Getty The Houston Rockets are not interested in adding another shooting guard.
The Houston Rockets desperately need another shooting guard.
As the Rockets deal with injuries to Gerald Green, Eric Gordon and Danuel House, it’s become clear that the team is lacking big time in terms of depth at the shooting guard position. At the current moment, the team is relying on Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore to back up James Harden.
Considering injuries to three key contributors at the swingman positions, one would think the Rockets would be interested in signing a veteran shooting guard. The most notable free agent names at that position are Jamal Crawford, Nick Young and J.R. Smith.
With that said, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic, the Rockets are not interested at all in the aforementioned three names.
“Concerning the injuries to Houston’s snipers, Rockets fans have pointed to the free-agent pool of shooters like J.R. Smith, Jamal Crawford, and Nick Young — names I brought up in conversation — but there’s no urgent sense of desperation to go that route. Internally, they believe the contributions of Ben McLemore and even calling up players like Gary Clark can hold them above water while Eric Gordon and Danuel House return to the fold.”
All 3 Players Are Established Veterans
All three are established veterans and former starters in this league. In the case of Crawford, he’s one of the greatest sixth men in NBA history, having won the award on three different occasions. In fact, the 39-year-old veteran scored 51 points in a regular season game last year for the Phoenix Suns, becoming the oldest player in NBA history to accomplish the feat.
As far as the other two players are concerned, both are accomplished in their own right and are former NBA champions. Smith is best known for his recent tenure as the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ starting shooting guard, but he’s also a former Sixth Man of the Year award winner. In the case of Young, he’s a former starter for the Los Angeles Lakers who is an accomplished 3-point sharpshooter.
With all of that said, despite the resume of the aforementioned three players, the Rockets are content with their current roster and personnel moving forward — at least for the time being.
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Rockets Lose Third Straight Game
The Rockets should maybe reconsider possibly re-signing another player as they fell to their third straight loss against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, losing 137-123.
Houston’s offense looked suddenly ordinary against Dallas as Harden converted on just 2-of-15 three-point attempts and the Mavericks’ Luka Doncic poured in 41 points — just one point shy of his career high.
The Mavericks scored 45 points in the first quarter alone and 78 in the first half. In other words, they had their way with the Rockets’ defense.
Harden didn’t hold back in his assessment of what Houston did wrong following the game — they did everything wrong, according to to the former MVP.
“Everything,” he said. “We allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do from the beginning of the game and when you give a team like that comfort … they gain confidence. And that’s what they did.”
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