James Harden and Jeremy Lin are still learning their way around the streets of Houston, but they’ve wasted no time finding early season form in the opening week of NBA action.
Linsanity met Beardsanity on October 27th when the Oklahoma City Thunder shipped Harden to the Rockets for Kevin Martin, rookie Jeremy Lamb and draft picks. The trade was an early solution to what loomed as an unsolvable problem for the Thunder, the James Harden contract situation.
Oklahoma City were not willing to delve into luxury tax territory and reward Harden with a lucrative contract after already paying stars Westbrook, Durant and Ibaka to comfortable extensions.
The drama was never going to end well, with it being obvious that there a line of teams that were ready to throw a max contract at Harden the second he hit restricted free agency.
Instead of dealing with a season long headache, Thunder general manager Sam Presti has cast James Harden off to the Rockets, a team that were desperate for a star (Dwight Howard) during the offseason.
Tracing back the Rockets’ dealings to organise the collection they had on offer, there’s a wave of quality players that went out, headlined by Kyle Lowry and Samuel Dalembert.
So the confusing Houston Rockets just became the offensively abusing Houston Rockets, boasting the backcourt of Jeremy Lin and James Harden. The duo have opened the season over three games boasting the incredible combined average of 50.6 points, 13.6 assists and 12 rebounds per game.
To put in perspective how amazing that start is, the combined average between Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul is 49.7 points, 13.6 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game.
The Houston Rockets backcourt is outperforming the All-NBA backcourt in the first three games of the 2012-13 NBA season, and it’s not like Paul nor Bryant are slumping.
Of course, this kind of scorching hot form isn’t going to continue. Today the Rockets fell to the Blazers in overtime as Harden was held to 22 and gave up 5 turnovers. He is human.
But given that this time last season, neither man was starting on an NBA squad (admittedly, Harden did so by choice) and neither has averaged over 15 points in a season before, this is an astounding start.
A week ago, the Houston Rockets this season were expected to be a sideshow, while the real teams prepared for the playoffs. But now with a backcourt Ball Don’t Lie called “the best in the NBA”, it’s looking more and more likely the Rockets could be playoff-bound.
The only question now is ‘how far’?
How far can the core of Omer Asik, James Harden and Jeremy Lin go? It’s not going to be an overnight rise to the top, but the trio have time on their side. Asik is 26, Harden is 23 and Lin turned 24 in August.
Not only is their core young, but they’re all signed through until the end of the 2015 season (Harden until the end of 2018). The Rockets also currently boast the lowest the payroll in the NBA, having their total team salary come in just under $47 million.
It’s a far cry from the $100 million payroll the Lakers are fielding this season, and the Rockets are already up two wins on them.
James Harden and Jeremy Lin have started the season on fire, what the rest of the year holds is less certain. Taking the man behind Linsanity and then a scoring machine with a beard that makes Rick Ross jealous is just screaming for the media to focus in on your team.
Lucky for Daryl Morey and the Houston Rockets, Jeremy Lin and James Harden have absolutely no fear of the big stage.
Today’s loss against Portland exposed a lot of holes in this young Rockets team and provided a stern reminder that three games isn’t enough to anoint the Houston as anything except exciting, but the future is much brighter than it was seven days ago.
The Rockets have turned a joke of a franchise into a curt, critic silencing response.
“What happens when a bearded man and a Harvard graduate walk into a basketball stadium?”
They score, pass and rebound better than the best.
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