The Houston Rockets thought they scored one of the biggest coups of this past offseason in July when they swung a trade to acquire Ty Lawson from the Denver Nuggets for essentially what amounted to spare parts.
It seemed on its face to be a win-win deal– the Nuggets got rid of a player who had worn out his welcome after two DUI arrests in less than a year and fourth over the course of his basketball playing career, and the Rockets addressed a glaring lack of an offensive point guard.
The fit hasn’t worked though, at least not yet. The Rockets haven’t found a way to incorporate Lawson effectively into the offense, and there hasn’t seemed to be space for him in the half-court gameplan which is largely carried by James Harden‘s ball-dominant style of play.
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The discombobulation of the offense has been a major cause of concern. When Lawson is on the floor, the Rockets are being outscored 109.5 to 102.5 per 100 possessions, shooting just 42 percent from the floor, and 28.8 percent from three-point range.
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The concerns extend to the defense. The Rockets are allowing their opponents to shoot 46.5 percent from the floor and 37 percent from three-point range.
Another glaring concern is team rebounding. The Rockets’ total rebound percentage is just 47.2 percent when Lawson is on the floor, which would be tied for the fourth-worst rebounding percentage in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers.
This is on a team with Dwight Howard, Terrence Jones and Clint Capela, mind you. The Rockets being dominated on the boards is astonishing, considering Howard missed half of last season, Jones played just 33 games and Capela only played 90 minutes, and they finished middle of the pack with 49.9 percent total rebounding.
It’s part of the cost of doing business when you feature a 5-foot-11 point guard, and when you like going small with truly undersized players like the Rockets do. The thing is, when you’re willingly sacrificing rebounds, you need to make up for the extra lost possessions with good shooting, and the Rockets are one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA at this stage in the season.
The Rockets are leading the NBA with almost 32 three-pointers taken per game, and are shooting a horrific 28.7 percent from long range, ahead of only the Memphis Grizzlies and the Brooklyn Nets, whose sole win this season came on the Rockets’ home floor this week.
This could be the most poorly executed fast break you've ever seen. https://t.co/ghdPr4EXGX
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 12, 2015
Houston is in this ugly stage right now where they can’t get rebounds, they can’t hit threes (or shots of any type with consistency) and they can’t defend the three. It’s almost impossible to win when you are deficient in all three aspects.
The question now for the Rockets is as follows: Is this what this team is now, or is a normalization of these troubling tendencies yet to come?
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If the Rockets continue to roll out a small lineup with Lawson at point, Marcus Thornton at shooting guard and James Harden at small forward, they’ll probably get beaten on the boards consistently. To offset that deficiency, how realistic is it that the Rockets’s shooting woes will continue?
Currently, Lawson is shooting 31.4 percent from the field and 28.6 from long range. Thornton is shooting well from the floor, at 45.9 percent and 36 percent from three, and it’s been a tale of two seasons for James Harden. He’s at 38.5 percent and 24.4 percent from three.
The shooting numbers both both Harden and Lawson are well below their career averages, and these things tend to normalize over time.
Of all the Rockets’ glaring concerns, whatever is going on with Lawson right now is the most worrying. Friday night he made his return to Denver, facing his former team for the second time this season.
In a game when you might think he would come out with a vengeance and a fire to show his old team and fans just what he can do, he was held scoreless and missed all seven of his shots in 34 minutes of play.
ReSOUNDING boos for Ty Lawson when introduced.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) November 14, 2015
Ty Lawson basically said he wasn’t bothered by coming back “just couldn’t find a rhythm.”
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) November 14, 2015
Lawson is saying the right things, but almost three weeks into the season in a revenge game, a lack of a rhythm can’t be an acceptable reason to be held scoreless. Not when your one-time fans boo you lustily, not when your new team is counting on you to break out.
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The Houston Rockets are a team with issues, and Ty Lawson might just be the most glaring of them all right now.