If the Houston Rockets’ 2016 season goes on to be anything more than the most disappointing in franchise history, the January 22nd trade to bring back Josh Smith will be seen as the catalyst. If the year’s duration goes on with more of the same, the deal will be remembered (or forgotten) as the last ditch effort to save the sinking ship. But if nothing else, on January 24th, 2016, Josh Smith made basketball fun again.
Playing center, flanked by a unit of Ty Lawson, Jason Terry, Corey Brewer, and Trevor Ariza, Smith triggered Houston to an otherwise not so meaningful win over the pretending Dallas Mavericks. He protected the paint, sharp on the rotations Terrence Jones would typically blow in that spot; he set up Terry in the corner after a dribble kick-out; and drained a bomb from the top of the arc that in any other system, he’d have no business taking. Smith brought the fun back to basketball, and you could see it in his teammates, with Lawson, Ariza, and Brewer blazing through passing lanes, and Terry as animated as ever.
We were all wrong. But I’ll speak for myself. I thought Smith was replaceable, after the trade to bring in Lawson. I didn’t think they’d miss a beat, and expected the Rockets to improve on last season’s record. But maybe I didn’t, don’t, understand basketball or this team. It’s beyond cliche now to say that chemistry is underrated. But in Smith’s case, and in the case of these Rockets, the change was eerily visible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team look so completely disinterested just a few months removed from an emotion-fueled run against all odds.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. It’s been just two games now, and the Rockets have had hot stretches this year before that made us all assume they had finally turned the corner. And hey, maybe the rest of the year will just be more of the same. But something looked different tonight, even from those marquee wins over Oklahoma City and the Spurs. The joy in the game was finally back. I just want to believe that this is what was missing.
Smith brought back the random chaos that made the Houston Rockets who they were last season. Whereas the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs are poetry in motion, characterized by precision, the Rockets at their deadliest, were the opposite. The Rockets were an avalanche of bad shots and energy, steamrolling the opponent at full force. With enough energy, those bad shots snowballed into barrages of threes and forays to the rim, and it was overwhelming, manifesting itself at the other end as well. All of that was gone this season.
Josh Smith makes this work because he just doesn’t give a f***. Where Ty Lawson deferred, Smith has no qualms about walking into a pull-up 3 with a fresh shot clock. He doesn’t care what Harden thinks, possibly because he doesn’t realize how damaging his decisions can be for his teams. He’ll go 0-fer with 5 turnovers later this week, and I’ll live with it.
The Rockets aren’t going to win the championship this year. They don’t have the discipline required defensively to beat a team like Golden State – that can’t be developed overnight in-season. But I’m really hoping Daryl Morey gives this squad a chance and keeps Dwight, Lawson, and Brewer, the three guys most rumored to be heading out. For everything I wrote above, it’s just as likely that the Rockets continue at their current clip as it is that they turn it around – the Rockets’ problems are far too deep-rooted. But I just want to see this thing through. I feel like a shot in the arm like the re-addition of Smith can make these pieces work. He’s the only thing that was missing from last year.
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