Coach says Williams adds invaluable depth
D’Antoni’s concerns about injuries to guards, bench scoring to ease
NEW ORLEANS — Coach Mike D’Antoni listed the reasons the Rockets wanted Lou Williams.
D’Antoni cited Williams’ ability to play on or off the ball. He pointed to the Rockets’ improved depth in the backcourt where each game without either Pat Beverley or Eric Gordon had left the Rockets short-handed. He even thought of that time between the regular season and playoffs, when award season comes to the NBA.
“We needed some more depth. And he’s a proven, proven, proven scorer,” D’Antoni said. “And now, he’ll be seventh man so he can’t win the Sixth Man (of the Year) Award. We locked Eric in there. For the record, he’s seventh man.”
The Rockets reached agreement on the deal to land Williams, giving up Corey Brewer and a firstround pick to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, for reasons more pressing than Gordon’s case for Sixth Man of the Year.
‘He’ll fit in well’
The Rockets had looking to add another scorer to the backcourt rotation, but they had struggled to find an instant-offense option who could handle the ball in pick-and-roll when James Harden was out of the game plus the catchand-shoot, especially from the corners, when Harden was on the floor.
“He can score with the best of them,” Beverley said. “He makes that second unit that much more deadly, that more potent, that more explosive. We’re super excited to have him.”
Injuries to Gordon and Beverley have been minor and brief since Beverley returned after missing the season’s first 11 games and have never come at the same time. But the Rockets have won 71.1 percent of their games with Gordon and Beverley in the lineup, slipping to 65 percent when one is out. That’s not bad considering the Rockets’ struggles early in the season without Beverley. But there was a clear sense with Gordon’s recent back issues and Beverley’s groin strain in the last game before the All-Star break that the Rockets could use another guard in the mix.
“I think he’ll fit really well for a lot of different reasons,” D’Antoni said of Williams. “One, he definitely guards us against any kind of injury. … We think we function better when we’re hitting 3s and moving the ball up and down the floor, and he’ll do that. I think he’ll fit in well.
“Obviously, it will take a little bit of an adjustment on everybody’s part — minutes and shots. But he should add. It shouldn’t subtract from anybody.”
Losing a good defender
D’Antoni will be juggling his rotation to insert a 6-1, high-scoring guard into the minutes vacated by a 6-9, defensive forward. The coach can have Gordon defend many small forwards, as Brewer had. With Williams off the bench, he can play Beverley longer with Harden and play Gordon and Williams together. D’Antoni said he will play three guards together, but if needed, can give Sam Dekker a few extra minutes defending small forwards.
But the Rockets will have to make up for the departure of a versatile defender with more consistent defense in general and with the scoring of the league’s most-prolific scorer off the bench.
“He’s not going to be as good a defender as Corey, that’s for sure,” D’Antoni said. “Hopefully, he can make it up on the other end. We have to defend better as a team, anyway, do a better job. That’s not going to change. I mean, Corey was an elite defender. The other guys will have to pick up the slack.”
The Rockets get a scorer averaging a career-high 18.6 points on a career-best 44.4 percent shooting.
“He’s going to help us,” Harden said. “We have two of the top scorers in the league off the bench. Obviously, offense is not going to be a problem. Defensively, we have to make sure we’re in this together, all cylinders. Offensively, it takes some pressure off me. I’m sure it takes some pressure off the other guys as well. It helps our team.”