Both the Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Hornets have some new faces for the upcoming season.
Houston signed overnight sensation Jeremy Lin to be its new point guard in the offseason, while the Hornets took Anthony Davis with the first pick of the draft, followed by Austin Rivers with the tenth.
Both teams missed the playoffs last season, but with a host of young players, each are looking to make a dent in the Western conference and make a run at the postseason.
A successful season could be in store for the Rockets, who added three talented rookies, Terrence Jones, Jeremy Lamb and Royce White as well as Lin to go along with established starter Kevin Martin. This preseason the team has gone 3-2, including a 109-102 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
Lin has struggled shooting this preseason and it continued against Memphis, with the point guard hitting on 3 of 9 shots. But his passing has been stellar, including the 12 assists he racked up in the game. For the Rockets to be a winner this season, Lin will have to play to the level he did when he took the Knicks from a middling 8-15 into a contender.
The three rookies are all talented, but are obviously unproven in the NBA. Lamb and Jones each won a national championship in college; but the biggest question mark comes from White, who the Rockets took with the 16th overall pick in the draft.
White is well known for his talent, but he also has issues with anxiety and air travel. Some teams were reluctant to pick him in the draft, but Houston over looked those other issues and took a chance on White, seeing a good deal of potential in the forward who averaged 13 points, five assists and nine rebounds in his one year at Iowa State.
The team has tried to work with him on travelling to games by bus when allowable.
"What it's going to look like is every game that's drivable, I'm going to get a bus for myself," White said. "And I'm going to make that bus feel like home so that there's a level of consistency in a job where inconsistency is very apparent because of the schedule, White said to ESPN earlier this month. I'm going to try and level that out and make sure that my stress levels stay low and that my rest is regular and that my meals are regular and that, as much as I can, draw consistency from a very inconsistent schedule. ...People with mental illness, one of the most important things is that they have that consistency and routine. The girth of [my request] was, 'Can I travel by bus to close enough games?'"
The Houston roster looks very different from last season, with the additions of the rookies and Lin along with the departures of former key players like Goran Dragic, Luis Scola and Courtney Lee. The team added Carlos Delfino, Shaun Livingston and Omer Asik to help provide depth to the bench.
The Hornets are facing a tough task this season as well after drafting Anthony Davis with the first pick in the draft. The team was ranked in the bottom part of the league in points and rebounds last season and only scored 89 points per game.
The addition of Davis should help the team in the future, but it remains to be seen if he will be a force this season. Guard Eric Gordon will be used heavily this season after missing time last year with an injury and the team will be continue to transition from former franchise star Chris Paul, who was traded last year to the Los Angeles Clippers.
"That's who we are. We don't have the quote unquote elite player, so for us it's going to have to be by committee every night and I think that's a good foundation for us," said Monty Williams to the Chicago Tribune. "We hope that one of these young guys we picked becomes a superstar, if not all of them. That would be a good problem to have."
The Hornets have gone 3-3 this preseason and lost on Monday night 87-74 to the Dallas Mavericks. Robin Lopez had a nice game for the Hornets, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Davis was also impressive, grabbing 17 rebounds and showing the athleticism that made him a star at Kentucky last year.
New Orleans has struggled this preseason at scoring points, averaging only 72 per game and shooting 33 percent over the past three games, according to the Associated Press.
It will be tough for New Orleans to compete this season, but the future is bright. The team drafted Davis to be a superstar and the franchise was purchased last month by Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints.
"It's good, short-term and long-term. As far as short-term, we've got a lot of young guys and it's time to progress at this point," said Gordon.
The move allows the team to fully move on from the Chris Paul era and enter a new period with Davis at the helm.
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