Just months taken away from when the Rockets haven’t played baseball, Houston’s new head coach Stephen Silas says he’s open to using both at once.
Emerging big man Christian Wood was a revelation on offense during his recent road trip to Portland and Denver, with an average of 27 points (55% FG) and eight rebounds per game. Nonetheless, the 25-year-old athlete – who will start in the middle for the Rockets 2020-21 – struggled at times on defense against brush, physical bigs like Jusuf Nurkic of the Trail Blazers and Nikola Jokic with the Nuggets. However, Silas had little choice but to ride it, as backup center DeMarcus Cousins was quarantined and Bruno Caboclo was third. struggling hard.
That dynamic could change starting Thursday against Sacramento, with Cousins now back with the team after clearing his quarantine. But as Silas sees it, it may not be a debate about Wood ‘s athleticism and skill against the power and physicality of Cousins. In some matchups, the Rockets could use the two big ones together, as Wood should be flexible enough to handle minutes at the forward power point.
When asked after Wednesday’s team practice whether he was open to playing Wood and Cousins together, Silas replied:
Yeah, I’m definitely open to it. To have DeMarcus, who can hold himself against those low, then we don’t have to go into so many help situations, as we saw in the Denver game against Jokic. We had to help a lot, unlock everything he does well. He can actually get past the ball, find cutters, and then offensive rebounds, because we’re out of position. To Cousins out there that will help our post defense.
But then Christian has the ability to stretch four – which, I think, all four stretches, now. Formerly, Matt Bullards would be the world in four stages. But certainly C-Wood can hold that role and play and pick, and make it difficult for teams to guard.
Wood and Cousins were never active at the same time in the preseason, with Cousins sitting out the final fourth game for planned maintenance and Wood missing the first three with an elbow salty. So the two big ones have not yet been implemented at Silas at the same time, which – in addition to time of use – has prevented any Cousins-Wood testing.
That changes Thursday night, when Houston plays its first home game of the regular season. Tipoff between the Rockets (0-2) and Kings (3-1) is set for 6:00 pm Midway from the Toyota Center, with the game televised on AT&T SportsNet Southwest across Houston’s regular markets.