Free Ballin’

HOUSTON ROCKETS:

Is there any doubt that the Rockets are going to set a record for taking charges?  Well, of course there has to be some doubt, unless you know where one can find charges-drawn stats, current and historical; I don’t.  Whatever the case, drawing charges is clearly a huge part of their defensive strategy, and it’s amazing to me that you can find steals, blocks, turnovers on every basketball site around— but not charges drawn, nor offensive fouls committed.  That’s not true; it’s not amazing to me.  ESPN just added raw +/- stats (are these of any value at all?) to their box scores, this season, and are mighty excited about it, but charges drawn—considerably more valuable than shots blocked—gets no attention.

Whatever the case, the Rockets have put together a roster of guys who play way above their salaries, and I suspect that drawing charges is something they look at, and something they teach their young players.  Scola didn’t need to be taught of course.  In Argentina, Italy, and a variety of other countries that play ball, “charge” and “flop” are the first words they learn after “mommy” and “daddy”.

Aaron Brooks is a notable exception, I think.  I haven’t been counting, but he doesn’t seem to take nearly as many charges as the rest of the guys on the team.  I imagine this is by design, because the team would prefer not to lose another starter; Brooks is really small.  I mean, small.  He was in the crowd of a Rice/Harvard game I went to in Houston, and he was smaller than either team’s point guard.

Anyway, along with taking a ton of charges, they move the ball around like, well, a Rick Adelman team—for the first time since he was hired.  And while a lot of people question how Tracy McGrady is going to fit in, even if  he’s in fine form, I only wonder about him playing off the ball.  He’s needed to play so much point-forward for the Rockets, and had so many isolations from the wing or the top of the key, I just haven’t seen him play off the ball much the last few years.  That he’s one of the best passers in the game should help, a lot.  Yeah, I don’t think there are eight better teams in the west.