Top Bloggers: Ethan Rothstein On The Rockets
Anyone can have a blog about an NBA team, but some set themselves apart from the rest with the dedication and valuable insight they bring to their craft. We’ll be sharing some knowledge from these dialed-in writers on Hoops Rumors with a feature called Top Bloggers. As with The Beat, our ongoing series of interviews with NBA beat writers, it’s part of an effort to bring Hoops Rumors readers ever closer to the pulse of the teams they follow. Last time, we spoke about the Sixers with Jake Pavorsky, who is the managing editor of SB Nation’s Liberty Ballers. Click here to see the entire Top Bloggers series.
Next up is Ethan Rothstein, the managing editor of SB Nation’s The Dream Shake, a Rockets blog. You can follow Ethan on Twitter at @ethanrothstein. Click here to check out his stories.
Montrezl Harrell Suspended 5 Games By D-League
Rockets rookie power forward Montrezl Harrell has been suspended five games without pay by the NBA D-League for shoving a referee to the floor in the midst of an altercation with another player during Rio Grande Valley’s contest on Saturday night, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report relays (on Twitter). The suspension will cost Harrell approximately $45K in salary and Houston will shave roughly $34K off its luxury tax bill as a result, notes Bobby Marks of The Vertical (Twitter link). Harrell will not be eligible to be recalled from the D-League by the Rockets until the suspension is completed.
Howard Wanted More Attention From Agent
Paul Pierce‘s decision on whether to retire after the season may be tied to what Timberwolves power forward Kevin Garnett chooses to do, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald reports. The former Celtics teammates text each other at least once a week and have frequently considered the possibility of retiring at the same time, Murphy continues. But the Clippers’ veteran small forward admits that he has no idea what Garnett has in mind, Murphy adds. “I never know what KG is going to do, because he said he was going to retire four or five years ago,” Pierce said. “Every year he says he’s done, and every year he keeps coming back. It would be great.”
In other developments around the Western Conference:
- Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor will decide on interim coach Sam Mitchell’s future after the season, according to Kent Youngblood of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. While GM Milt Newton will give his input on Mitchell, Taylor will have the final word, as he told Youngblood. “Certainly it starts with Milt. But I don’t want to say it’s his call,” Taylor said. “It’s probably my call.’’
- Dwight Howard switched agents because Perry Rogers doesn’t have a large clientele, he told NBA.com’s David Aldridge in a Q&A session. The Rockets center hired Rogers after parting ways with Dan Fegan. Rogers is also Shaquille O’Neal’s agent and O’Neal brought Howard and Rogers together, Howard goes on to tell Aldridge. “I just felt like he has an opportunity to just focus on me,” Howard said. “Any other agent, they have a lot of different clients and stuff like that. I felt like he was able to just focus on me.”
- Jazz coach Quin Snyder believes fatigue may be the cause of center Rudy Gobert‘s recent swoon, Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News writes. Gobert, who’ll be up for a rookie scale extension in the offseason, averaged just 5.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks during the team’s last recent five-game road trip. “He’s probably hit the proverbial wall and had to make adjustments in season,” Snyder told Sorensen. “Last year after All-Star break was a very finite stretch of time with a completely different mindset in how [opponents] approach him. Last year people weren’t prepared to play against him and now he’s garnering much more attention.”
Ty Lawson: Rockets Didn't Utilize My Strengths
Pacers point guard Ty Lawson feels he was used improperly by the Rockets during his stint with them this season, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports. Lawson felt Houston interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff erred by playing him off the ball instead of making him the primary ballhandler. “I just know I was a better player than what I was showing there,” Lawson told Feigen, while adding he harbors no resentment toward the organization. “I wasn’t being used the right way. I’m not a space player. I like to have the ball in my hands.” Bickerstaff acknowledged in the story that he could have utilized Lawson differently. The Pacers signed Lawson earlier this month after he reached a buyout arrangement with the Rockets and cleared waivers. “I don’t know if it was just the early transition of him learning to play without the ball, the limited opportunity he got,” Bickerstaff said. “That may be some of my responsibility because he didn’t get the opportunity he was accustomed to. For whatever reason, it didn’t work and I was sad to see him go.”
