BOUNCE-BACK YEAR

The Rockets have 99 problems but a Splash ain't one

The Rockets have 99 problems but a Splash ain't one
Gordon is one of the bright spots this year.Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Eric Gordon is having a tremendous season so a far for the Houston Rockets despite their record. Last season with the Rockets, Gordon dealt with countless lower body injuries and poor shooting. Gordon took it upon himself to have a better season, change his perception, and silence trade speculations. It almost seemed that Gordon lost his style of play.

Gordon only played 36 games in the 2019-2020 season. In that season, Gordon shot 31.7% from three, including having the worst true shooting percentage of his career, which was 51%. He even scored 14 points per game, which is the lowest he scored in his Rockets tenure. Gordon's injuries impacted his performance throughout the season, which hurt his shooting during the playoffs. Although Gordon came back for the 2019-2020 playoffs, he still shot 32 percent from three. Gordon shot 40% in the 2018-2019 playoffs with the Rockets, so it was a down year for him.

Trading the 32-year-old Gordon seemed unlikely throughout the offseason. Packaging Gordon with Russell Westbrook and James Harden became interesting though. Gordon's injuries were questionable because of the season he had. Even though trade scenarios circled Harden and Westbrook, none of the rumors directly involved Gordon. The Rockets seemed content that Gordon could have a comeback year. And he was confident that his knee surgery could help his performance this season.

"I needed knee surgery," Gordon said. "It's tough any time you have surgery during the year. It's just tough because I'm trying to get my balance, and everything takes time, and I'm trying to rush back, so we can see … how good we can be and how … good we can be ... down the stretch. Last year was just a tough year for me. I can definitely expect better for sure."

Gordon's usage rating has surpassed his 2017-2018 performance from 23.8%-24.9% this year.

"I've had the ball in my hand more since I [have] been here, period," Gordon said. "I'm able to play make more, come off screens, and get the ball in various ways. And that has allowed me to have a lot more opportunities."

Off those opportunities, Gordon has averaged 18.6 points per game and shooting 36% from three, while his true shooting percentage is at 61%, which is a career high. Gordon is shooting 46 percent from the field this season, which is another career high. Coach Silas has allowed Gordon to take a much more aggressive role for the Rockets this year. Gordon is 4th on the team in field goal attempts and points per game. He is thriving off consistent ball movement and screen rotation for the Rockets. If Gordon is not scoring off catch-and-shoot, he is driving toward the basket. Ever since Gordon's knee surgery, he's become a bouncer again. That has allowed Gordon to attack the rim more for the Rockets. Gordon is 46% from the field when inside the restricted area of the court.

"To have a player like Eric Gordon coming off the bench is… most teams would love that and that is a luxury for us," Coach Silas said. "He can start and come off your bench."

Hopefully, Eric's play continues to blossom for the Rockets, so they can get back on track. The Rockets have lost their last four out of five games recently.

Up next: The Rockets play the Heat on Thursday night.

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Gerrit Cole and Hunter Brown share the same agent now. Composite Getty Image.

There's no denying that this year's World Series champs (LA Dodgers) have some serious firepower on their roster. And one of the ways they were able to assemble such a talented team involved players like Shohei Ohtani being willing to differ their money.

Just this week, there was some speculation that the Yankees could do something similar when restructuring Gerrit Cole's contract, that would allow them more flexibility in the present.

The Yankees ended up calling Cole's bluff about opting out, and no adjustment was made to the contract.

But this situation got us thinking, would the Astros consider a tactic like this to maximize the roster? At this point, it doesn't seem all that likely. Just last year, the team handed out a $95 million contract to Josh Hader, without any differed money.

The other factor that also has to come into play is the tax threshold. The organization would have to give the okay to go over it again in order to make a splash signing this offseason. Which unfortunately does not sound like the plan right now when listening to GM Dana Brown at the Winter Meetings.

Astros pitcher hires a new agent

Now that MLB free agency is in full swing, most of the attention moving forward will be focused on players like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto.

But for Astros fans, there might be someone else to keep an eye on this offseason and next. Starting pitcher Hunter Brown quietly hired super agent Scott Boras recently.

With Brown still another season away from his first year of arbitration, he should be with the Astros for the foreseeable future.

However, the hiring of Boras does raise some interesting questions. Why make the move now? Certainly, Brown could use some more cash, as he's set to make less than a million in 2025.

Perhaps Brown wants to land some HEB commercials to fatten his wallet. And if Bregman does leave the team in free agency, a spot will open up for another player, in theory. And three of the players in the HEB ads are represented by Boras (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers Jr. and Bregman).

Jeremy Pena has been stacking cash from Taquerias Arandas for several years now, maybe Brown would like an opportunity to do an endorsement similar to that.

I say all this half kidding, but Brown does look like the future ace of this staff, and I'm sure there are plenty of advertisers that would have interest in Hunter.

There is another element that could have initiated the hiring of Boras. Would Brown be willing to sign an extension early with the Astros similar to the deal the team made with Cristian Javier?

Their situations are actually pretty comparable, except Javier was one year further into his career (3 years of MLB service time) and eligible for arbitration before agreeing to the extension.

If Brown was heading into arbitration this offseason, it wouldn't be surprising at all for the Astros to be considering a long-term deal with him that buys up all his arbitration years. The 'Stros love these types of contract extensions. We've seen them do it with Bregman, the aforementioned Javier, and others.

One of the main differences though between Brown and Javier is their rookie year numbers. Brown only pitched 20.1 innings in his first season (2022). While Javier pitched 54.1 innings his rookie year. However, his rookie season was in 2020, so Javier completed a full year of service time despite the shortened season. Whereas Brown didn't get called up until September 2022.

Another difference is performance. Javier never posted an ERA over 3.55 in his first three seasons. As opposed to Brown, who had a disastrous year in 2023. He made 29 starts, recording an ERA over 5.

It wasn't until May of 2024 that Brown started using his two-seam fastball with great success and becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League.

The Astros had a bigger sample size to judge Javier. However, if Brown has another quality season in 2025, Houston and Brown should definitely be having conversations about an extension. Especially with Framber Valdez being in the final year of his contract in 2025. Hunter could be the unquestioned ace one year from now.

Still, though, there are some concerns with handing out these early extensions. For example, if the Astros had it to do over again, would they still extend Javier?

After receiving his extension before the 2023 season, he went on to post the highest ERA of his career (4.56), and then blew out his elbow in May 2024.

And if we're going by Luis Garcia's recovery timeline from Tommy John surgery, we may not see Javier pitch at all in 2025.

So even with a sample size of three terrific seasons, the Javier extension looks like a miss with the benefit of hindsight. It will be interesting to see if that deal impacts Dana Brown's decision-making going forward.

Especially since Javier was Dana's first big contract extension as the Astros GM.

Be sure to watch the video as we discuss how the Astros can get the most out of their roster, the pros and cons of signing Hunter Brown early, and much more!

*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon. Find all via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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