Houston Rockets Sign Carlos Delfino, Add To Interesting Offseason

It has to be said that Delfino had himself a productive off season, averaging over 15 points per game on 50% shooting from the field while representing Argentina at this summer’s Olympics. He’s a skilled swing man, providing NBA-caliber athleticism and euro-smooth shooting. Delfino also boasts solid court vision, with defense being his only notable weakness. Here’s a sample of the Rockets’ newly signed Argentine forward:

Houston’s Front Office: What’s Going On?

To date, the Rockets have inked Jeremy Lin to a $25.1 million, 3 year deal. They also went and gave a similarly questionable deal to Turkish center Omer Asik. Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic (bright spots in Houston’s back court) have also been shipped off. Lowry’s relationship with coach McHale worsened, resulting in the talented guard being sent to Toronto for Gary Forbes and a future first round pick. Dragic was offered a $34 million contract by the Suns, took it, and is set to be the starter where it all started for him. In short, the Rockets don’t seem very interested in making a splash.

If you can look at signing Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to corner-stone player contracts as impact moves, then yes, Houston is making some kind of splash. But, let’s be honest, this is not what a team should be doing when it has San Antonio to deal with in its division. So, maybe it’s not that Houston has more money than most of us thought. Maybe it’s just that they have some serious-*ahem*-cojones.

Omer Asik
Photo Credit: AP

How else can one describe what Houston is doing here? Granted, H-town had a pretty damn good draft, snagging promising talents Jeremy Lamb, Terrence Jones, Furkan Aldemir, and Royce White. As part of the bright side, Houston shipped Courtney Lee to Boston for Purdue grads E’Twaun Moore and Jajuan Johnson, which is not as bad a deal as it looks.

From the sample size of summer league games, it can be reasonably inferred that the Rockets’ rookies are going to develop into quality NBA players. Lamb looks every bit as smooth, smart, and athletic in a Rockets jersey as he did with the Huskies. Jones is just built like an NBA forward, with a host of skills from the post and out in the perimeter. White was a steal in this draft, falling to Houston as the 16th pick. He’s a 6’8″ forward who can run, defend, shoot, pass, and handle the rock.

So, yes, as perplexing as some of Houston’s moves have been, this off season has had some logical moves. But, these pick-ups had better turn out to be worth their lofty deals (Lin’s being back-loaded with $15 mil in the final year), or heads will surely start to roll in the Rockets’ front office.