Just months away from when Little Ball Rockets weren’t playing centers, new Houston head coach Stephen Silas says he’s open to using potentially two at a time.
Emerging big man Christian Wood was a revelation on the recent road trip to Portland and Denver, averaging 27 points (55% FG) and eight rebounds per game. Still, the athletic 25-year-old – who starts in the middle for the 2020-21 Rockets – has struggled at times in terms of bruise defense, physical greats like Jusuf Nurkic of the Trail Blazers and Nikola Jokic with the Nuggets. Still, Silas had little choice but to drive it out as backup center DeMarcus Cousins was sidelined in quarantine and third-stringer Bruno Caboclo struggled vigorously.
That dynamic could change from Thursday against Sacramento, with Cousins now back with the team after clearing his quarantine. But as Silas sees things, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a debate about Wood’s athletics and skill versus Cousins’ strength and physicality. In certain matchups, the Rockets can use both bigs together as Wood has to be agile enough to handle minutes in the power forward spot.
When asked after Wednesday’s team practice if he was open to playing Wood and Cousins together, Silas replied:
Yes, I am absolutely open to it. In order to have DeMarcus who can hold his own against those guys who are low, we don’t have to end up in as many help situations as we saw in the game in Denver against Jokic. We had to help a lot, which opened up all the things he does well. He can actually pass the ball, find cutters and then offensive rebounds, because we’re not in position. Having nieces and nephews will definitely help our mail defense.
But then Christian has the ability to stretch four – which, I guess, now that maybe all four have been stretched. There used to be the Matt Bullards of the world who were stretch fours. But C-Wood can certainly keep that role and play pick and roll, making it difficult for teams to guard.
Wood and Cousins were never in the preseason at the same time, with Cousins sitting out the fourth and final game for scheduled maintenance and Wood missing the first three with a sore elbow. So Silas must have activated both bigs at the same time, which – except for practice time – prevented all of Cousins-Wood’s experiments.
That changes on Thursday evening, when Houston plays its first home game of the regular season. Tipoff between the Rockets (0-2) and Kings (3-1) is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Central from Toyota Center, with the game on AT&T SportsNet Southwest in the usual Houston markets.