The Houston Rockets may have been bounced early from the playoffs this year, but they were able to put together another strong regular season in 2018-19.
There are areas they can improve upon, even though there were individuals who had immense success.
Rockets Wire is reviewing each player, starter or second unit, to recap the Rockets’ season.
Kenneth Faried
The center joined the Rockets in mid-January and immediately made an impact. The Rockets won the next 10 of 16 games with him, in part because the 29-year-old averaged 16.2 points and 10.4 rebounds in that span.
With Clint Capela out, Faried was key to helping to rebound — he had an average of 8.2 per game this past season — and get to the rim on the pick-and-roll behind the smooth ball-handling of James Harden and Chris Paul. In the regular season, Faried finished averaging 12.9 points on 58.7 percent shooting and even made 35 percent of his three-pointers.
But when Capela came back, Faried fell out of the rotation. With Capela averaging a double-double, it was clear that despite playing well offensively, Faried’s defense just wasn’t there. Nene also had pretty solid play heading into the playoffs. So, we saw less and less of Faried in the first round against the Utah Jazz and even less time against the Warriors.
Last season was the final season of his four-year/$50 million extension. Because he was bought out, he will be an unrestricted free agent and the Rockets would have to use mid-level exception money to bring him back.
With Capela in the rotation, it could not be worth it to resign him. But there is the likelihood that Capela gets moved this offseason and Nene retires, so it makes good sense to bring back and continue to work with Faried at center.
We’re giving The Manimal a B for the 2018-19 season.
