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It wasn't until he was traded to the Toronto Raptors that his career really took off, though. He averaged 13.8 points and 6.6 assists while shooting 37.5 percent from three-point range during the 2010-12 seasons. Kyle Lowry: Like Martin, Lowry was one of the stars during Houston's lost years. At least he was a key part of the trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder that brought Harden to Houston. But Martin only played 144 games with Houston, and the Rockets missed the postseason in all three of his seasons on the roster. Kevin Martin: He averaged 23.5 points and arguably should have been an All-Star in 2010-11. It's still preposterous to think that the Rockets couldn't even get out of the first round in 2014 with Parsons, Harden and Dwight Howard at their disposal. Battier was the toughest player to leave out of our top 10.Ĭhandler Parsons: One of Houston's best return-on-investment players of the past two decades, this second-round pick spent three seasons with the Rockets, scored more than 3,000 points and didn't make a seven-figure income until leaving for the Dallas Mavericks. He was a perfect fit with Yao and McGrady as a guy who didn't need many touches but could deliver daggers when necessary. Battier was named to the All-Defensive second team twice while with Houston and shot 38.8 percent from distance. Shane Battier: He was the original Ariza, but a much less assertive one on the offensive end. And at just 35.4 percent, he was rather average for a three-point "specialist."
#2000 HOUSTON ROCKETS ROSTER SERIES#
But except for one great series against the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2015 Western Conference Semifinals, Ariza always seemed to vanish in the postseason. Trevor Ariza: In addition to spending five solid seasons in Houston as a three-and-D wing, he played a key part in James Harden's development into a drive-and-dish expert. In his defense, it could not have been easy to bounce between go-to scorer, set-up guy and background contributor depending on whether McGrady and Yao were healthy. Alston shot 38.1 percent from the field and consistently had the worst offensive rating among Houston's starters. Rafer Alston: He was Houston's third-leading scorer and top assist man for most of the Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming era, but he was never an efficient one. It often feels like Gordon is one of Houston's most indispensable pieces, but how much value is he actually adding? And considering only four Rockets have been named to multiple All-Star Games in the past two decades, you should already know who our top four players are.Įric Gordon: Though he's averaged at least 16.2 points in each of his three seasons with Houston, his PER (13.5), WS/48 (0.081), box plus/minus (-1.7) and VORP (0.4) are all staggeringly low. It also helped a couple of players who played a key part in bringing the Rockets back from those down years.īut since 12 of Houston's last 20 seasons featured either first-round exits from the playoffs or winning records that fell short of qualifying for the postseason, the individual accolades were most important by far. The team-success factor didn't play a huge part in this ranking since the Rockets haven't even won the Western Conference Finals since 1995, but it did hurt a few guys who peaked during Houston's brief playoff droughts (2000-12). Contributions before then will be mentioned in career highlights but not measured. Only a player's production since the beginning of the 1999-00 season factored in here. To fill out the rest of the top 10, we considered individual production and accolades (All-Star Games, All-NBA teams, etc.), contributions to team success and advanced metrics such as win shares (WS), value over replacement player (VORP) and player efficiency rating (PER).
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And though both of Chris Paul's seasons in Houston ended in heartbreak against the Golden State Warriors, he was also clearly one of the best Rockets of the past two decades. Clint Capela has rapidly become one of the best current centers. James Harden is already one of the best to ever play in the NBA and is hands down the best Houston Rocket since 2000. James Harden, Clint Capela and Chris Paul Tyler Kaufman/Associated Press