5 former Rockets that deserve another look in 2020-21

5. Ryan Anderson

Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey has made no qualms about his desired style of play: threes, threes, and more threes. Oh, and did I mention that the Rockets like to shoot threes?

The Rockets’ have finished with at least the fourth-most 3-point attempts during the tenure of their last four coaches, which includes Rick Adelman, Kevin McHale, J.B. Bickerstaff, and Mike D’Antoni. But the Rockets struggled to make their threes during the 2019-20 season, as they shot just 34.5 percent from deep during this past season, which was 24th-best in the league.

To add color to that, the Rockets haven’t performed that poorly from deep since the 2007-08 season, when they made just 34.2 percent of their threes, which was 26th-best. The Rockets were a team largely devoid of shooters during the first season of the Russell Westbrook and James Harden pairing, which poses a challenge for a team with it’s sights set on spacing the floor and surrounding Westbrook with shooters.

Enter Ryan Anderson, the former Houston Rockets forward, who made a living by shooting threes in the league, as he finished the 2011-12 season with the most threes made, and followed that up with a second-place finish in the following season.

Anderson’s shooting touch once landed him an $80 million contract from Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, and he finished his first season in Houston with the ninth-most threes, while also making 40.3 percent of his treys during the 2016-17 season.

Anderson faced a slight regression during the 2017-18 season, as he made 38.6 percent of his treys in year two of his Rockets stint, which still led the team. The Rockets invited Anderson to their training camp at the beginning of the 2019-20 season, but passed on the chance to sign him, and the remainder of the league also passed on signing him.

But the circumstances are much different now, and the Rockets are going to need to bring in a low-cost, well-proven 3-point shooter, and RyNo made 39.5 percent of his threes, while donning a Rockets uniform. The Rockets would be hard-pressed to find a better 3-point shooter, at a lower cost than Anderson.

Next: No. 4