The Rockets have the third-worst record in the NBA and Eric Gordon is discouraged by the lack of progress from his young teammates, tweets Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston. Talking to reporters after Saturday’s 20-point loss to the Knicks, Gordon said “there’s no improvement” when asked about the direction of the season.
“Same old thing all year,” Gordon said after the team committed 25 turnovers. “We have a small margin for error. … It’s a lot of things. It’s mindset. You got to play for one another. Do what’s right by your teammates. If you do that it’d be more fun. You give yourself a better chance to win.”
Gordon is the veteran leader on a team filled with players in their early 20s, and he’s the only member of the roster who has played a consistent role on a contender. Gordon is also a strong candidate to be moved if the Rockets can find an offer to their liking before the February 9 trade deadline.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Rookie guard TyTy Washington believes he was too tentative in his first few games with the Rockets after missing the early part of the season with an injury, writes Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle. The first-round pick recently replaced Daishen Nix as the backup point guard, and he credits coaches and teammates for helping him to stop second guessing himself. “The coaching staff and everybody was telling me, ‘Do what you did to get you to this point,’” Washington said. “At first I was kind of like, just out there nervous just trying to fit in and stuff like that. And they just told me, ‘You never fit in your whole life. Do what you did to get you here.’”
- Mavericks guard Luka Doncic continued his scoring barrage on Saturday night with 51 points against the Spurs, per Raul Dominguez of The Associated Press. Doncic has scored at least 50 points three times in his last five games. “It’s incredible,” Christian Wood said. “In my seven years in the league, I’ve never seen anybody do what he’s able to do. He’s on an incredible run. He’s playing like an MVP. Clearly one of the best players in the league.”
- The Spurs like what they’ve seen from lottery pick Jeremy Sochan, tweets Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express News. The 19-year-old forward has established himself as a starter and a strong defender in his first NBA season. “We’ve seen it from the beginning,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He plays a great all-around game. He continues to work on his shooting. But he does everything for us defensively, moves the ball, handles the ball, plays some point.”
While Luka’s accomplishment is great, someone can’t add. He only scored 228 in five games.
Yeah, that’s an odd one — that stat is from the AP story, which still hasn’t been updated to correct it. Maybe it’s accurate at a lower threshold (ie. 225 points), but I’m not sure about that, so I’ve removed it from our story.
He’s the white Tiger
Free Eric Gordon!
Luka needs help in Dallas…
Mark from Cuba is too hands on as an owner… Luka will be lucky to win a title there… Mark from Cuba was too cheap to keep a title winner together over a decade ago… Hence he’s too cheap to build a contender now…
I do hope either the team is sold to a decent owner or that Luka goes somewhere with competant management…
Eric Gordon clearly doesn’t want to be that locker room vet just yet he wants to win a ring
Wonder if Pat Bev could be that guy for them and Gordon to the lakers?
The rockets aren’t trading Gordon for Beverly. If they trade gordon it is for future assets (draft capital) or a young player/s with potential. They’re not trading for another veteran that won’t be in their long term plans and plays a position that would park him at the end of the bench. Gordon still plays a major role for the rockets and is a much better player than Beverly.