For the past couple of years, Offseason acquisitions have been incredibly profitable for the Houston Rockets. First, they managed to squeeze out a brainfart-ish deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder by sending Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and a bunch of picks, in exchange for now team-leader James Harden. Then, they outbid the Los Angeles Lakers — largely because of their deteriorating relationship with arguably the most notable locker-room disruptors of our generation — by snatching Dwight Howard.
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However, even though they have improved — quite considerably — as a direct result of their savvy offseason moves, they still haven’t been able to overcome the championship hump imposed by the Western Conference’s up-and-coming collection of talent.
This time, the Houston Rockets have a chance to regain their “Offseason Champions” ways by signing Real Madrid’s guard Sergio Lull as they try to reinforce their backcourt.
But should they?
Rockets’ frontman James Harden has been pretty vocal about the team’s backcourt needs — specifically the point-guard position. Having only one playmaker on the team is not exactly what the Rockets are built for and teams within the Western Conference (read: Golden State Warriors) exposed them during the playoffs by hounding Harden as soon as he tried to get the ball up the floor. However, with the number, and quality, of NBA guards hitting free agency during the offseason, rolling the dice on an unproven player like Lull could be useless.
During his ninth year with Real Madrid, Sergio Lull — along with former Portland Trail Blazer Rudy Fernandez and former Atlanta Hawk Gustavo Ayon — propelled Real Madrid to their first Euroleague title in two decades. Throughout the season Lull scored 10.7 points per game with .565/.359/.858 shooting.
Who wouldn’t want a borderline 50/40/90 shooter right?
At 10.7 points per game, if he were to adapt to the NBA’s speed right away, he’d be the Houston Rockets’ backcourt second-leading scorer behind the one and only James Harden.*
As good as Sergio Lull might be — and if I were the Houston Rockets’ General Manager — I’d still be way more comfortable betting on a player that’s lived up to the NBA’s expectations — Danny Green, (recently minted unrestricted free agent) Goran Dragic, or Brandon Knight could fit perfectly under the Houston Rockets offensive scheme.
With the Dwight Howard and James Harden experiment quickly coming to an end, the high-octane offense brought by Danny Green would be enough to cover up the Rockets’ massive hole at point guard, adding Goran Dragic and/or Brandon Knight would be the smartest move if they want to run the tables on the Western Conference in the upcoming season.
Even though Sergio Lull had an amazing year — percentage-wise — he’s still not the high-volume scorer nor the proven playmaker the Rockets’ backcourt needs to be able to come out of the Western Conference.
I’m not saying Sergio Lull will never become an NBA caliber player, what I’m saying is that it might be too late for the Houston Rockets’ title chances when he finally does.
* Note: HUGE “if”.
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