THE NBA OFF-SEASON
John Granato: Hey, Rockets fan - it's time to man up
Jul 6, 2018, 6:00 am
It's time for Rockets fans to get over the off-season. Revelry on Richmond / Facebook
I can’t believe how almost everyone has lost his mind this NBA offseason. I say his mind because I haven’t heard any women complaining about it. Women are far more level headed about these types of things. Either that or they don’t care what LeBron or Boogie Cousins does. Count me amongst those ladies.
That’s right. I don’t care. Nothing has changed. Nothing.
The Rockets are still the team to beat in the West. Lest we forget it was the Rockets that had the best record in the league. It was the Rockets that had the MVP. It was the Rockets that had the NBA’s executive of the year. It was the Rockets who had a 3-2 lead over the Warriors before Chris Paul went down.
Please don’t tell me that it was the same as Andre Iguadala getting hurt. A guy who has $5 million and loses a million is a lot better off than a guy who has $2 million and loses a million. He still has $4 million. The other guy only has one and apparently you can’t buy a 3-pointer with $1 million. Didn’t know that until after the game. Found out the hard way.
I heard last week that the Lakers signed LeBron James. It really didn’t get much coverage but I have sources who have confirmed it. And? How has this changed anything? Even if Kawhi goes there, which I think is unlikely but could well happen. So? Chances are they will have to give up some of their young talent. If they lose Kuzma and Ingram bringing Kawhi in they’re not going to be better than the Rockets. We’ve seen teams with stars and no supporting cast before. They always fizzle out.
If I was Magic Johnson I’d take a page out of William Wallace’s playbook. (That’s a Braveheart reference for you younger readers.)
Hooooold. Hooooold. Hooooold.
Magic, do not trade away your good young players when you can just wait a year and get Kawhi for free. LeBron will be there waiting patiently. The young guys will get a dose of what it’s like playing with his majesty in pressure situations and your organization will be set up to win over the long haul.
Why am I giving Magic good advice? I hope he trades them all away and stinks forever.
On to Boogie Cousins. Everyone is freaking out over this. Why? First of all he’s not going to be there until March and when he does get there is he really going to make that big a difference? The Warriors didn’t use a center against the Rockets in the postseason. Would they use Boogie? Yes, probably unless the Rockets take advantage of his lazy defensive tendencies and Steve Kerr has to pull him. That’s if he isn’t already on the outs with Kerr because he’s pouting about not getting touches. That’s if he actually comes back full strength from the Achilles. That’s if he can actually handle playoff pressure which he’s never had. That’s if he’s not a round peg in a square hole on this team. That’s if. That’s if. That’s if.
There are no guarantees that the one year Boogie Cousins experiment works. If you’ll remember correctly, the Pelicans were better without him and the Warriors have been pretty good without him.
But the Rockets were better.
And they still are.
But wait. They don’t have Trevor Ariza anymore. You’re not better without Ariza, not now at least. If I had told you that PJ Tucker, Luc Mbah Moute and Gerald Green would be key contributors to you passing the Warriors as best in the West you’d have laughed. But it happened and the executive of the year can make it happen again. I’m not sure what those names are right now. Daryl might not know right now either.
But no one knew at this time last year that the Rockets would do what they did and it appears that no one thinks they can do it again. I’ve heard that a few times. That was their one shot.
Why? Why can’t they be as good or better than last year? What if Chris Paul is healthy throughout the playoffs? What if he plays 70 games instead of 58? What if Clint Capela is even better than he was last year and why shouldn’t he be? What if Eric Gordon gets back to sixth man of the year form?
There are about 100 games ahead to play. You never know. That everyone is throwing in the towel in July is silly to me. Let’s stop whining about how unfair it is how good the Warriors are.
This reminds me of when Johnny Fontaine was crying because he couldn’t get the big role in a major motion picture “Godfather I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.” Vito shot back, “You can act like a man!”
Come on Rockets fans. Act like a man.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.