For almost a decade, the Houston Rockets lived at the forefront of innovation in the NBA. Since 2012, when they acquired James Harden, the Rockets have tried to solve basketball by both shifting the foundation over which the game is played and acquiring complementary talent to suit those ends. Those quests brought the Rockets to […]
There are many reasons to be bullish about Houston’s odds to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy: The team possesses top-tier talent, it uses a mathematically advantageous playing style and FiveThirtyEight’s model currently gives the Rockets a 26 percent chance to win it all — second in the league behind the Boston Celtics. But the […]
Creative shot makers and flashy passers are the easiest players to appreciate as fans. Less obvious are the role players who contribute to winning even when they don’t have the ball — and few such role players have had a bigger impact than Houston’s PJ Tucker. There isn’t a formal definition for what constitutes a […]