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By: John Eby
Una Mas - ESPN reports the Rockets have signed Ronnie Brewer to the team on a two-year, partially guaranteed deal. Brewer is billed as a defensive specialist, and that pretty much sums him up. He languished last season in New York and Oklahoma, but spent several productive seasons before that on good teams in Utah and Chicago, and was the starting
In his last meaningful season for the Bulls (2011-2012), he held opposing SF's to an 11.5 PER and opposing SG's to 11.8--not too shabby. The problem is that he can't shoot, putting up around 25 percent from three for his career and a brutal 41.6 percent True Shooting percentage last year.
Brewer joins Omri Casspi, Reggie Williams and Aaron Brooks as Rockets who have had some very effective seasons in their careers, and whose recent slumps have correlated mainly with a change of teams as opposed to injury. While in the past it seemed like Daryl Morey saw undervalued players (Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry, Kyle Lowry, Shane Battier) with a statistical third eye that remained a mystery to the rest of us, this season his acquisitions seem to follow a pattern. He has targeted players with proven skills who performed well in one situation but not in another, taking a calculated risk that Houston will be a good fit. This strategy should not be confused with the acquisitions of Terrence Jones, Hasheem Thabeet, Jonny Flynn or Jordan Hill. In those cases, the team was hoping that unproven talent would flourish in a new situation.
With 18 players now under contract, training camp may feel like the Hunger Games. So many players are competing for complimentary roles that the odds of piecing together a strong bench are in Houston's favor.
Flexibility - According to Taiwanese media, Dwight Howard is cool with playing power forward next to Omer Asik, as Daryl Morey hinted on Reddit the other day.
Quote:
"There is no need to adjust. I have been playing basketball for my whole life. I started it up playing a point guard," the NBA star told reporters at a press conference to welcome his third visit to Taiwan.
"I think it can make our team tougher. We need [me] being as a power forward some games and Asik being a center. We will have a big lineup, and it will be tough for teams to truly score," the 27-year-old center said.
"You have two guys to play great defense in the paint. So I think it is positive, and it is no conflict," he added.
There are two ways of interpreting Dwight's comments. You can believe him and believe that after years of cleaning up after sub-par defensive teammates, he probably thinks that playing next to an elite defensive center would save some wear-and-tear on his body. Or you can believe that he is lying and would really rather play next to a stretch-four at all times so he has room to operate in the post, but he wants to act like team chemistry is going to be just hunky-dunky.
Incidentally, "Hunky-Dunky" would be an excellent nickname for the Parsons-Howard tandem. I really hope Bill Worrell reads this.
Turn The Beat Around - The Rockets came in no. 3 in ESPN's Team Turnaround rankings. Really, this only means that adding the league's best center to your team tends to change things for the better.
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