Houston Rockets fans are adjusting to the idea of James Harden being used as the primary point guard, and will hopefully also have time to adapt to the high-volume usage of an Eric Gordon-Harden backcourt.
Based on what head coach Mike D’Antoni said, per The Dream Shake’s Josh Reese, it doesn’t sound like Patrick Beverley, an actual point guard, will be ready to start the regular season as he deals with a left knee injury:
“What I hear, it’s just a matter of a couple weeks,” head coach Mike D’Antoni said of Beverley. “I would love for him to be with us now, I know he’s suffering through not playing, but it’s a long season, whatever it takes to get him well, he’ll eventually get well.”
A couple weeks could be two or three more. Either way, that timeline doesn’t fit with the Rockets’ start to their schedule.
Houston opens the 2016-17 season on Wednesday, October 26, against the Los Angeles Lakers. If Beverley is out a minimum of two weeks, he’ll be lucky to play before November.
This isn’t a problem from an offensive perspective. The Rockets have enough firepower to navigate Beverley’s absence. That’s the luxury of using Harden as the primal ball-handler, as he’s always been by the way, while having Bevs orbit the three-point line as a catch-and-shoot assassin.
Defense is a different story.
D’Antoni will likely to default to a Harden-Gordon backcourt pairing, which doesn’t profile as a good defensive collaboration. The Rockets don’t project as a good defensive team overall; Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela and Beverley are their best pests, and losing any one of them, for any period of time, given their lack of defensive depth outside the starting lineup, is a huge deal.
