The 2023-24 Houston Rockets underwent a significant amount of change, as the team parted with Stephen Silas at the end of the prior season. The Rockets sought a defensive-first approach, which was sensical after Houston finished bottom-five in that category in each of Silas’s three seasons in the big chair.
The Rockets made a big jump in the standings, from 22-60 in 2022-23 to 41-41 in the 2023-24 season, with the league’s ninth-best defensive attack. However, their offense ranked 20th-best and they
lacked a formidable outside shooting attack, ranking as the league’s 23rd-best outside shooting team at 35.2 percent from deep.
In the offseason that followed, the Rockets decided to address their shooting deficiencies, by trading for AJ Griffin, who they’d reportedly had interest in acquiring at the trade deadline. As a side note, Houston ultimately traded for Steven Adams at the trade deadline during that season.
Griffin made 39% of his triples from deep in his rookie 2022-23 campaign and fell out of favor with Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder, resulting in a rather significant minutes reduction, from 19.8 minutes as a rookie to 8.6 minutes in his second season with the Hawks.
Naturally, there was a fit for both sides. The Rockets traded a second-round pick for Griffin, which ultimately was used on Pelle Larson. Following the trade, we’d never seen footage of Griffin training with the Rockets in the summer or offseason.
As it turns out, Griffin had been mulling retirement to focus on evangelism and ultimately decided to walk away from basketball at the age of 21 years old.
But it was an uneventful, non-public ordeal. The Rockets respected Griffin’s desires to move on from basketball and supported him, despite losing their draft capital in exchange for him.
By the same token, Griffin didn’t spread ill will about the Rockets. The story went away.
Well, it was never really a story to begin with. The situation pales in comparison to the situation that’s come full circle regarding the Chicago Bulls and Jaden Ivey, who was traded to the Bulls and released after just four games with the organization.
Ivey was viewed as a potential long-term asset for the Bulls. Until he began to concoct social media videos, many of which are aimed at targeting certain groups and/or population circles.
Ivey also began asking media members very personal questions about their lifestyle decisions and choices. Like Griffin, he also took up an interest in religion and spirituality, but in a significantly different manner. And it ended poorly for him.
Which should make Rockets fans feel much better about the Griffin fiasco. Sure, he never played for them, but that’s about the extent of the embarrassment faced by the Rockets.
That a player they spent a second-round pick on amounted to a lost second-round draft pick. For the Bulls, it’s resulted in daily mockery at the national level. And the more expressive Ivey has become, the more the Bulls’ front office has faced questions about how little research they’d conducted before making the deadline deal with the Detroit Pistons.
