NBA Previews: Houston Rockets 2nd Place: Southwest Division

by James Finneral

Just one season after Chandler Parsons "recruited" Dwight Howard to come to Houston, Parsons felt undervalued by the franchise and is now no longer a member of the team. Although losing 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists a night seems rough, the Rockets have nothing to worry about this upcoming season.

The reason the Rockets should have nothing to fear is because after losing Parsons they acquired Washington small forward, Trevor Ariza. Ariza is coming off a pretty productive season where he averaged 14 points and 6 rebounds. Ariza is a pure scorer who can put up thirty with ease on any given night.

This offseason the Rockets also lost Jeremy Lin in a trade with the Lakers to make cap room for their number one target, Chris Bosh. Obviously Bosh never ended up signing with the Rockets and Houston natives are now worrying about who can fill the point guard slot. Some people may disagree, but rookie Nick Johnson is totally capable of bringing up the ball and fitting into the offense. Johnson has already proven to be a pretty fierce competitor in summer league play and is deserving of the starting job. All he really needs to do is be a facilitator for the Rockets considering they already have three solid scoring options in James Harden, Dwight Howard and Ariza.

This year for Houston all eyes will remain on their two leaders and all stars, James Harden and Dwight Howard. After being traded from Oklahoma City, Harden has been an absolute stud and has proven to be one of the premier scorers in the league. Harden is not too flashy, but has an arsenal of smooth moves to beat defenders to go along with his knock down jump shot. Howard on the other hand scores his points by just flat out overpowering defenders in the post. At 6'11", 265 pounds most big men struggle to defend Howard and even box him out. Howard is right in his prime and should be able to continue his dominant play this year.

The Rockets lost some quality players this offseason, but nothing they cannot replace.With scoring options all around the floor Houston will have no problem sticking with the high powered offenses around the NBA, but they need to crack down on the defensive end to pull out victories. This is easily a playoff caliber team that fans should not underestimate.  

Potential Starting Lineup:

PG: Nick Johnson 

SG: James Harden 

SF: Trevor Ariza 

PF: Terrence Jones 

C: Dwight Howard