The Rockets brought in Chris Paul to ease the load on James Harden to initiate the offense every play down the court but that will have to change now that the veteran guard is expected to miss up to a month with a knee injury, Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes.
Suddenly the plan to ration Harden’s energy for late in the season has come crashing down. “That’s out the window,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said.
Last season Harden averaged a 29.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 11.2 assists per game but appeared to be overworked toward the end of the season. The converted two-guard saw his playmaking skillset flourish under the tutelage of D’Antoni. This season, the Rockets were hoping to pick up where they left off as an offense but while preserving their franchise star’s health.
With Paul shelved, the Rockets will need to make sure that they build big enough leads to let reserve guard Bobby Brown come in and hold down the fort temporarily.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- While Nerlens Noel could end up making his mark on the Mavs franchise, finding him a significant workload on a nightly basis may be difficult, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes. In three games this season, Noel has played 20, 27 and 16 minutes.
- It didn’t take long for Grizzlies fans to start booing Chandler Parsons this season. The 28-year-old that missed much of last season with an injury is in the second year of the four-year, $97MM contract he signed last summer. Parsons told the media, including Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, that he’ll simply treat Grizz home games as away games.
- The Rockets have managed to win the first three games of their season but that doesn’t mean the offense is up to head coach Mike D’Antoni‘s standard. “Oh no, no, no,” D’Antoni told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “We got a lot of things we have to clean up. We’re not real sharp right now. I was just telling the guys the biggest thing is preseason was about 10 days shorter than [previously]. With the preseason, we played eight games. That would be a normal preseason schedule.“
Not cool griz fans. Parsons does not make admin decisions and he is hitting. Well… IDK maybe he responds to booing!
But he’s not likely to be one that gets traded if they start trading.
Parsons is overrated and the fact he thinks he is a superstar is comical. He deserves to be booed.
Superstar? Saying he is average seems like a stretch
Chandler Parsons is clownshoes