Ben McLemore went into this past week knowing it was a potentially critical one for his longer-term future with the Houston Rockets.
Based on his contract, Sunday, Dec. 1 is the date in which he begins earning more money than the partial guarantee ($500,000) on his contract. In other words, since he can now theoretically be replaced by a veteran free agent without an additional financial penalty to the team, he must prove worthy of his roster spot solely on basketball merit.
In Saturday’s blowout win over the Hawks, the 26-year-old made quite a convincing case. In 34 minutes as the starting small forward, McLemore set season-highs across the board with 24 points (64.3% shooting, 54.5% on three-pointers), 13 rebounds, and six makes from three-point range.
For the season, McLemore’s three-point shooting percentage improved from 29.1% before Saturday’s game to a more respectable 31.6% after it.
It could be randomness due to a small sample size, but one fascinating aspect of McLemore’s 2019-20 season to date is how much more effective he’s been as a starter. In five games filling in for Danuel House Jr., McLemore is averaging 17.4 points (47.5% shooting, 40.0% on three-pointers) and 5.4 rebounds in 31.6 minutes per game.
By contrast, the 6-foot-3 guard is averaging just 4.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in 17.0 minutes per game as a reserve, with shooting percentages of 27.4% overall and 25.0% from behind the free-point arc.
The University of Kansas product, who was drafted No. 7 overall in the 2013 NBA Draft, told Houston Chronicle beat writer Jonathan Feigen that he wasn’t putting much stock in his starter versus reserve splits.
Before Saturday’s game, McLemore said:
I’m not reading into it … at all. I just try to play my game, keep it simple, do everything I need to do at a high level to help my team win games. It’s just staying ready, staying the course. Any time my name is getting called, I do the best I can.
Rockets' Ben McLemore hoping to continue success as fill-in starter https://t.co/krFOYKXRq5
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) December 1, 2019
For the season as a whole, McLemore has seemingly found ways to help the Rockets — even when his shots aren’t falling. His defensive rating of 104.4 and overall net rating of 14.5 are both the team’s best among regular rotation players to have averaged over 10 minutes per game.
Head coach Mike D’Antoni said Saturday that House and starting center Clint Capela, who each missed the Hawks game with illnesses, were trending well for potential returns in Houston’s next game on Tuesday in San Antonio. If that happens, McLemore would return to a bench role.
It remains to be seen if McLemore’s shooting numbers will bounce back as a reserve. But even if for some odd reason they don’t, he may still have value to the team as a fill-in starter for House, who has already missed five games with an assortment of injuries and ailments.
Assistant coach Elston Turner told The Athletic‘s Kelly Iko last week that he believed House’s aggressive and physical style as a defender contributed to his propensity for injury. Turner told Iko:
House is just a young guy with energy. He’s still trying to make his name in this league. He’s really good at blowing up situations, which we try to encourage, like dribble handoffs and pin-downs. He’ll run through it and not even let them hand the ball off.
“He’s good at it; that’s why he stays hurt all the time,” Turner said, chuckling to himself.
Analysis/Film Study: It’s been difficult to get a read on Houston’s defense, so I talked with the man in charge to see it through his eyes, checked out some underlying numbers, and dove into the film. Here’s what we found out:https://t.co/BnIip4emMX
— Kelly Iko (@KellyIkoNBA) November 27, 2019
Besides his current illness, House has suffered minor injuries to his back, shoulder, and ankle over the season’s first 19 games.
There’s probably a small-sample-size component to both House’s absences and McLemore’s subpar splits as a reserve. But even if for some reason there isn’t, then McLemore has still presented the Rockets with legitimate reasons to keep him around as an insurance policy at small forward. That’s especially significant with guard Eric Gordon still expected to miss several more weeks due to knee surgery.
Entering the week, the Rockets had lost three straight games — and McLemore’s 0-for-6 showing on three-pointers in the final game versus Dallas had many questioning the stability of his roster spot, given the looming Dec. 1 date in which his salary surpasses his partial guarantee.
But the Rockets (13-6) finished the week with back-to-back wins, and in House’s absence, McLemore was an huge part of the second victory with season-high numbers across the board. It came at just the right time for the team as a whole, and perhaps for McLemore individually, as well.
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