Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets: Franchise players in each NBA Team – NBA Feature Part 8
Detroit Pistons – Greg Monroe
15.4 points per game on a 52.1 percent shooting from the floor, 9.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals in just his second NBA year, Greg Monroe is tipped by many as the next break out big of the league.
However he is on a team in which there is no help whatsoever – the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons let their best player Ben Gordon walk away this off season and their only powerful acquisition came in the form of Andre Drummond, the under polished rookie who also play in the front court.
Andre’s arrivals however may result in lesser touches for Monroe on the glass and even more double teams given that there are no dead eye perimeter shooter left to bank on. However if the 7 foot rookie can surprise a few people
with his performances next season, life might become a bit easy for Monroe and the Pistons can find themselves a lethal front court duo.
Houston Rockets – Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik
Goran Dragic, Kyle Lowry and Luis Scola were all ace players for the Houston rockets till last season, but the dynamics of this franchise changed significantly during the off- season.
The Rockets let both of their point guards in Dragic and Lowry leave the franchise this summer, and amnestied Luis Scola, clearly announcing their intentions to a new beginning. In return, Houston got two potential superstars through
back loaded contracts – Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks and Omer Asik from the Chicago Bulls – and both of them have the potential to be the centre piece of the franchise in the years to come.
Asik was mostly used as a backup to Joakim Noah at the Bulls. He is a seven foot giant who flourishes on the defensive glass. The offensive aspect of his game however still needs major improvements and if he really likens to his
new head coach Kevin McHale, himself a legendary big, Asik’s versatility and numbers can increase significantly.
Lin, in my personal opinion, was more of a fluke, but such is the hype around him, that I cannot dare rule him out of the future franchise player contention.
The undrafted guard out of Harvard, who mesmerized NBA with his stellar performances last season, is still untested and the Rockets have invested a lot of money and faith in him. If Lin continues to play like he did during a brief
spell at the Knicks, it’s only a matter a before he becomes the alpha dog of the team, but if doesn’t, it will be gamble gone extremely bad for the Rockets.
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