MONDAY, 10/3/05 – Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the opening of Rockets training camp! As we approach the new season, I’m sure every Rocket fan is excited about the addition of Stromile Swift, Derek Anderson, the return of Dikembe Mutombo, Yao‘s new 5-year deal, and T-Mac doing his thing once again.

The only downer is that there is one player the Rockets didn’t retain this off-season that worries me, and that’s backup power forward Scott Padgett. I know Padgett can easily be overlooked because he isn’t that flashy of a player, but he shot a team-high 39.7% from three-point territory last year. There were several games last year where Padgett was incredible from downtown to pull out victories.

Mike James was the next closest Rocket bench player with a 38.6% 3PT average, but James may be starting at point guard this season since Bob Sura‘s future is questionable after undergoing a second off-season knee surgery last week. So James will most likely be handling the ball more this season, and probably won’t have as much stamina to reliably hit the trey like last year. The same could be said for newcomer Derek Anderson, who shot 38.4% from behind the arc. Like James, he didn’t play that many minutes last year and will probably see his percentage drop with more playing time.

Jon Barry was respectable with a 39.2% average, but he probably won’t play that many minutes since this is most likely his final season before retiring. David Wesley hit 37.5% of his three-pointers, but he hit several cold spells that were costly to the team. T-Mac shot only 32.6%, and with a percentage like that, should not be relied upon as their primary three-point threat given how much he handles the ball.

So that’s a breakdown of all the long-distance shooters playing guard or small forward who had any material playing time last year. With Padgett leaving, there really isn’t any threat from the power forward spot. The Rockets have always wanted one of their PFs to drain treys (e.g., Matt Bullard, Robert Horry, Kenny Thomas, Eddie Griffin) to stretch the defense. Now with Padgett gone, they will need to find someone during training camp who can fill the void, or the media will soon be lameting the fact the Rockets are pitiful from long range.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2005 at 3:57 am and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.