No Teams See Dwight Howard As Plan A
- No teams see Dwight Howard as a plan A for free agency this summer, according to Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher (video link). Howard would prefer to re-sign with the Rockets, but he finds the prospect of a return to the Magic intriguing, as Bucher reported last week.
Dwight Eyes Magic Return But Prefers Rockets
Dwight Howard would prefer to re-sign with the Rockets this summer, but the Magic have heard that he’d entertain the idea of returning to Orlando, league sources told Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher for a video report (Twitter link). Howard is expected to turn down a player option worth about $23.282MM to seek a maximum salary deal that would pay him some $30MM next season. Previous reports have indicated his interest in the Bucks and Knicks.
A return to Orlando, where Howard spent the first eight seasons of his career and made his only Finals appearance, has seemed far-fetched ever since the team dealt him to the Lakers in August 2012. Magic GM Rob Hennigan was in his first offseason on the job when he traded Howard away, ending an acrimonious saga that dragged on over the final months of Howard’s tenure in Orlando. The Magic, with only mathematical hopes of a postseason berth this year, have yet to make the playoffs since.
Howard’s future plans have long been difficult to pin down. USA Today’s Sam Amick suggested earlier this week that the Rockets were merely a fallback option for the former All-Star, and Houston engaged in well-publicized trade talks with several teams about him before last month’s deadline. The 30-year-old former No. 1 overall pick was in the midst of changing agents while the trade talk was going on, dumping Dan Fegan for Perry Rogers, the representative for fellow ex-Magic center Shaquille O’Neal.
The Rockets were reportedly in touch with the Mavericks, Bulls, Hawks, Celtics, Hornets, Heat, Bucks and Raptors about Howard as they engaged teams about their interest in him, but Houston found the market underwhelming. Howard is averaging 14.3 points and 8.8 shot attempts per game, his lowest numbers in either category since the 2004/05 season, when he was a 19-year-old rookie with the Magic.
Howard May Have Difficulty Landing Max Deal
The market for Rockets big man Dwight Howard, who is expected to turn down his player option of more than $23.282MM and test the free agent market this summer, is a difficult one to gauge, writes Shaun Powell of NBA.com. The scribe cites the diminishing importance of traditional big men in the league as well as concerns about Howard’s health and drive to win as reasons the veteran may find it difficult to land a max salary deal this offseason. If Houston decides not to attempt to re-sign the big man this summer, it may be more about the team utilizing cap space to ink role players and strengthen the bench than any dissatisfaction with Howard, Powell adds.
Rockets Assign Montrezl Harrell To D-League
- The Rockets have assigned rookie power forward Montrezl Harrell to the D-League, the team announced. This will be Harrell’s fifth jaunt to Rio Grande Valley on the season.
Dwight Howard, Rockets At Philosophical Odds?
The Rockets have one of the most analytically minded front offices, which has guided them to a perimeter-oriented approach, but Dwight Howard insists the inside-out game isn’t dead, as he tells Sam Amick of USA Today. “I feel like that’s a very successful way of playing. I know [the Rockets] have their opinions or whatever,” Howard said. “[But] for the rest of the season, I’m going to make it an effort just to do what they need me to do offensively and defensively, and not focus on what happened back in Orlando [and] what happened in L.A. [with the Lakers] and just put my mind to finishing this season on a real high note.”
Howard, who plans to opt out and become a free agent this summer, is unlikely to remain with the Rockets unless he doesn’t find a max offer or a promise of an increased role in the offense from another team, Amick believes, though Howard is cognizant of his reputation as someone who walks out on franchises and insisted to Amick that he’s worked to become a part of every NBA community he’s been in.
Motiejunas: Enough Meetings
- The Rockets held another players-only meeting after Wednesday’s lopsided loss to the Clippers, writes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. “This is fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, I don’t know which meeting it is,” said power forward Donatas Motiejunas. “I think talking shouldn’t be the one thing that we do. We shouldn’t talk anymore; we should look at ourselves and try to change some things.” Houston tried to shake things up last month by trading Motiejunas to Detroit, but the Pistons canceled the deal due to concerns about his back.