Falcon Points

With busy day of trades, O'Brien's transformation to villain is now complete

With busy day of trades, O'Brien's transformation to villain is now complete
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

We all love super heroes and comic book movies. A hero fights for good, does his or her best to protect us from evil and those who would destroy our world. They keep the villains from eliminating all we love.

In reality, super heroes don't exist. But sadly, super villains do.

Bill O'Brien's transformation to the latter is now complete.

With Saturday's trade of Jadeveon Clowney to the Seahawks for basically a warm bucket of spit was the final step in his transformation from slightly above average coach to a Chip Kelly-type destroyer of worlds.

O'Brien basically sold Clowney off for a pair of fringe players and a third-round pick. The simple question is why? Why not just keep him this season, when you claim to be a contender? Especially considering the other moves the team made, this makes little sense.

Bullying the bully

O'Brien, the ultimate bully, allowed himself to be bullied into a bad trade because he was too stubborn to suck it up and realize for the now, they were better off keeping Clowney. If you were going to trade him, it should have been on your own terms. Or done months ago. But what happens when someone bullies a bully? He folds.

So the Texans give away an asset for next to nothing.

No offensive tackle to protect Deshaun Watson. Not even a running back. Not even a premium draft pick. O'Brien's rise to the top of the power structure has put the Texans in a precarious position. He has basically solid off assets for almost nothing, simply because he believes he knows better than anyone else.

A real super hero - or, even a GM - would have stepped in and stopped it. But O'Brien has consolidated all the power. In Dark Knight, we learn you die a hero or live long enough to be a villain. O'Brien should have been fired - or at least had his wings clipped - two years ago. Instead he has lived to be the villain.

Tearing it down

There really is nothing positive to pull out of this trade, The Texans are not better. O'Brien dismantled Gary Kubiak's talented offensive line, letting Ben Jones and Brandon Brooks walk in free agency and dealing Duane Brown for nothing. He has yet to rebuild it and they have suffered ever since. Now he has given away a solid if slightly overrated defensive asset for nothing.

Why? Uncontrollable ego? Stubborness? The idea that he knows better than everyone else? That has not worked out very well so far. Short of winning a Super Bowl, which seems incredibly unlikely, O'Brien has once again set himself to look like the bad guy.

Every villain tries to get on your good side

O'Brien finally landed the much-needed left tackle later in the day when he picked up stud Laremy Tunsil from Miami. But the price was incredibly high. Two first rounders, a second, Julien Davenport and Johnson Bademosi for Tunsil and receiver Kenny Stills. He also dealt Martinas Rankin for running back Carlos Hyde. While adding those two was a huge positive, the price just makes the Clowney trade look worse. Rankin becomes yet another failed third-round pick. They could have gotten a Tunsil like haul for Clowney before the draft and failed. And if they had never traded Brown, this isn't even necessary...so even the good moves make him look like a dictator. A coach who is playing GM (again, see Kelly) does not look ahead.

And thus here we are

He might not be the villain we wanted. But he is the one we have.

And there are no heroes left in the world. We have to hope it all works out.

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The Rockets beat the Mavericks, 133-96. Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

Tari Eason scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Houston Rockets to an easy 133-96 win over the Dallas Mavericks Friday night.

Jalen Green added 23 points with nine rebounds, despite sitting the entire fourth quarter to help the Rockets to their fifth straight win, tying their longest such streak of the season.

Houston led by double digits most of the night and was up by 16 in the third quarter before scoring the next seven points, with a 3 from Eason, to make it 80-57 midway through the quarter.

The Rockets were up by 21 later in the third before using a 10-0 run to push the lead to 96-65 near the end of the period, and most of their starters didn't play in the fourth.

Brandon Williams scored 25 points off the bench for the Mavericks as they lost for the seventh time in eight games. Klay Thompson was 2 of 16 for five points with nine rebounds.

Takeaways

Mavericks: Dallas continues to struggle with most of its top players out with injuries and lost another one Friday with coach Jason Kidd saying that Dante Exum sustained a broken left hand that will likely end his season.

Rockets: Houston has taken advantage of a schedule with six straight home games, going 4-0 so far on the homestand as it tries to climb the Western Conference standings.

Key moment

Houston was in control of the game from the start but put it out of reach with its 37-point third quarter.

Key stat

The Rockets had 29 second-chance points to just two by Dallas on a night Houston had a 17-6 advantage in offensive rebounds.

Up next

Houston hosts Chicago on Saturday night and Dallas hosts Philadelphia on Sunday.

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