The Houston Rockets are starting a collection of fringe NBA big men.
First, it was Oscar Tshiebwe. I wrote a feature about him, and you collectively responded with a “meh, he isn’t going to play anyway”.
Callous, cruel destroyers of dreams you are.
Next, they signed Rafael Castro. He probably won’t play either. He’s got nice defensive mobility, and he’s efficient around the rim, but he’s a slight-framed big with raw offensive tools. We’ll see.
Interestingly, the Rockets are pursuing discount big men.
It’s smart. Steven Adams may be broken, and age-related decline officially hit Clint Capela last year. If the Rockets do commit to Alperen Sengun moving forward, they’ll need to secure his long-term backup.
But are any of these guys the ideal complement to Sengun?
Rockets still missing key skill from any big men
The stretch five.
The white whale of NBA roster construction. For some time, they were the trend, but they disappeared faster than creepy clowns standing in empty parking lots in 2016 (please tell me you remember that).
Not to say there are no stretch fives left. It’s more so that now, they’re seen as less of a prerequisite for NBA success. Some particularly high-brow pundits even think they’re largely detrimental to NBA success.
There’s some merit in that position. If a guy is shooting, he’s not in prime position for an offensive rebound or to finish a high-efficiency two-point attempt. It’s almost a reverse-engineering process that gets us back to old-school NBA basketball – it’s less that big men can’t shoot, and more that shooting disables them from doing the stuff that being big helps you do.
Sure. Here’s the difficulty in Houston – Sengun can’t shoot. Amen Thompson can’t shoot. Perhaps stretch fives are suboptimal in a vacuum, but in the Rockets context, it feels like there would be a lot of optimization happening if they added one.
So what gives?
Rockets need to keep playing the market
Well, roughly 0.000038% of the global human population is seven feet tall or taller. So, the percentage of the population who are seven feet tall or taller men who can shoot 35% or better from the three-point range at the NBA level has to be what, 0.000000038%?
Last year, eight centers shot 35% or better from long range. Most of them are unavailable. One of them is Brook Lopez, who’s what, 60?
Yes, 35% is a relatively arbitrary measure. Still, there has to be some breaking point where we’d all concede that there’s no point in having Jay Huff out there over Steven Adams just because he’s willing to hit 31.9% of his three-point attempts.
It’s something to keep an eye on. The Rockets could look at floor-spacing big men in next year’s draft. It does feel like, so long as they roster Thompson (let alone Sengun as well), they’ll need to make up that three-point volume (and ease Thompson’s driving lanes) by rostering a big man who can shoot threes:
But for now, let’s find some minutes for Oscar Tshiebwe, please?
