With the Astros on pace to record their worst finish in years and the Texans’ season not set to start for another month, Houstonians had only hopes of the Rockets’ making some good moves in last week’s NBA draft to keep their spirits up. But after the final results, fans are not only dispirited; they’re furious.
The Rockets, in desperate need of a true power forward, pulled a somewhat surprising move by making Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks their first-round selection. Brooks, who was the No. 26 overall pick, was the smallest player (5-10 1/2, 160 pounds) taken in the first round.
The Rockets later acquired the first pick of the second round (No. 31) from Seattle for next season’s second-round pick and cash considerations, and used it to take 6-7, 248-pound power forward Carl Landry of Purdue. Using their final selection at No. 54 overall, the Rockets snapped up Australian guard Brad Newley.
Brooks and Landry are the picks most fans have serious qualms about. But after taking a closer look at the Rockets’ objectives and the moves they made, one might be inclined to think the team didn’t completely foul up its draft.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey targeted a point guard with blazing speed, and that’s what he got with Brooks. Brooks, one of the fastest players in the draft, gives the Rockets the kind of speed that new head coach Rick Adelman likes for the up-tempo style offense he plans to run.
With the arrival of Brooks, the Rockets now have five point guards on their roster, none of whom are pure point guards. Brooks is a shoot-first point guard who averaged 17.7 points per game at Oregon last season.
After not having enough depth and talent at point guard last season, the Rockets now have too much of both. They obtained Mike James through a trade with Minnesota earlier this offseason, and still have Rafer Alston, Vassilis Spanoulis and John Lucas III to go along with Brooks. That list will likely be cut down to three with Spanoulis likely to head back home to Greece and the Rockets likely to trade one of their point guards.
However, the jury is still out at power forward. The Rockets could have selected forwards Tiago Splitter, Nick Fazekas or Glen "Big Baby" Davis to address that need, but ignored all three and chose Landry instead. Still, there’s a problem: Landry is not the true power forward the team needs. He’s rather a smallish forward, which the team already has in last season’s starter Chuck Hayes (6-6, 238 pounds).
The Rockets need a strong, low-post threat power forward able to rebound and take pressure off center Yao Ming. They clearly missed their chance to fill this need in the draft, so now they’ll have to obtain a power forward through free agency or trade.
Who are we kidding? The Rockets weren’t going to fix all their needs in this draft. Morey made it clear before Thursday that the Rockets weren’t going to draft for need; they wanted to take the best player available when their turn came at No. 26. They figure Brooks is that guy.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and the Rockets’ blueprint for success won’t be either. Morey will have to make some shrewd moves throughout the remainder of the offseason in order to build the Rockets into a true championship contender.
Some fans have based their assessments of Morey and the Rockets solely on this draft, and that’s not completely fair. He’s going to need some more time before he can really prove himself as a general manager.
If Morey can pick up a serviceable power forward later this offseason and Brooks and Landry turn out to be decent players, the Rockets’ draft can be deemed successful. But if the opposite happens and the team struggles to win games next season, fans will say, "I told you so."
