Budget shopping
Without trading key players or spending a lot of money, the team bolsters its bench
GM Daryl Morey finds another way to pick up extra talent at a low cost.
Trades are so 2017. By Saturday morning, the Rockets had moved on to a far more satisfying way to fortify a team already closing in on the best record in the NBA.
Without sending out a player, pick or even a Landry’s gift card, the Rockets in a span of six weeks will have added Gerald Green, Brandan Wright and Joe Johnson, having reached an agreement with Johnson, a seven-time All-Star, on Saturday as he completed his buyout agreement with the Sacramento Kings, who got him in a three-team deal Thursday. The Rockets have gone from having a clear line between the rotation and development pieces to a roster so deep that it is difficult to imagine how Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni will play all the talent that will soon fill his bench.
At 41-13, the Rockets hold the best record through 54 games in franchise history, on pace to win 62 games. This time, for the first time in Daryl Morey’s tenure as general manager, they did not make their midseason moves to become a contender; they made them because they already have reached that level.
A glut in the frontcourt
Johnson will be an especially intriguing addition. When Trevor Ariza returns from his hamstring injury, D’Antoni will have had trouble getting playing time for Green. Johnson, who played for D’Antoni for three seasons in Phoenix, will add to that glut, but he’ll likely largely play at power forward, where he excelled last season when the Utah Jazz had frontcourt injuries.
Johnson, despite his isoJoe reputation from three teams ago, will provide catch-and-shoot range next to James Harden and Chris Paul, though Paul and Luc Mbah a Moute can speak to Johnson’s ability to still get his shot after his buzzer-beater to beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 of last season’s first-round series.
Johnson, 36, averaged just 7.3 points in a limited role with the Jazz this season, but he seemed to be improving in recent weeks after missing six weeks and 21 games with a wrist injury, making 44.4 percent of his shots in his last 15 games with the Jazz. A 37.2 percent 3-point shooter in his 17 NBA seasons, Johnson made 41.1 percent of his attempts from the 3-point line in the 201617 season and 41.7 percent in 2015-16.
There are basically three positions in D’Antoni’s offense and Jeff Bzdelik’s switching defense: point guard, rim runner and wing. Johnson and Green, who is averaging 13.9 points in 25 minutes per game, add to the depth at the wings. Wright fits as a rim-runner, providing the “vertical spacing” as D’Antoni often puts it when speaking of Clint Capela’s impact on the offense around him.
Wright is a top-level pickand-roll target who could give the Rockets a threat above the rim they do not get from Nene. Wright can put the sort of pressure on the rim with the second unit that Capela does with the starters, forcing teams to leave something open to defend from the rim to the 3-point line.
Nene likely will remain the Rockets’ primary backup at center, but Wright offers a different sort of option with an ability to switch defensively and offer some rim protection.
Yet with so many options, D’Antoni also has reason to lose sleep at night.
He likes having his three guards share the backcourt minutes and wouldn’t mind Eric Gordon getting a few minutes with Harden and Paul. He has to keep playing Mbah a Moute, who has been one of the keys to the winning streak, but will need to add Ariza back in the mix at small forward. Johnson, Ryan Anderson and P.J. Tucker are three power forwards for two spots. And that doesn’t even include Green, whose play merits at least some playing time.
A coach who believes strongly in giving players enough time to get a rhythm, and who struggled to play 10 in the brief window all were healthy, D’Antoni now has 12 who could warrant playing time, 11 in games only Wright or Nene play. Avoided luxury tax issues
The Rockets were able to make all that work without straying into the luxury tax, having carefully kept just enough room to make their additions rather than making moves earlier. They dropped Bobby Brown during the season but signed him Friday for the rest of the season, a move entirely to make good on the intention to have him on the team this season. He will be waived Monday when they need the roster spot.
The Rockets will have to make another move to open a roster spot on Monday, with Troy Williams and Chinanu Onuaku both signed with partial guarantees for next season but having spent nearly all of this season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
When that move comes, it will be the 2017-18 Rockets version of a trade. But Morey said more than a month ago that he thought it would be very unlikely he would break up his rotation to make a trade.
With a seven-game winning streak, he kept the best rotation he has had intact and added parts for D’Antoni to juggle. The Rockets suddenly appear to have a bench to rival the recent Golden State teams and surpass this season’s Warriors. The rich got richer, but they went shopping without having to spend a thing.