The new-look Houston Rockets take on the Miami Heat tonight.
Houston has officially refreshed their squad from the 2018 team that should have triumphed over the Kevin Durant-led Golden State Warriors. Eric Gordon was the last holdout, and now he’s in Los Angeles playing with the Clippers. Garrison Mathews and Bruno Fernando are also off to Atlanta for Justin Holiday and Frank Kaminsky. Neither was playing much for Atlanta and were solidly out of the rotation. With each on expiring contracts, we’ll see if they get a chance to showcase themselves for a nice payday this summer the same way that Kelly Olynyk parlayed his time into a big deal with Detroit.
Danny Green and John Wall also were traded to Houston, but Wall is expected to be waived (cue the podcast appearances complaining about how Houston treated him this time). Green only just returned from an ACL injury on February 1 and has played in three games. He’s likely to be waived as well.
Basically, tonight is less a chance to see new faces and more of a chance to see how Stephen Silas will shape his rotation based on the minutes freed up by the various departures.
The Heat are 30-25 and in sixth place in the East. Of course, with how the play-in puts more teams in the running, they are only four up in the loss column from the 11th place Wizards. So they’ll need this game much more than Houston will.
Tip-off is at 7pm CT on AT&T SportsNet Southwest