Daily Rocket Science: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

For a team that’s eliminated from the playoffs, the Houston Rockets have dominated the headlines as of late, stealing the spotlight from teams that are still competing.

They say any attention is good attention, and I suppose there is some truth to that. The Houston Rockets are not normally a team that gets discussed by the media, but that has been far from the truth over the past couple of weeks.

From the head coach search to Dwight Howard’s appearance on Inside the NBA to Twitter wars between ESPN personalities and Patrick Beverley, to say the Rockets have been the talk of the league would be an understatement. While not all of it has been good talk, it has been refreshing to be able to read about my favorite team.

For today’s Daily Rocket Science, we’ll be taking a look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly talk that’s been going around concerning Red Nation.

Houston Rockets news and notes from around the web

First, the Good: One of the bright spots from this disappointing season was the unpredicted play of Michael Beasley. Nobody expected the Chinese Basketball Association MVP to be notable in the NBA ever again, but the Rockets took a chance on him, and it paid off. As Space City Scoop’s Joshua Van Horn points out, Beas ended up being one of the few playmakers on the roster not named James Harden.

"And let’s face it, the Rockets are short on players who are capable of scoring the basketball without Harden on the floor. In all honesty, Beasley is the only player capable of doing so consistently. Hopefully, the Rockets will address that problem as well, but as it stands right now, Beasley is their sole option."

Next, the Bad: Charles Barkley is one of the biggest Rockets haters there is, and he made that clear by noting over and over that the head coaching job in Houston is a bad one to take. As Greg Rajan of the Houston Chronicle reports, the former Rocket has advised Kenny Smith not to leave his position as an analyst. Whether Kenny will heed his words or not is up in the air, but Chuck made sure to get his point across.

“I don’t think he’s going to take that job,” Barkley said. “Nobody says, ‘I want to take on the Titanic’ other than Dave Joerger (in Sacramento). I think Dave Joerger is a heck of a coach, but to take over Sacramento, that’s just stupid. That’s a bad job, and Kenny is not stupid.

…

“I knew he was going to interview for the job. I’ve told Kenny, ‘Why would you take a bad job? If you’re going to take a job, take that Minnesota job.’ That’s a good job, or the Wizards. Those are two good jobs. Sacramento is not a good job and Houston is not a good job. If you’re going to leave TNT (and) a really good job where you’re working one day, you better not take Houston or Sacramento, that’s just stupid.”

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Finally, the Ugly: It’s getting to be old news that Howard opened up on the air after being questioned by Barkley, but Russ Bengtson of Complex Sports has a different take on the conversation, defending Howard and making some ugly remarks about both Chuck’s comments and career, as well as taking some shots at Harden’s play. As an unashamed Dwight supporter, I back Bengtson 100%, other than his plea to Howard to leave Houston this summer.

"So move on, Dwight. Not only from the Rockets, but from opinions of proud know-nothing blowhards like Barkley and O’Neal and any other hot-take purveyors who listen to them. When Kenny Smith says you need to rebound more like Charles Barkley—a guy who averaged 11.7 per game to your 12.7—don’t just nod and agree. You averaged 11.8 rebounds per game THIS SEASON. A big man can’t make his teammates pass him the ball, but he sure as hell doesn’t just have to sit there and listen to bulls***. Next time TNT invites you to fill in, do what Harden won’t do and pass."

It’s yet to be determined if Beasley will return to knock down long 2s in Houston, the Rockets haven’t hired a head coach, and Dwight is still supposedly on the fence as to whether he’ll opt out or not. Red Nation has a long summer in store, with many decisions yet to be made. Hopefully, after all is said and done, there will be a lot more good than there is bad and ugly.

Send our Editor any Rockets-related article/video/tweet/gram/vine that we may have missed via Twitter direct message to @TTOTambz.

Next: Houston Rockets Should Draft Point Guard Tyler Ulis

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