Veteran newcomers find fitting in easy
After playing for seven teams over 18 seasons, Tyson Chandler is not likely to have a new experience during the preseason with the Rockets.
If coach Mike D’Antoni calls for a baseline out-of-bounds play or assistant coach Elston Turner installs a defense, there is a pretty good chance Chandler has run it before.
Thabo Sefolosha, a veteran of 13 NBA seasons, has seen nearly as much, someof it during all those hours preparing for playoff games against the team he would join.
As much as the Rockets have cited their ability to keep most of their core intact as a reason for optimism and for all the attention devoted to the prominent addition of Russell Westbrook, newcomers Chandler, Sefolosha and possibly Ben McLemore will be in key roles.
“They are huge for us — Tyson, Thabo … Ben. Those guys are going to help us through the course of the year and the postseason,” guard James Harden said. “We have some experience. That’s what you need to compete for a championship.”
With two preseason games in the next three days to serve as final dress rehearsals, their adjustments could be essential to how well the Rockets start the regular season next week.
“I think we’re on track, if not better, because they’re veterans, especially Thabo and Tyson,” D’Antoni said. “The thing we’re trying to make sure we take care of is to not push them too hard, too quick because they’re veterans. We have to kind of ease into it a little bit.
“Ben’s picked it up real quick. When you’re playing off James and Russell, it makes the game a little bit easier. We’re not asking him to do things he can’t do. He just has to find his role. Tell him his role, and (if he) stays right in it, he can be very good for us.”
D’Antoni said he has not decided how much Sefolosha and Chandler will play in the remaining preseason games. At least some playing time is expected as D’Antoni moves toward his planned regular-season rotation and away from his experimentation in the two preseason games played in Tokyo..
McLemore and Sefolosha say the adjustment has not been difficult, given how many of their opportunities are created by Harden and Westbrook. Chandler’s job can be more complicated because of the center’s duties calling out defenses and his role running pick-and-roll to start so many halfcourt sets.
That is nothing he has not done before. Having played for D’Antoni with the Knicks in 2011-12, Chandler has not found much reinvented by a coach lauded for his offensive creativity.
“It’s kind of the same. The same wheel,” Chandler said. “The only difference is now I’ve got a guy that’s probably closer to my skill set. I pass along the knowledge to Clint (Capela). Also, playing a system that fits in my skill set. Other than that, it’s the same thing. A veteran of as many years as I played, you’re always trying to pass along the knowledge to whoever you can.”
Chandler said he has not been as involved in pick-and-roll since his season with D’Antoni in New York and the previous season with the Mavericks. That season ended with Dallas winning the NBA championship.
“New York, Dallas, we ran a lot of it,” Chandler said. “New Orleans (from 2006-07 to 2008-09), we ran a lot of it. Dallas, we ran a lot in the playoffs. J.J. Barea, J-Kidd ( Jason Kidd), myself would run it to get Dirk (Nowitzki) a lot of shots. The defense has to honor the roll. The last four or five years I haven’t (run it). It’s good to be back in it.”
The Rockets would like the threat of Chandler’s rolling to the rim to create open shots for the second unit, a tool they have not had off the bench in recent seasons, with Nene more of a pickand-pop and post-up threat.
Sefolosha, who has been playing as a range-shooting four and shooting better in the preseason than D’Antoni expected, could be
among the beneficiaries. That was one of the reasons he signed with the Rockets.
“It’s a very easy offense to assimilate,” Sefolosha said. “I think I’m in a good place right now. Offensively, defensively, I really like what we try to do, what we try to accomplish. I just want to be a part of it.
“We’re so talented. I truly believe we have a chance to make a push in the playoffs and hopefully get a championship, just like the OKC team I played on with two of those guys (Harden and Westbrook). They are further along in their career, so they know the game better. I think everybody has something to bring to the table.”
That includes newcomers who have found little to be new. But with two tuneups remaining, they have experienced enough to know that even a pair of preseason games can be valuable when adjusting.
“Those two games are important for us as far as just getting the rotation, understanding what everybody is trying to accomplish offensively and just getting into the groove of things,” Sefolosha said. “It’s closer to the season. We want to have a good start of the season. We have to use those two games to do that.”