4 Players Who Houston Rockets Need to Step Up Next Season: The Houston Rockets were disappointed with another first-round exit this past season, and after an unlucky offseason some guys will have to step it up in 2014-15. Not only did the Portland Trail Blazers punch out Houston, but the following summer the Rockets struck out in free agency and lost a bunch of talent. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh werent interested, and Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik all packed their bags and headed elsewhere. Now, the Rockets are left with a shattered roster that was dubiously put back together. There will be plenty of young guys filling in those voids who will have to take on much bigger roles. Others underperformed last year and will have to kick things up a notch for the Rockets to succeed this upcoming season. Lets take a look at some Rockets who will be asked to rise to the occasion in 2014-15. Isaiah Canaan After trading Jeremy Lin to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Rockets will look to Isaiah Canaan to become the new backup point guard. Patrick Beverley will continue to start and play solid defense, but Canaan will be expected to come in and provide an offensive spark. Lin averaged 12.5 points and 4.1 assists in just under 29 minutes per game last year with Houston. He was an above-average facilitator and helped force the tempo in the second unit. Canaan is also a speedy, score-first guard who can attack the basket. He is a better outside shooter as well (36.9 percent in the D-League last season compared to Lins 35.8 percent). Canaan had an impressive summer league in Las Vegas a couple months ago. He averaged 17.0 points and 3.3 assists per game, and he had some big plays down the stretch during the Rockets run to the championship game. He may have screwed up at times, but Lins overall production during the regular season was significant, and Canaan will have to fill his shoes in a big way this year. Donatas Motiejunas Like Canaan, Donatas Motiejunas also impressed in Vegas this summer. His 16.8 points and 8.1 boards per game earned him first-team All-NBA Summer League. Even better, D-Mo shot nearly 60 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three-point range as well. With those kind of numbers, the Rockets will be ecstatic with Motiejunas this season. Its only a small sample size and against weaker talent, but his performance this summer has us wondering whether hes finally tapped into his potential since coming from overseas. D-Mo averaged just 5.5 points and 3.6 boards in 15.4 minutes a night last year. However, his minutes picked up quite a bit after the All-Star break as his role increased with the team. Unfortunately, come playoff time, those minutes vanished, and he didnt play a single minute versus the Blazers. This season, however, with Asik gone, Motiejunas is the main backup center behind Dwight Howard. He will be sharing some of those minutes with Joey Dorsey, but he also may get some playing time at power forward in an attempt to stretch the floor. Wherever hes playing, he will have to bring his A-game all season to replace Asik and give the Rockets quality minutes off the bench, including in the playoffs. Francisco Garcia After providing a huge lift for the Rockets two seasons ago in the playoffs, Garcia took a major step back this past season. After shooting 38.6 percent from deep in his first season with the Rockets, he followed it up with a disappointing 35.8 percent this past year. His production was by far the worst of his long career, and he eventually fell out of the rotation. There were a few flashes of the old Garcia in 2013-14, but his overall performance was subpar. The Rockets decided to bring him back this summer very late in free agency after some solid games with the Dominican Republic in anticipation of the FIBA World Cup. In Spain, Garcia averaged 17.6 points per contest and shot 64.3 percent from deep. Those stats are what the Rockets are looking for out of Garcia. His best quality is his three-point shot, and hes got to shoot it at a high rate to get back in Houstons rotation and become a significant contributor once again. James Harden Its not common to expect a player to step it up after making the first-team All-NBA, but we all know Harden has a ton of room for improvement. Despite his spectacular performance last season with the Rockets, Hardens defense remains a glaring hole to his game. He has become the butt of several jokes due to his bad defense, but that could all change this year. After getting bounced by Portland in the postseason, Harden made it clear to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle that his offseason goal would be to improve defensively. And as Bobby Gonzalez of Sheridan Hoops notes, throughout his time with Team USA, his defensive skills have impressed the coaching staff and others. Its fairly evident that this defense problem is a lack of will more than it is a lack of talent, which is easier to fix. Harden gets a lot of negative media attention for his defensive woes. His lackadaisical mishaps on that end of the floor are keeping him from cracking the truly elite in the NBA, and its why many people dont think the Rockets have what it takes to make a run at a championship. The Beard needs to step it up big time on defense not just for himself, but for the good of the team. If he can shift his focus to the defensive side, the Rockets along with Beverley, Howard and Trevor Ariza can become a top-10 defensive team. With an offense already that lethal, this defensive boost could make Houston a formidable contender out West, and it all depends on Harden. Read more NBA news on BleacherReport #Basketball #NBA #NBASouthwest #HoustonRockets #fantasybasketball
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 04:02:31 +0000
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