Suns prepare for never-before-seen small-ball experiment from Rockets

PHOENIX — The National Basketball Association has been around a very, very long time, so it’s not that often you get to say there’s something the league has never seen before. That is the case with the Houston Rockets after the trade deadline.

Houston traded centers Clint Capela and Nene in a four-team deal, getting back wing Robert Covington and center Jordan Bell. They then flipped Bell to Memphis for wing Bruno Caboclo, who figures to be the team’s “backup center” once he gets healthy.

That leaves their roster with only two “bigs” in Tyson Chandler and Isaiah Hartenstein. Neither played for the Rockets in the past, and they still won’t.

So, yes, to present this like a wrestling commentator in a, “It can’t be!” in the surprise return fashion. Yes, it is.

Houston is going to stretch the floor at all times, playing five-out with wings and guards, sacrificing rim protection and rebounding for the best consistent spacing we’ve ever seen for an NBA team.

The Suns get to be the second crash dummy on Friday night in this initial test run for the Rockets before they get to the playoffs. Despite how unique the Rockets’ scheme is, Phoenix isn’t overreacting to the 48-minute look because this style has been a trend in the league the past few years.

“That’s what Houston does,” head coach Monty Williams said after shootaround. “They’ve been innovative in how they play — G League to the pro team. They’re doing it again.”

They are indeed fully leaning into abandoning big men, but the look itself is one that plenty of teams still use with different personnel, like the way Brook Lopez is a stretch-five in Milwaukee.

“Most teams are playing five-out,” Williams said.

The term “five-out” is probably exactly what you assume it is. It refers to all five players being outside the key, spacing out the floor to the highest degree.

You’ll see here that Russell Westbrook attacks the basket in semi-transition, and there’s no help because, well, it can’t really come from anywhere without giving up an open shot. Kyle Kuzma slips in a bit, gets stuck in no man’s land, and Covington takes an open three.

That’s the more traditional sense of seeing it, which is what Phoenix referred to.

“They’ve used that lineup a lot, they just haven’t started with it,” Devin Booker said of Houston.

But to go back to their being no help when someone gets by their man: It’s either going to be a layup or set up an open three-pointer.

Rockets guard James Harden makes a great cut to get around his man here so the Lakers’ LeBron James has to stay as rim protection. One of Harden’s two shooters is going to be open and he finds Eric Gordon.

That’s what the Rockets are going to try and produce every time, and they likely will succeed. As Williams says, the key difference in the Rockets doing this is that they’ve got two former MVPs as off-the-dribble threats that not only get to the basket and draw help. Harden and Westbrook are also tremendous passers out of those situations.

“This team just has an all-world type of guy in James, and Russ just dropped 40 on those guys last night so it’s a different dynamic with those two guys,” Williams said.

The good news for the Suns is that Westbrook is rested for back-to-backs, so he’s out for Friday’s matchup. But Westbrook is the worst shooter by far that the Rockets will play, so they will truly be putting five shooters on the floor at all times.

The “center” is P.J. Tucker, who Suns fans know is the best man for the job with his toughness and rebounding ability at 6-foot-5.

“P.J. is a dog, man. He’s not going to back down to anybody,” Booker said of his former vet and teammate.

“That’s how he plays. He plays like a seven-footer.”

That hasn’t stopped fans from having fun with it once the news broke that it would be Tucker in a center role. Tucker even got in on it.

 

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A post shared by P.J. Tucker (@pjtucker) on Feb 5, 2020 at 5:12pm PST

Booker smiled when the photo was brought up and seemed to enjoy the fun before once again reinforcing that Tucker is legit for that role.

On Thursday night in the debut of this new look, Houston survived enough in the key areas to win. Despite the Lakers having probably the best overall size in the league at center, the Rockets were only outrebounded by one and the Lakers had just 11 second-chance points.

On the flip side, Houston made 10 more three-pointers and shot 45.2% on 42 attempts.

That’s the formula for them and the Suns know that.

“We have to instill our will on the game, get in the paint and try and use our size against them,” Booker said.

Phoenix figures to be one of the teams that can take advantage of this the most thanks to Deandre Ayton.

The big fella is tied for fourth in the league in offensive rebounds per game at 4.0, and as we saw with the Lakers, it’ll be a free bucket for him once he gets those due to the lack of height to contest him.

Somehow, though, the Lakers had only six offensive rebounds. Again, you can’t extend too many bodies forward to crash the glass or the Rockets will run you out of the gym in transition.

So taking advantage of the size means feeding the mismatch, right? Well, when you’re forcing things, mistakes are going to happen and the Lakers looked completely out of sorts doing so.

Remember, the likes of Covington, Tucker and Danuel House Jr. are long and strong dudes, even at a size disadvantage.

When it comes to finding Ayton and the size inside, Williams sees it in a different way than this writer initially thought. He wants the Suns to be pushing it up the court themselves.

“I think you’ve got to get stops and rebounds,” Williams said. “Long rebounds are going to be a big deal tonight. If we can get that long rebound and take off and DA is running the floor, I think we can make a lot of progress and be productive.

“It’s pretty obvious they’re used to playing this style of basketball. So, yeah, we want to get the ball to DA inside but we also have to get the ball first so we can take advantage of his size and athletic ability.”

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