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[majik19]

From Hollinger's Per Diem:


It's probably long overdue that we mention the Rockets, given that they enter the All-Star break with 20 wins. Did you know they're tied with the Lakers for fifth in the West? Or that they started the season 3-7 and have gone 17-7 since? Things may get better too, as seven of their first 10 games coming out of the break are against sub-.500 teams.
So how exactly are they doing this? The Rockets aren't a very sexy team -- they have no All-Stars and two of their best players (Luis Scola and Kevin Martin) have to be appreciated for their technical efficiency rather than their athletic exploits.
But they are deep, and depth can win you a lot of games this season. Houston's 10 rotation players all have a PER of 12.5 or better, so the Rockets are ninth in offensive efficiency, despite lacking a single All-Star. (I don't mean just this year either: None of the players on Houston's roster has ever appeared in an All-Star Game.) Moreover, point guard Kyle Lowryhas emerged as the league's most underrated player. He has a 20.36 PER and ranks seventh among point guards in EWA; the six players ahead of him are all in Orlando this morning.
However, a bigger story is at the other end. Kevin McHale vowed to improve the defense when he took over as coach, but the first two weeks were a train wreck. Since then, Houston has cleaned things up considerably. The Rockets were once near the bottom of the charts, but now rank 15th in defensive efficiency.
The trade deadline could offer more bounty too -- Houston has a strong cap position and a lot of trade assets, including a first-round pick (Marcus Morris) who is hardly playing, and several expiring contracts. Nobody is talking about the Rockets, at least yet, but it's high time we started.

The Morris part is interesting - I'm not sure if he really has much value.

[Rahat Huq]

Thanks for posting this. I'm sure Morris has to have some value just by virtue of being a former lottery pick. I'd prefer to hold onto him as we don't even know what he can do. But he wouldn't be a dealbreaker. They probably weren't counting on being this confident with Chandler Parsons this early on or...ever.