Houston Rockets: 2014 Offseason Grades
As of July 15, the Houston Rockets‘ offseason has taken some massive hits.
Chandler Parsons is not only heading out to a “better” situation with the Dallas Mavericks, he’s joining an offensive force in Dirk Nowitzki and going to a Western Conference foe. They didn’t land free agent Chris Bosh either.
Naturally, we have to re-evaluate the outcome of what was supposed to be a Texas-sized offseason.
1. The Draft
The Rockets ended up with the 25th and 42nd picks in the 2014 Draft.
At 25th, the Rockets took Swiss Clint Capela.
A 20-year-old power forward/center who has a chance to evolve under one of the league’s best power big men, Dwight Howard (with Omer Asik on board the Rockets used to play Howard on power forward). At 6’11”, 222 pounds he’s got an amazing almost NBA ready size. He averaged 11.2 points and shot .718 from the field with 6.5 rebounds per game in the Euro Cup.
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At 42nd, the Rockets took Arizona Wildcat Nick Johnson.
A 21-year-old shooting guard who averaged 16.3 points in .432 from the field. He’s a great shooter who has a chance to improve his skills under shooting guard extraordinaire James Harden.
An above average draft by the Rockets.
Grade: B+
2. The Moves (Up until July 15th)
a) Trevor Ariza
Wizards have engaged Rockets and Pelicans in three-team deal to facilitate Trevor Ariza going to the Rockets and Omer Asik going to NO.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 13, 2014
The Rockets landed Washington Wizard Trevor Ariza. And with him, a solid replacement for an up-and-coming Chandler Parsons. At four years and $32 million, Ariza is not only a solid replacement for Parsons but also a cheaper one. Also, by landing him the Rockets were able to trade for Omer Asik and free up some much-needed cap space to make a run at Chris Bosh. More on said run later.
b) Joey Dorsey
Joey Dorsey, Rockets Agree Upon Two-Year, $2M Deal -- http://t.co/d9BOxaIRfD
— RealGM (@RealGM) July 15, 2014
The team managed to bring back three-year NBA and three-year EuroLeague veteran center Joey Dorsey. For a cool $1 million per year, Joey’s apparently taking on Howard’s rest minutes off the bench.
With an NBA career average of 2.6 points on .512 shooting and 3.8 rebounds per game, he’s not nearly as accomplished as Dwight, Dorsey’s role will be re-evaluated once he get’s some much-needed NBA minutes under his legs.
Grade: C
3. The Losses
a) Chandler Parsons
After becoming a restricted free-agent on July 1st, the league expected the Rockets, barring a miss on Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, to match any offer sheet signed by Parsons with another team.
“Honestly, I was offended by the whole process.” – Chandler Parsons
The Mavericks put a three-year $46 million offer sheet on Parsons hands. Said offer took the Rockets’ cap space to the brink and the Rockets finally didn’t match Dallas.
The Rockets lost a 14.1 point, .473 shooting, 25-year-old offensive weapon in Parsons.
b) Chris Bosh
After an agressive run at the Miami Heat free-agent forward, the Rockets missed out on Bosh even after LeBron James took his talents back to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bosh had been involved in talks with the Rockets where he, allegedly, stated that he’d sign Houston’s four-year, $88 million max offer if LeBron James didn’t re-sign with the Heat.
After LeBron chose to take on a challenge up north, Chris Bosh apparently took back his statement and re-signed a five-year $118 million deal with Miami. That’s about $30 million more dollars than what the Rockets could offer him.
c) Carmelo Anthony
Another swing and miss for the Rockets.
The Rockets are clearly not to blame for this one. They did everything in their power and even offered Carmelo some of the best winning chances around. With the New York Knicks willing to spend up to $129 million the Rockets were left out of the picture by being in the Western Conference and way under the Knicks’ money.
Grade: D-
4. The Conclusion
The Rockets offseason is definitely not what we were expecting. After swinging and missing on massive top free agents, the Rockets seem desperate to complete their roster for the 2014-15 season.
Daryl Morey has previously been regarded, along Toronto Raptors‘ Masai Uriji and Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Sam Presti, as one of the savviest and smartest general managers around the league, I guess we’ll have to look back at that statement once the 2014-15 season comes to an end.
Overall Offseason Grade: C+