Rockets’ First Round Preview

Writer: Lucas Garza

The Houston Rockets ended the regular season with the most wins and the league and in franchise history. Finishing 65-17, the Rockets will have home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs, and will play the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round.

The Rockets regular season was one to be remembered. Three winning streaks into the teens, winning season series against the Spurs and Warriors, and having only one bad losing skid (during the holidays) gave fans one the most exciting seasons in Houston ever. With the addition of Chris Paul, P.J. Tucker, and Luc Mbah A Moute, the Rockets defense improved tremendously, along with the dramatic improvement of Clint Capela. Harden and Paul’s games complemented each other, and Paul’s presence gave Mike D’Antoni more rotation options. Trevor Ariza and Ryan Anderson did not play as well as last season, as Anderson dealt with injuries, but Eric Gordon stepped up when he needed to, whether it was a drive off the dribble or a no hesitation 32 ft jump shot. James Harden will finally win the NBA MVP this year after having two runner up finishes in his career.

The Rockets swept the Timberwolves in the season series, winning all four games against the much improved franchise. During most of the the teams’ meetings in the regular season, the Timberwolves were 3rd place in the Western Conference, but Mike Thibodeau’s squad fell to 8th seed in the highly competitive Western Conference. Everyone knows the Rockets like to shoot threes, having set the record for most threes shot in a season and percentage of threes shot from the field (over 50%). In previous matchups, the elegant three point shooting of Houston has encouraged Karl Towns to test his luck from beyond the arc, as well. Although Towns shoots over 40% from three, Thibadeau says he doesn’t like when Towns shoots threes because the Timberwolves lose the chance for the offensive rebound.

Speaking of offensive rebounding, Luc Mbah A Moute was one of the Rockets’ best offensive rebounders in the season, hustling to gather his teammates’ missed threes. In the Rockets’ penultimate game of the season against the Lakers, Mbah A Moute dislocated his shoulder going for a rebound, and has been ruled out of the Rockets’ first series of the playoffs. The Rockets played without Mbah A Moute in over the holiday season, but that was when the Rockets’ had their biggest stumbles of the season. Ryan Anderson will need to comeback to playing full and valuable minutes in the rotation for the Rockets’ to not feel the lack of Mbah A Moute.

The Houston vs. Minnesota series begins Sunday night at the Toyota Center, and the winner of the best of seven series will play the winner of the Thunder vs. Jazz.

Top Five Centers in the NBA

Writer: Jared White

It could undoubtedly be argued that this is the best generation of point guards in NBA history. From Steph Curry, the greatest shooter the world has ever seen, to the triple-double machine Russell Westbrook, and even James Harden who last year played point guard and averaged a league high in APG and finished second in PPG! And the list of current great point guards goes on with names like John Wall, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard etc.

(DefPen.com)

Because the NBA has been so guard heavy over the last several seasons people started questioning if the center position was the weakest it’s ever been, or even a dying position. But several centers, mostly young, have stepped up this season and shown that their productivity and value isn’t dropping any time soon. These are the five best centers in the NBA today!

5. Nikola Jokic

Stats: 16.3 PPG 10.2 RPG 4.5 APG & 1.2 SPG

Team record: 19-17

Nikola Jokic, along with the Denver Nuggets, has not been talked about much this season. The Nuggets are currently the 6th seed in the western conference, despite Paul Millsap having missed 20 games, and have shown that with the help of Millsap they even have potential for a first round win. But when it comes to Jokic the team has a losing record without him, and at only 22 years old plays very similar to a young Pau Gasol, especially when it comes to their excellent passing.

4. Andre Drummond

Stats: 14.3 PPG 15.0 RPG 3.6 APG 1.4 SPG & 1.3 BPG

Team record: 20-15

The Detroit Pistons have been a pleasant surprise this season. They are currently the 4th seed in the eastern conference and Andre Drummond has put up great numbers across the board like always. But there is one aspect of Drummond’s game that he has really improved. Before this season his highest average APG for a season was 1.1, (last season) and although three and a half assists doesn’t sound like much it is a big improvement to his game and one of many reasons the Detroit Pistons have started the season as one of the top 10 teams in the league.

3. Karl Anthony-Towns

Stats: 20.4 PPG 11.5 RPG 2.1 APG & 1.5 BPG

Team record: 22-14

Karl Anthony-Towns has taken a step back from last season, mostly due to the addition of Jimmy Butler. But his statistics are still those of a top 5 NBA center and his team is the 4th seed in an extremely tough western conference. He will continue to be a fantastic building block for any NBA team and give them everything a coach could ask for.

