Veteran NBA columnist Jackie MacMullan believes the Houston Rockets could benefit more than any other NBA team from the league’s extended hiatus late in the 2019-20 regular season.
In all, more than four months will have elapsed between the season’s March 12 suspension and its expected July 31 resumption in Orlando.
In a Friday appearance on ESPN, MacMullan was asked which NBA team benefits most from the long break due to COVID-19. She replied:
Oh, I think it’s the Houston Rockets. Remember now, they traded Clint Capela, and they in mid-season went to small ball, which Mike D’Antoni has always wanted to do.
There’s a lot of pressure on P.J. Tucker to play all those bigs, forwards and centers. He looked gassed, to me. James Harden is second in the league in minutes played, and [Russell] Westbrook logs a lot of minutes. Those guys get a chance to catch their breath, work virtually, and maybe together a little bit now on this small-ball game that they really switched to mid-season.
I like the Rockets’ chances now. I think this pandemic and this break, which of course nobody wanted, but it may have benefited them the most, I think.
It could be argued that the Rockets, who are 40-24 and tied for No. 5 in the West, have even more reasons for optimism. Consider that:
- Eric Gordon says he’s healthy for the first time all season after dealing with knee problems;
- Harden appears to be in ideal shape, physically;
- The Rockets had lost four of their last five games, at the time of the March 12 hiatus; and
- After the trade of Capela for Robert Covington, every player in the team’s projected closing lineup (Westbrook, Harden, Gordon, Covington, Tucker) is at least 29 years old.
Even so, MacMullan said in the video that she still views the Los Angeles Lakers (49-14) — currently the West’s No. 1 team — as the championship favorite entering the 2020 NBA playoffs. But the Rockets could be poised to make an upset bid, thanks in part to the unusual circumstances.
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