In all but the most private circumstances, doing just about anything with friends is preferable to the alternative of doing said anything without them. Punched in the face? Better if a friend’s there. Got in a car crash? You have someone at whom you can look at all bug-eyed. Even arguing with friends usually ends with harmless mutual protestations of ill will or disappointed head-shaking, at worst. Personally, I’m a big advocate of the “buddy showdown” conversations, and as such, I’d like to introduce my good friend, Eric Todd. He will be a contributing analyst/possible forum moderator/king of soul, co-writing the digressive discussions that will fill the pages of Posted Up, a column that will feature both Mr. Todd and myself go at it about NBA issues, mostly Rockets-related. I’ll let Mr. Todd better introduce himself:
As a transplant to and from more cities in this hemisphere than I can count on a hand or two, I’ve held a variety of sports (and other) allegiances. A Penguins fan when my dad lived in Pittsburgh, I owned a Bruce Smith jersey when he got transferred to to Buffalo, which was itself replaced by Penny Hardaway’s spindly caricature when we moved to Tennessee. In 1998, I came to Houston for college and have since developed a comfortable working relationship with the city and its Rockets. I also like meandering arguments, particularly about basketball, and often with Mr. Mustafa. Usually, though, they don’t occur on the internet.
And now, let us commence with the jib-jabbering, this week mostly focused on the Rocket backcourt and its future:
Jacob Mustafa: Because you preternaturally have a thing for dribble penetration (or maybe you just like their production; who knows with you), the Rockets backcourt has been the one mainstay you think this team should try and maintain in trade talks. After reading Ben Heller’s piece about Kyle Lowry, the supposed dependable Rock of Gibraltar in our undersized guard spots, I don’t exactly think the three men you’re mostly referring to with your backcourt love- Kevin Martin, Aaron Brooks and Lowry- are the “guys we’ve been looking for”. You know, the ones that will lead the Rockets deep in the playoffs with the right frontcourt (or wing players or bench or young talent or any of those things that it would be nice for the Rockets to have in 2011).
Instead, I think we’re really just judging Brooks and Lowry by years past, perhaps an astute move given Aaron’s injury this year (those saying he may have permanently lost a step would be wise to remember that a year ago, Tony Parker’s speed was supposed to have been lost to an ankle injury as well. How’s that working out?), but those two guys haven’t played remarkably well together, still pose myriad defensive problems that their big men simply can’t fix with help and don’t exactly mesh with Martin too brilliantly either. The team is still looking for that ultimate creator of offense, even for a guy like Baron Davis (not the actual one, though) that could definitely run the team without looking lost so often. You still loving the backcourt connection, though?
Eric Todd: I think you’re missing my point. My contention is simply that we’re not losing games because of a failure in the backcourt, but rather what we lack up front. We give up the league’s 6th best FG% to opponents, while “allowing” the 7th fewest number of three-point attempts. Teams are taking and making shots near the basket against our defense. The Yao Ming skill we’ve least been able to replicate is his size, his ability to simply take up space, to be a shot changer necessarily even more than a shot blocker, a place to funnel driving guards. While I’m absolutely not anointing either Lowry or Kevin Martin as the architects of a new Houston religion, they have played relatively well together this year and have very obviously complementary skill sets.
But my broader point is that defense is a more significant attribute for a frontcourt player than a backcourt one as FG% tends to increase as players move closer to the bucket. Therefore, Scola’s bad defense is hurting us more than Kevin Martin’s or Aaron Brooks’s, particularly with the way the team is constructed currently. What I’m alluding to is that given these factors, Scola’s age, current offensive production, and contract, he may be the more worthwhile asset to trade. With Brooks’s injury issues, we might not be able to get full market value for him, which also means we could possibly sign him on the cheap in the off-season. Tell me it wouldn’t be a coup to sign both Brooks and Lowry for under 10 million. As well, I think we might be able to bring back some scoring and some post defense for a package of Scola, Budinger/Hill, and some money (sigh, Yao’s contract).
