By now, you’ve likely all heard this physically huge but seemingly insignificant bit of player movement by the Houston Rockets (via Rockets.com):
Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has assigned center Hasheem Thabeet to Houston’s single-affiliation NBA D-League partner Rio Grande Valley. Thabeet, who is the third Rockets player to be assigned to the Vipers this season, also averaged 13.8 points, 11.2 boards and 3.17 blocks in six games (four starts) with the NBA D-League Dakota Wizards in 2009-10.
To be very honest, Hasheem Thabeet probably won’t ever be a very good NBA player. He also factors in little, if at all, in the Rockets’ current playoff push, so his departure to the Vipers, especially in a week in which there will only be a couple of games, makes perfect sense as both a personnel move (in Thabeet’s roster spot, most common Rockets retread Mike Harris will suit up in the ketchup and mustard) and a developmental one for the still raw-as-Medellin Thabeet. Still, I can’t help but wonder if, had the Rockets not begun the improbable run they now actually appear capable of realizing, the team would not have done well for its own future had it not already left Thabeet and similar boom/bust prospect Terence Williams on the proverbial back burner, leaving Thabeet limp and disengaged while Williams simply continues to simmer until another meltdown.
Given Chase Budinger’s recent injury, minutes will likely be up for grabs in his wake, yet does there seem a thing less improbable than Williams, the obvious reinforcement at the wing, cracking Rick Adelman’s rotation as the team scrapes to get into the playoffs? Courtney Lee ably filled Budinger’s spot in Sunday’s game against the Jazz in which Budinger’s ankle went to bits, and he’ll likely do so in the interim. Lee’s a fine player, a defensive-minded do-everything sort that can occasionally light it up from deep, but his potential doesn’t even scratch the surface of Williams’, whose ability to create shots for himself and teammates has no rival on this team (except maybe NBA Western Conference Player of the Week Kyle Lowry).
I know these kids look dumb and completely ill-prepared, and that’s because they are; however, Adelman seemed to have no interest in seeing what he could develop in either of them, as is and was his right as this team’s coach on the last year of his contract. Still, the Rockets gave up valuable assets to acquire both of those numbskulls; as a Rockets devotee, I feel silly about the chance that both could flame out so quietly. Not because they should have been better (both have “bust” engraved in their general auras), but because no even tried.
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