David Nwaba won’t play for the Houston Rockets until the 2020-21 NBA season, since the newly acquired 27-year-old guard is still recovering from an Achilles tear that he suffered last December.
But Rockets GM Daryl Morey liked his potential enough to add him to the roster in June with a two-year contract, even at the cost of releasing young seven-footer Isaiah Hartenstein to create the roster spot.
On Monday’s Zoom media call to preview the 2019-20 season’s restart later this month, Morey was asked about that decision. He replied:
David, we think has really good potential. You guys have a good sense of how we play now, and David Nwaba we think fits that very well. Unfortunately, given the rules, we had to cut someone.
As a 6-foot-5 guard with a long seven-foot wingspan, Nwaba has been best known over his career for athleticism and perimeter defense.
Remember when the Rockets lost to the Cavs?
Harden dropped 40 on 474258 splits.In that game, David Nwaba guarded Harden for 50 possessions.
In those possessions, Harden shot 4-15 from the field, and turned the ball over 6 times.
Here is the footage of Nwaba locking up Harden: pic.twitter.com/Gfkoch4dC9— Disney Gary Clark (@Itamar1710) February 6, 2019
But in 20 games this season prior to the Achilles injury, Nwaba showed renewed promise as a shooter by making a career-high 42.9% on 3-pointers. In his first three NBA seasons from 2016-17 through 2018-19, Nwaba had shot just 32.6% from behind the 3-point arc.
In all, Nwaba has played in 161 games over parts of four NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, and most recently the Brooklyn Nets. For his career, Nwaba — who went undrafted after finishing his college career in 2016 — has averaged 6.9 points (49.2% FG) and 3.7 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game.
Nwaba tore his achilles, so there's no guarantee he'll play as well next season.
But he clearly made an impact for Brooklyn this season.
When on the court: 268 MIN, 102.1 ORTG, 94.9 DRTG (1st on the team), +7.2 NET (also 1st)
When off: 106.5 ORTG, 109.7 DRTG, -3.2 NET
— Disney Gary Clark (@Itamar1710) June 23, 2020
As for Hartenstein’s release, Morey said Monday that the Rockets still expect the 22-year-old center to become a very good player.
“We’ve sadly cut lots of really good players,” said Morey, who poked fun at himself by citing Houston’s February trade for Robert Covington — who was cut by the Rockets several years earlier.
In this case, Hartenstein is in the mold of a traditional center, which made him an odd fit with Houston’s new emphasis on smaller lineups with defensive versatility. A healthy version of Nwaba, on the other hand, would seem to be an ideal fit. That’s what Morey and the Rockets are hoping they will have once the 2020-21 season eventually begins.
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