Houston Rockets: 2017-18 NBA season preview
Storyline 3: Will the Rockets stay healthy?
Although the Rockets built their bench depth back up after the Paul trade, they are still a team thin on quality guards. Unfortunately for Houston, two of their key guards have struggled with injuries in recent history.
Although Eric Gordon was able to play in 75 games last season, that was his highest number since his rookie season all the way back in 2008-09. Now Chris Paul has joined the guard rotation, and he has only played in an average of 70 games per season over the last four years. That isn’t a terribly low number, but it’s safe to say you can count Gordon and Paul to miss anywhere from 5-15 games this season.
That would put tremendous pressure on a thin Rockets backcourt. Behind Paul, Harden and Gordon are players such as Bobby Brown and Isaiah Taylor, and you don’t want to have to count on them to play serious minutes for stretches of the season. Mike D’Antoni will have to effectively manage the minutes of both Paul and Gordon to keep them fresh and healthy for the entire season. If that means resting them from time to time, then by all means that should be the plan.
The other injury-prone player to watch is Ryan Anderson, who was able to play 72 games last year, his highest since the 2012-13 season. The Rockets are a much deeper team in the frontcourt, so an injury to Anderson would simply mean Tucker or Mbah a Moute would slot in. That wouldn’t be a terrible loss for Houston, as the starting lineup would be adding a quality defender, but Anderson’s floor-spacing is extremely valuable to the Rockets’ offense.
If Anderson, Gordon can’t replicate their healthy seasons from a year ago and Paul continues to miss 10+ games, the Rockets could be in trouble. The team’s guard rotation is very thin as is, and they don’t have another elite shooting big to replace Anderson if he were to go down. The minutes and use of these three injury-prone players is something to monitor this season as Houston has lofty postseason goals and expectations.