Rising Stars: Houston Rockets

I am a self-confessed Houston Rockets die hard. From the time of Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Trevor Ariza, Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks until the resurgence and additions of Chandler Parsons, Carlos Delfino, Greg Smith, Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin and James Harden. I'm Houston Rockets all the way! #RedNation

What made me support the Rockets? They are strong, but they don't realize their full potential yet. They win big games, they lose easy games. I like that they acknowledge that they still have a lot of things to learn but you can see the big potential of this team. Being the Youngest Team in the NBA today, (avg of 24.9 years old) you can just see the bright future for this team. There is now way but to go up from here.

The Houston Rockets are currently at the 7th seed with a record of 43-34, and 1 game behind 6th seed Golden State Warriors with a record of 44-33. I believe they can be on that 6th seed come playoffs. This will be a very good improvement for the team. 

It has been 4 years since the last playoffs of the Houston Rockets, the last was where they were beaten by the Lakers, 4-3 in a best of 7 game series. I still don't know what will happen to the Rockets if they will be facing either Oklahoma or Denver. Both great teams and very strong on both offense and defense, but one thing is for sure. Rockets will definitely not give up easily. 

What are our chances? Let us look at the stats:

POINTS:

Leading the team is James Harden with 25.8 points per game, making him the 5th best scorer.

Chandler Parsons:  15.3 ppg
Jeremy Lin: 13.2 ppg
Carlos Delfino: 10.7 ppg
Omer Asik: 10.3 ppg

Pretty solid offense for the Rockets, we can also acknowledge the court presence of Greg Smith, Francisco Garcia and Terrence Jones who are providing really great support.

REBOUNDS:

Omer Asik: 11.6 rpg (3rd)

Rebounding is not the strongest skill of the Rockets, I would like to see improvements on this skill of the game.

James Harden, Greg Smith and Thomas Robinson are the ones supporting Asik on rebounding.

ASSISTS:

Jeremy Lin is the guy for the assists. He averages 6.1 apg making him the leading Rockets in assists. James Harden and Chandler Parsons averages 5.9 and 3.1, respectively to back up Jeremy Lin.

STEALS:

James Harden once again leads the team with 1.8 spg, with Jeremy Lin come close to 1.7 spg.

BLOCKS:

No surprise, its Omer Asik with 1.08 bpg. Greg Smith comes second with 0.51 bpg.

Summary:

It is really James Harden almost doing it all. He is the heart and soul of this team. He is the leader of the team. With Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons providing equal leadership on and off the court, there is no doubt that this trio of Lin, Parsons and Harden are the trio to beat come playoffs.

With few more games to go before playoffs, I am excited on what will happen next! But one thing  is for sure, I am with #RedNation all the way!

Next game of Rockets will be against PHX tomorrow.

Credits to: Google and NBA.com for the photos. :]


Keep the Faith.
Paolo