Storyline 2: Who’s going to pop from the bench?
Though Russell Westbrook is an extremely good player regardless who’s around him, he’s still going to need some help in the time without James Harden. Staggering the other three starters will help, but only to a degree.
From the glut of Ben McLemore, Ryan Anderson, Thabo Sefolosha, Isaiah Hartenstein and Gary Clark, someone has to pop. They were all reasonable fliers to take, but none of them are a guarantee to provide valuable minutes.
McLemore has grossly underperformed his draft position from 2013, but Houston is not asking for too much. He just has to make shots and not suck on defense.
Anderson and Hartenstein have similar requirements offensively. The former has a history in Houston’s system, so he may get early minutes, but the latter is much more mobile and can provide more value than a standstill shooter. Coach Mike D’Antoni would much prefer that Hartenstein becomes playable.
Clark gave Houston some respectable defensive minutes in his rookie season, but needs to make more than 29.7 percent of his 3s in 2019-20. If he can do that, the 3-and-D forward classification he received out of Cincinnati will be well deserved.
Of this faction, the most likely to blossom is Clark. Defense is usually the hardest element for youngsters to learn, yet Clark is advanced in that field. He’s younger and more spry than Sefolosha, though the latter will probably get some early looks in such a role.
The beauty of taking swings on so many wings and forwards is their flexibility. For example, if McLemore, Sefolosha and Clark all show positive traits, their styles will mesh well. If Anderson or Hartenstein pop, that can open up the offense tremendously for Westbrook to do his best work sans Harden.
As Morey is wont to do, he played a probability game with these bench signings. The Rockets need at least one, preferably two, to be solid contributors, and the front office stacked that deck. Someone’s going to hit.