House’s hard work pays off
Starting opener in hometown serves as reward
Danuel House Jr. has started NBA games before. He has started before he joined the Rockets last season. He has started with the Rockets, in Toyota Center, before friends and family in his hometown.
This will be different, special.
House will start Thursday’s season-opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, determined to bring his usual cheerful exuberance to the experience. He will also know that when he hears his name in the introductions, sometime between Russell Westbrook and James Harden, and hear the cheers for him, the significance of the occasion and all it took to arrive there will not be overlooked.
“It means a lot, a kid from Houston, playing with the Rockets on the front of this jersey, first game, first season actually starting off and staying here, it means a lot,” House said. “It’s going to be a lot of emotion for my mom, my family members.
“It’s all fun. I love what I do. A big day, but you got to have fun with it. You can’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
House was moved into the starting lineup last week with Eric Gordon returning to his sixth man role. The change was in large measures about Gordon, made to keep his playing time from getting too great and bringing his offensive punch to the second unit.
The change, however, also spoke to how far House had come in less than a year. He had been cut by the Warriors at the end of the 2018-19 training camp. He signed with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and then signed with the Rockets as an emergency fill-in when the injuries piled up in late November.
When the Rockets waived him to make him a two-way player, no one picked him up. When he exhausted his allotment of 45 NBA service days on his two-way contract, he returned to the G League for two months amid a contract stalemate.
That all paid off when House signed a three-year, $11.1 million contract in July. It hits home this week when he will begin his fourth NBA season playing for the first time in a season-opener.
“Because of the journey, the ups, the downs, it took a lot more to get here,” House said. “But also, I had fun in the process. In the dark days, it’s sunny outside for me. There’s no reason for me not to have fun.”
House is not just a placeholder in the starting lineup. The Rockets hope his ability to run the floor is enhanced playing with Westbrook.
House is one of the Rockets’ better 3-point shooters at attacking a closeout, potentially adding to their halfcourt offense. His 41.6 percent 3-point shooting last season was by far the Rockets’ best. But he also made 54.2 percent of his shots when taking three or more dribbles and could look for more of those opportunities.
“Of course, I’ve been working on ballhandling and all that,” House said. “That’s cliché, but I would say the real test is patience and having to work through certain things.”
Most important, perhaps, the Rockets will need to see him defend and rebound more reliably than last season, particularly than last post-season. If he does, he might even assume Gordon’s role picking up opponents’ top perimeter scorer.
“I would say that falls on Danuel the most,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We’ll use his energy to pick up the ball and put some pressure on it. It’s just the first five minutes and a lot of times, players want to try to get other people involved in the first five minutes and then they take over.”
Against the Bucks on Thursday, he could match up with Texas A&M predecessor Khris Middleton, but there could be occasions in which the 6-foot-6, 215pound House must defend high-scoring guards until Gordon checks in.
“I think I can,” he said. “It will be a great test to see. I’ve been trying to work on to get quicker laterally so I can stay in front of guys like those guys, that are shorter, quicker than me. We’ll see. I think I’m prepared for it. Can’t wait.”
Taking those steps will be minor compared to the strides House made in three seasons going from waived by the Wizards, Suns and Warriors to G League stops with Delaware and Rio Grande Valley to finally making it back home.
“I’m just grateful that I had a good group of people around me, family friends, church members, even trainers just to support my vision,” House said. “I made it here.
“I saw a vision in my head of where I wanted to be. I knew how much hard work it was going to take. It was upon myself to challenge myself and my family to kind of push me in the background, to make sure I stay focused, that I put extra hours in the gym instead of going out, hanging with my friends. I used to just text them, ‘Hey look if you want to hang out with me, I’m at the gym. You can come help me rebound or something.’ This is what it is right now. I’m on a mission.”
jonathan.feigen@chron.com twitter.com/jonathan_feigen