Houston Rockets: 5 Steps They Need To Take To Become NBA Championship Contenders
The NBA is entering a period where a group of incredibly talented teams may begin to assert themselves as the Spurs and the Lakers of the early 2000's.
The Heat have two of the league's best four players along with another top twenty player, the Thunder have amassed the league's most talented young roster, and the Hornets appear to be revitalized behind arguably the league's best player, Chris Paul, and have been nearly unstoppable to start out the season.
To put it lightly, it seems like a difficult time for a team to assert itself as a championship contender.
However, as an owner that despises losing, there is no doubt that Les Alexander would want nothing less than a championship contender for the Rockets. And thus far in the season, the Rockets could not look further from championship contender status. With just three wins to pair with nine losses, the Rockets have certainly stumbled out of the gate.
It's a long road back, but how can the Rockets join the ranks of the league's championship contenders?
5. Acquire Two-Way Players
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While the Rockets have undoubtedly put together a fairly talented team, they currently stand at 3-9 and have looked terrible out of the gate. The Rockets can point to injuries as one cause of the rough start—Yao Ming, Aaron Brooks, and Kyle Lowry have all missed significant time—but the greatest cause of the horrific start has been a lack of balance in the starting lineup.
With an all defense, no offense player like Shane Battier paired with four all offense, no defense players in Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Aaron Brooks, and Yao Ming, the Rockets have a complete lack of two-way players.
Unfortunately for the Rockets, great teams are built on the backs of great two-way players.
Kevin Garnett was a perennial defensive player of the year candidate as well as a terrific inside weapon, Kobe Bryant is an annual All-NBA first team defense selection (his scoring isn't bad either), and Dwyane Wade is perhaps the best shot-blocker of anyone of his size in NBA history.
Coincidentally, each of those players has one at least one NBA Championship.
If the Rockets want to even enter the conversation of championship contenders, there will have to be major upgrades to the lineup. Finding two-way players will be a must as the Rockets have shown themselves to be one of the league's worst defending teams.
Whether that player is Andre Iguodala, Gerald Wallace, or even Stephen Jackson, the Rockets need to find somebody who can put the ball in the basket as well as defend, as scoring 120 points means nothing if the Rockets give up 121.
4. Dump Aaron Brooks
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At just 25 years of age and coming off a season in which he won the "Most Improved Player" award, the future appears bright for Aaron Brooks. He's a tremendous three point shooter, a crafty finisher inside, and a cat-quick penetrator who excels in the open court.
However, he is not without fault.
With neither a semblance of defensive ability or pass-first mentality, Brooks fails to make his teammates better on both ends. He is constantly beaten by opposing point guards, struggles with fouls, and loses his cool at times on the court.
Simply put, he is not a championship point guard. Great teams don't necessarily have star point guards—in fact, the last team to win a championship with a point guard as its best player was the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons. However, every great championship team has a point guard who understands his role and makes few mistakes.
From Derek Fisher who is content to just knock down clutch shot after clutch shot to Rajon Rondo who is comfortable orchestrating rather than scoring, unselfish point guards are a must in the NBA Finals.
Aaron Brooks, despite the huge positives he brings to the table, does not fit the bill. If the Rockets want to become a championship team, they cannot have him at the helm.
3. Keep Yao Ming—As a Role Player
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Over the last few years, it has become abundantly clear that Yao Ming will likely never again be the dominant double-double machine he appeared to be becoming in his early years. After years of teasing Rockets fans with his tantalizing ability, Yao Ming has finally seemed to have crashed.
Following career-threatening surgery, Yao has been limited by a lack of mobility and a loss of touch. While his touch will likely rebound, his lack of mobility is an unfortunate reality. The fact is that Yao will not be the star center that carries the Rockets to an NBA Championship.
However, as a role player, Yao seems like he could be a perfect fit on a championship team. NBA champions have one common thread, a solid center. Teams can get by with iffy players at virtually any position, but no team has won a championship in recent memory without a solid center.
The Lakers had Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the Celtics had Kendrick Perkins, the Heat had Shaquille O'Neal, and the Spurs had Tim Duncan. Other than O'Neal and Duncan, none of these centers are dominant players, but they are solid weapons.
If the Rockets can manage to put together championship-level quality around him, Yao Ming could be the stellar role player the Rockets would need to win a championship. If Yao can reinvent as a role player himself like the great Bill Walton did with Red Auerbach in Boston, the Rockets could have one piece of the championship puzzle.
Good centers come along so rarely that once a team has one, they have to try to hold onto him.
2. Make Bold Moves
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During Daryl Morey's tenure, the Rockets have made countless moves and have virtually turned over the entire roster. In fact, only three players remain from the original roster Morey inherited from his predecessor—Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, and Yao Ming.
However, each move Morey has made has been a calculated, apparently safe one, even the seemingly gutsy moves. He only gave up draft picks and an expiring contract for Ron Artest, Kevin Martin was a value pick-up who cost the Rockets little other than Carl Landry, and Trevor Ariza signed for a cap friendly $33 million.
Morey has reputedly been in on the bidding for almost any player from DeMarcus Cousins to Chris Bosh, but has failed to seal the deal on any "blockbuster" deals. He manages to extract so much value out of trades that when he is confronted with a deal where he has to pay market value, he seems to back out.
The same pattern happened for DeMarcus Cousins, Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony—the Rockets showed interest and appeared to be among the contenders to land each player only to fall out of the running soon after. Whether it is just Morey trying to get a player at a discounted rate or true interest, he has to push harder to get a great player.
While the phrase is about as clichéd as any other, it is true that you have to give up something to get something. And blockbuster trades bring teams to contender status. The eventual NBA Champion Boston Celtics gave up seven players for Kevin Garnett and another top-5 pick to get Ray Allen.
The fact is that in the deals the Rockets are making, the haul will be limited to good but not great players. If the Rockets want to be championship contenders, they need great players.
1. Get Lucky In The Draft
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Over the years, the vast majority of championship winning teams have been built through the draft.
The San Antonio Spurs famously selected Tim Duncan after a injury-riddled 1996-97 season and took off on a tremendous stretch which saw them winning four championships in nine years, the Lakers traded for Kobe Bryant on draft night, Dwyane Wade was a revelation for the Heat in 2003, and even the one team that seems to buck the trend, the Celtics, took Paul Pierce with the tenth pick in the 1998 Draft and got Rajon Rondo in the 2006 Draft.
Unfortunately for most of those teams, they had to get worse before getting better. The Spurs lost David Robinson for the year before getting Duncan, the Heat were miserably bad without Wade, and the Celtics endured years of irrelevance before putting together the "Big Three".
Unlike those teams, the Rockets could potentially still win games and improve their draft picks. Because of a mid-season trade with the New York Knicks, the Rockets can swap first round picks with the Knicks this year and own the Knicks' first rounder next year, and thus can win without negatively impacting their draft status.
If everything goes the Rockets' way, they could potentially be drafting in the top two in 2011, and the top six in 2012. Those two draft picks could be the two franchise cornerstones that the Rockets have been so desperately yearning for since it became apparent that the McGrady-Yao era was a bust.