2. Joel Embiid

Stats: 24.0 PPG 11.0 RPG 3.4 APG & 2.0 BPG

Team record: 16-19

Joel Embiid has been wildly impressive this season. He has continued to have great defense, shown he can get teammates good looks, and has also shown his Hakeem like post moves. Earlier in the season, on November 15th, against the Los Angeles Lakers, he had arguably the best performance by any player this season when he logged 46 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 7 blocks, a stat line that no player has ever recorded in NBA history! The only complaint most fans have about Joel this season is his absence in 9 of his teams games due to caution considering potential injuries. But those games show Joel’s importance to his team as they have gone 2-7 during his absence. Joel is undoubtedly a top 5 center in the NBA, and in my opinion, given injuries are no concern, is a better player to build around than Karl Anthony-Towns!

1. DeMarcus Cousins

Stats: 26.2 PPG 12.5 RPG 5.2 APG 1.5 SPG & 1.5 BPG

Team record: 18-18

DeMarcus Cousins has been absolutely amazing this season. In just his last 2 games he has combined for 61 points, 39 rebounds, and 12 assists, and this season he has averaged more PPG, RPG, APG, and SPG than his All-Star teammate Anthony Davis! The only chink in his armor is his team’s success. But they are still in the playoff picture (Currently 8th seed) and besides the previously mentioned Anthony Davis he has only a couple good players as teammates. But ultimately DeMarcus’ scoring ability, improved defense, and incredible passing ability for a center, make his easily the best center in the NBA.

The New and Improved NBA Bigman

Writer: Caleb Akpan

Small ball is the norm for today’s basketball teams. Carmelo Anthony is about to play a full season at the 4, Kevin Love is gonna play center most of the time, and three-guard lineups aren’t at all out of the ordinary. Many would say this new normal is killing the league’s history of dominant post players, as everybody shoots 40 threes a game and maybe keeps one traditional big on the court at most, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. A renaissance is taking place for NBA bigs, and while their playstyles are definitely drifting from the eras of Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal, it’s creating some of the most interesting players the league has ever seen.

Jesse D. Garrabrant NBAE via Getty; Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty

Guys like Nikola Jokic and Kristaps Porzingis just shouldn’t exist, at least as basketball players. At 7’3, Porzingis can cross up centers like he’s doing the best Allen Iverson impression of all-time, which is fitting, as KP wore AI-style braids as a kid in his native Latvia to honor the now Hall of Famer. A terrible haircut choice? Maybe, but he’s easily living up to it with the moves he can make, putting the ball between his legs and pushing the pace as a ball handler with ease. What’s even crazier is that AI isn’t the only NBA legend Porzingis can emulate on the court, as his steadily progressing post game seems to be modeled after a certain thirty-thousand point scorer in Dirk Nowitzki. Yup, Kristaps Porzingis is a combo of an All-Star shooting guard and a seven-foot sharpshooting, post playing monster. After averaging 18, 7, and 2 blocks in his second season, he’s got a team all to himself to show off some more, and the craziest thing is he’s probably not the most skilled player in this article.

That honor might have to go to Denver’s Nikola Jokic, simply for the fact that he plays point center (4.9 APG in 16-17), a term that wasn’t really even a thing before the Serbian stepped onto the scene. Growing up as a point guard, Jokic has still got the magical touch he possessed in his youth, at least we assume it was always there, as you just can’t teach some of the passes Jokic makes on a nightly basis. What’s even more weird is, outside of his Steve Nash-esque passing and solid handles, Jokic is probably the closest thing to a traditional big listed. His body’s burly, his post game is patient and powerful, and he’s not exactly the fastest player in the NBA, but Jokic just makes it work. He can dish off a no-look or put up a slow hook, Jokic is a gap between the old and the new big man, showing what makes both playstyles so great.

One may say that Porzingis and Jokic do what they do thanks to the years they spent in European systems prior to joining the league, but American-born, college-playing players have proven to be just as unique. Anthony Davis came out of the Kentucky One and Dones as a defensive presence, but quickly mastered the mid-range and started taking his defenders off the dribble, finishing at the rim like the point guard he once was when he started getting recruited in high school. Karl-Anthony Towns was in the same boat when he left the Calipari crew in 2015, but he went even further and got a consistent game from behind the line (37% in 16-17) while still being able to dominate the low post and play the mid-range game to the tune of 25 and 12 last season. In limited playing time, Joel Embiid joined in on the trends, blocking LeBron James like he was former 76er and fellow African-born player Dikembe Mutombo, and hitting threes and clutch jumpers like fellow Kansas Jayhawk Paul Pierce. If Embiid can play more than the 31 games he played in last year, he could easily take over this new space of multi-talented big men the NBA is introducing to basketball.

Being a power forward or center in the NBA isn’t the same as it used to be, but that isn’t a bad thing. Big men are more skilled than ever before and are quickly filling up the lists of the best players in the NBA, and if they have the same influence as the dominant players in generations prior to them, the players that enter the NBA in the future should be taking some inspiration. The NBA can go as small as it wants to, but you can’t ignore these highly skilled fours and fives. As long as players like them continue to enter the league, the big man will never die.