Daryl Morey, Rockets Doubling Down on Offense in Arms Race to Beat Warriors
HOUSTON — It all happened so fast.
Lou Williams didn't even have time to speak to Daryl Morey—the man who'd just traded for him—before he suited up for his first game in a Houston Rockets uniform Thursday.
No one saw it coming, either. Not the NBA trade machinists, not the analysts, not the pundits, and certainly not Williams.
Yet there he was, in a whirlwind, getting a physical and hopping on a plane to New Orleans to play against the Pelicans. There wasn't even time for an introductory press conference.
Turns out, though, there was no need for one.
Everyone, from Morey to coach Mike D'Antoni to James Harden—even those outside the organization—knew what the move meant: Houston was shoring up its offensive artillery for a potential playoff showdown with the sweet-shooting Golden State Warriors.
"We figured our best chance to beat Golden State was to send them a barrage of three-pointers," Morey told Bleacher Report. "We got guys who can put 'em in the basket, and we're harder to guard now. If they're going to hug up on our three-point shooters, we have another guy now who can really make 'em pay and attack the basket in Lou."
As NBA trade deadline chess moves go, swapping Corey Brewer and a 2017 first-round pick for Williams wasn't exactly the "Marshall swindle," but it was pretty damn close.
And any doubts about the deal were quickly dispelled with Williams' first game.
In just 25 minutes, Sweet Lou filled up the stat sheet with 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field, including seven three-pointers in 11 attempts. Not surprisingly, Houston's spread offense is tailor-made for the 12-year veteran, who is the league's highest-scoring reserve, averaging 18.7 points per game.
"I went out there with no practice, no workout, no nothing," Williams said. "They showed me some clips on an iPad, and I just went out there and played."
Said Harden: "Obviously, he fits our system really well. But I'm not surprised. That's why he's here."
Williams doesn't cut an imposing figure, but he's deceptively quick, with smooth handles and a shifty change-of-pace dribble. Third in the league in fourth-quarter scoring with 7.8 points per game, he's also adept at getting to the foul line.
But the most important facet of his game is his sweet spot: the corner three.
Though Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and Trevor Ariza are filling it up from the wings, it's the one piece that was missing from the Rockets' new and improved version of Moreyball.
"We wanted to have shooting at all four spots, at all times, to give James more spacing," Morey said. "And even with our backup group, I thought the group with Pat [Beverley] and Lou and Eric together would work very well. We thought he fit in, and it went pretty much how we envisioned it. It's not going to be every night, but we hope it will be most nights."
Just like it is with the Williams trade, the book on the 2016-17 Rockets is still being written, but the prologue is turning heads.
With 21 games left in the season, Houston (42-19) already has more wins than it did last year and is tied for the second-best record through 61 games in franchise history. Sure, a big part of the reason for that is improved chemistry, but more than that, it's because of the calculated moves made by Morey.
The Rockets crashed and burned last season, one year after reaching the Western Conference Finals, so Morey cut bait with the toxic Dwight Howard, hired D'Antoni, moved Harden to point guard and signed a couple of shooters in Gordon and Anderson.
The rest of the league was unimpressed, but as the season winds down, D'Antoni is a legitimate Coach of the Year candidate, Harden is in a two-way race with Russell Westbrook for MVP, and Gordon—the newly crowned three-point shooting champ—is in a head-to-head battle for Sixth Man of the Year with his new teammate.
"That's championship-caliber basketball," Harden said. "Obviously, your first unit has to be really good. But your second unit has to be able to get leads and sustain leads. Now we got two of the top Sixth Man of the Year candidates. Our rotation of guys is very important, and they know that."
Their blistering start to the season notwithstanding, the Rockets' turnaround will mean nothing if they don't come out of the West—a task that will likely require beating the Warriors, who just became the fastest team in NBA history to clinch a playoff berth.
"We felt like Corey was giving us solid minutes," Morey said. "But to really compete with those top teams in the West, we felt like if Lou was playing those minutes that Corey was—we'd have to play smaller, slide down Trevor, who would play a little more 4—it would be the upgrade we needed to compete with the Golden States and San Antonios of the world."
But is Houston really equipped to beat Golden State?
The Rockets are 1-1 against the Warriors this season. They'll find out more next month—when they face the two-time defending Western Conference champions twice in four days—if Williams is enough to get them over the hump.
On paper, they look outgunned. Golden State (49-9) has four All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. And while Harden is surrounded by more than just a coterie of scrappy overachievers, he's Houston's only All-Star.
Things start to even out a bit, however, when you look at the numbers.
While the Warriors lead the league in points (118.2), assists (31), steals (9.7) and blocks per game (6.7), plus field-goal percentage (49.9), the Rockets are not far behind in points (second, 115), assists (second, 25.5) and steals (fifth, 8.4).
And Houston differentiates itself behind the arc. The Rockets lead the league in three-pointers made per game (14.6) and percentage of points scored from three (38.1).
Additionally, Houston has made 20 or more three-pointers eight times this year, which is the league's single-season record. Golden State formerly held the mark with seven such games in 2015-16.
While the Rockets are just 15th in the league in defensive rating (105.7), per NBA.com, the team has made improvements of late, forcing more turnovers per contest over the past 21 games (17.3) than it did in the first 40 (14.5).
"For our playoff push, you got to score the basketball," Harden said. "But like I keep saying, our defense has to be really good. But offensively, we can score with anybody."
Morey is betting that if it comes to it, Houston's three-point shooting prowess will overcome Golden State's formidable combination of shooting and defense. To that end, D'Antoni is challenging his team to average 50 attempts from three per outing.
Seriously.
"We can get there," D'Antoni said. "I don't know if it'll be every night, but it can be a goal. We know who we are and what we do well. Mathematically, that's how we should play, and that's who we are. It's no use acting like we'll post up. If we miss our first 10, there's no reason we can't make the next 10. Statistically, we have almost a 40 percent chance of making every shot."
The Rockets are the first team in league history to average 40 shots per contest from behind the arc, and they've attempted 50 or more threes eight times this season—but to average 50 per game, well, that's pushing it, right?
"Coach be trippin'," Harden said, laughing. "But it's a possibility. With the shooters we have, it's definitely possible, especially when we get hot and guys get comfortable and confident. We gon' let it fly."
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