In late May, Kelly Iko of The Athletic reported that veteran guard Eric Gordon appeared likely to reclaim his spot in the Houston Rockets starting lineup for the 2022-23 NBA season.
But there was an important piece of context to that report: At the time, the assumption around the league — and likely in Houston — was that Paolo Banchero would be the draft pick at No. 3 overall in the first round for the Rockets, and thus the projected starter at power forward.
We all know what has happened since then, of course. The Duke product unexpectedly went No. 1 to Orlando, which dropped Auburn’s Jabari Smith Jr. to the Rockets. While Smith isn’t the shot creator or passer that Banchero is, he’s a better defender and shooter, and that may give the Rockets different needs as they fill out their starting lineup and rotation around the likes of Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Alperen Sengun.
With Banchero, the Rockets may have needed the superior 3-point shooting of Gordon around those four young players. But with Smith, that could give head coach Stephen Silas an opportunity to place more emphasis on size and defense, which he continues to list as a top priority after Houston’s woeful defensive showing last season.
With that in mind, in a new interview from summer league with Adam Spolane of SportsRadio 610, Silas appears to hint at Jae’Sean Tate being the fifth starter, rather than Gordon. Among his comments:
If you’re going to be a good defensive team, a rebounding team, you have to have size. And then also having Alpi (Sengun) out there, and whoever else, whether it is Eric or JT (Tate). Our team fits together really well, with Jabari’s shooting.
Then, having Alpi out there, especially with JT… it doesn’t allow the opposing team to play the five on JT, which was an issue for us.
Silas told me Jabari Smith and Alperen Sengun will start together and I assume Kevin Porter Jr and Jalen Green will as well, but he did drop a hint of what he's thinking to round out his starting lineup. I don't think Eric Gordon is the favorite for that spot https://t.co/vBksK9Fekd
— Adam Spolane (@AdamSpolane) July 13, 2022
Silas didn’t specifically reference the skills of Smith versus Banchero, which is fairly standard. In general, league personnel typically don’t address specific scenarios involving what a player under contract with another team might hypothetically do or have done for their team.
But reading between the lines, Smith’s superior shooting range does appear to give the Rockets more options in the frontcourt. That could work to the benefit of Tate, who — as Silas mentioned — is less likely to be defended by centers if he is playing alongside Sengun. The floor spacing concerns, relative to a Sengun-Gordon pairing, might have outweighed that factor with Banchero, but it probably won’t with Smith.
The emphasis by Silas on defense and rebounding may also work to Tate’s benefit. While Gordon is a good defender, he is definitely not a quality rebounder, having averaged just 2.0 rebounds in 29.3 minutes last season. By contrast, Tate averaged 5.4 in 26.4 minutes with the Rockets.
It’s far from a done deal, and Silas and the Rockets could easily pivot back to Gordon if his value as a floor spacer during training camp outweighs whatever production Tate gives under this configuration. But for now, it appears that Tate might enter camp as the initial favorite.
