teacher – Hakeem won’t be here and simply being here won’t somehow facilitate one-on-one training any more than the status quo. Or is legacy and tradition (Moses, Ralph, Hakeem, Yao, Dwight?) something to consider?
If the Rockets continue on their current path, short of trading for Deron Williams himself, what would it take to convince Dwight Howard to join their team? What goes on in the mind of a superstar?
