NBA Power Rankings week 15: OKC Thunder and teams hit trade deadline
31-18. Previous: 13th. Houston Rockets. 9. team. 169.
Houston Rockets:
Offense:(113.3) 3rd
Defense: (109.6) 15th
Net: (plus +3.7) 8th
Results Week 15: (3-1) Won vs Jazz: 126-117, Mavericks: 128-121, Pelicans: 117-109, Lost vs Blazers: 112-125
Games Week 16: (4 games) Tues vs Hornets | Thurs at Lakers | Fri at Suns | Sun vs. Jazz
James Harden finally snapped out of the winter shooting slump in the final two games of the week.
An interesting note and perhaps it was just matchup based but the Rockets played better without Clint Capela in the lineup and now the Woj rumor is Houston has begun shopping the big man — but if that’s the case are they expecting to just play small ball all the time? Or is Morey looking for a swap?
As trade deadline looms on Thursday, Houston is engaged with several Eastern Conference teams -- including Atlanta -- on C Clint Capela, league sources tell ESPN. There are a few multi-team trade scenarios in play.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 3, 2020
The logical bet might be that he’ll be looking for a center who has the ability to hit from the perimeter, particularly now that Russell Westbrook has abandoned taking those deep ball shots.
Westbrook got in a groove during Harden’s malaise and now the pair will need to figure out how to make the offense sing with both excelling simultaneously.
Note: as this is posting after the trade deadline the Rockets did in fact trade Capela as well as Nene and also immediately shipped out the one big (Jordan Bell) who arrived via trade. More on this in week 16 of the power rankings.