Mr. Mustafa: While that deal sounds like Darko-Milicic-style manna from heaven, no one’s taking Scola until the offseason (Connor told me so!). As big of a problem as the defense, both in the paint and on the perimeter, has been, these little buggers you adore so much keep on handling the ball inefficiently and crumbling in crunch-time offensive situations, unable to create shots for themselves (except Brooks, whose subsequent shots have been more often errant than not) or anyone else on the team. There’s a reason the more curious Rockets fans are treating Terence Williams like a damn folk hero; his ability to penetrate and then dish or attack feels absolutely foreign on a team on which everyone needs everyone else to get his looks, leaving Rockets nation to wonder when the team will let the freak go out there and do that crazy thing he does.
I do like Brooks, Martin and Lowry, but so does the rest of the league. Those guys are the most likely Rockets, particularly Martin and Brooks, to bring back real talent in a deal with a team looking for that perfect piece. That Rasheed, if you will. I’m not even particularly advocating dealing these backcourt players; I simply want there to be a clear understanding that, as the team currently stands, there is no discernible future for Houston, just a goulash of scavenged parts (mostly good leftovers, though). Given that information, all of the Rockets need to be for sale to the highest bidder, given the highest bidder comes prepared for a fleecing deserving of Daryl Morey to get one of the Rockets’ “names”. No fire sale, but trade talks for this team should be on a constant simmer. This is Houston’s chance to get its Al Jefferson or Marc Gasol or Emmitt Smith if it plays its cards right.
Mr. Todd: I personally would be elated if the Rockets managed to land Emmitt Smith and am not arguing against any trade scenario that potentially improves the the team’s future. However, I am suggesting that Scola might currently be our most trade-able asset. I’ve read Connor’s article (fantastic stuff) and understand the monetary complications of trading Scola’s contract, but I also think the team has the flexibility (exceptions, expiring contracts) to make a deal if there’s one to be made. Aaron Brooks, because of his recent injury, is presently at a diminished value from what he would have garnered had he been traded before the season or, in my opinion, even what he will represent if the team does not trade him before the deadline and allows his production to re-stabilize. As well, I think that Kevin Martin is a consistently underrated player, even by you, and might not bring back as much as he provides. I also think it sort of silly to argue “clutch-ness” or “crunch-time offense” when all the points scored in a game count equally as much as those accumulated in the fourth quarter and, regardless, the Rockets this season rank 7th in the league in that particular category. If you remember, this same argument that they couldn’t finish games was directed at the team a few seasons ago when they had someone “to penetrate and… dish or attack”. What we can’t do in the fourth quarter (or anytime really) is get defensive stops.
Look, I’ve been on board with your “blow it up” conceit since November and absolutely agree that Morey should (and I’m sure is) considering any possible trade scenario that comes across his desk/phone, but what I can’t get on board with is a doomsday hypothesis in which the every player should be traded immediately for cap relief and draft picks and that the team has no future whatsoever. I think this team has a lot of talent (you’re right, though, none with real transcendent potential), has underachieved so far this season (which means I think we’ll see an improved team in the next few months, trade or no trade), and, with some creative re-structuring, could possibly be a contender in the West again in the near future.
Mr. Mustafa: The West? As in, the Western Conference and not a vaguer, more idealistic notion of the American West that has cowboys and men of all nationalities panning for gold? In that world of varmints and yellow-bellies, I do think the Houston Rockets could be contenders, but in the Western Conference of the NBA, I think the Rockets can really do no better, in this year and the near future, than the bottom of the playoff standings with heaps of lucks needed just for that improbability. Restructuring something without a structure is like trying to do renovations on the Wright Brothers plane in hopes of making it a 747. I think we’re arguing semantics here, but the margins can hold some pretty big differences, especially when it comes down to the difference between “rebuilding on the fly” and a completely new beginning, which is what the Rockets need so desperately as the team wanders around searching for an identity in the murk.
Posted Up will be a weekly column featuring the argumentative stylings of Jacob Mustafa and Eric Todd about NBA and Rockets-related issues.
