2019-20 Finish: 48-34

 

Season Highlight:

The highlight for the Rockets this year, other than pushing deep into the playoffs as the 4^th seed, has to be the blossoming of their young elite big man, Nikola Jokic. They acquired Jokic during the season in a trade with OKC and some were unsure of the deal, but he very quickly showed why he is a top 10 player in the league pouring in 30 and 20 for the Rockets now unleashed from his OKC shackles. Down the stretch he was a threat for 40 every night and the league was in awe. That’s a highlight.

 

Season Lowlight:

The Rockets were unfortunately the team that copped a horrific re-sim in the pivotal playoff game which ended up in their elimination. They had all but won a game to progress, but 2k froze up in the dying seconds of the game and caused a resim. We’ve all been there before, and 2k has a nasty habit of flipping results when it happens, but there’s nothing we can do about it, and it hasn’t happened in such do or die fashion before from memory. It was a hard way to end a great year.

 

Best Trade:

Rockets send: Hassan Whiteside, Jaren Jackson Jnr, Kevin Huerter and 2020 1^st round pick
Rockets get: Nikola Jokic, Derrick Rose and Justin Patton

This was a “previous owner” trade, and it’s shaped the franchise for years to come going from the JJJ future to the Jokic future. You can argue all day which would be the better, but Nikola was then and is now an MVP calibre player and they don’t grow on trees.

 

Worst Trade:

Rockets send: Derrick Rose and TJ McConnell
Rockets get: JJ Redick and Josh Hart

I actually think from a value stand point the Rockets win this deal but the positions don’t necessarily make the most sense, so you’d think there’d be more deals to follow…but they haven’t happened yet.

 

Other Notable Trades:

Rockets send: Delon Wright
Rockets get: Tomas Satoransky

I believe this was born of S&T necessity in some part, but it’s a pretty solid swap.

 

Free Agency:

Once the Rockets moved Hassan Whiteside, they weren’t going to have any free agents of note this offseason and therefore were always going to be able to save up those GM for more pressing needs or to simply chase “other” guys. That’s remained the case. Only small time RFAs to “worry” about.

Gary Clark – RFA, he’ll be back.

Michael Frazier – RFA, unlikely to receive a qualifying offer.

 

Star:

Nikola Jokic

As plain as day in front of you, the star of this team is Jokic. He went from averaging 18/14/3 for OKC to averaging 31/20/5/1/1 for Houston while shooting 53/41/86 and only turning it over 1 time a game. The man went super saiyen! These averages only grew as the season went on too, as he continually put up 40/20 weeks down the stretch and averaged 32/19/6/2/1 in the playoffs. The future is very bright behind and 25 year old MVP talent on a long term deal.

 

Goat:

The goat for the Rockets this year ended up being their new old GM. He came bursting out of the blocks with activity and making the Jokic trade, but then vanished after setting up his team for a long playoff run and the future and inactivity is a killer in this league. There was only 3 trades this year and GM point accumulation wasn’t happening. The new new GM has shown some more promise and hopefully he sticks around.

 

Draft Grades:

Pick #51 – Saben Lee

B+ Grade

I guess B+ is kind of a pass mark? They took Saben Lee, at 51, which is a whole 13 slots lower than the NBA which is why I went with B+. Possibly the largest difference between drafts? He seemed like a reach-ish pick in the NBA though to Utah needing PG depth with Conley expiring end of the season. He’s super quick, agile and has some nice scoring instincts so might yet make a role in Houston sans Rose.

 

The Future:

The Rockets are all about building around Jokic now and they have a team that can compete right now with the right free agent choices. They’re loaded with wings and shooters, which is great, but they’re lacking in the big man department big time and need to address this. They also have only one PG on the roster now, hence the questions around making the Rose deal. Looking further forward, they have some nice pieces for the future as well as the now and should continue to rise with the right leadership.

C: Nikola Jokic / Maxi Kleber
PF: Tobias Harris / Gary Clark
SF: Timothy Hardaway Jr / Josh Hart / Justin James
SG: Tyler Herro / JJ Redick
PG: Tomas Satoransky / Saben Lee