When the Golden State Warriors revolutionized the NBA with their “death lineup” that had Draymond Green at the center position, some teams followed the small-ball trend, trying to catch up to the Warriors. Nowadays, small-ball lineups are much more common than when the Golden State Warriors won their first title.
One of those teams that tried to run small-ball full-time was the Houston Rockets during the 2019-20 season. They acquired Russell Westbrook during the offseason to pair with James Harden, and eventually traded away starting center Clint Capela, deciding to go all-in on coach Mike D’Antoni’s version of small-ball. That meant that 6’5″ P. J. Tucker became starting center. While it gave the Rockets a disadvantage in rebounding, it definitely gave them an advantage in terms of speed and shooting.
There was once a graphic that circulated featuring the heights of all starting centers on Western Conference teams at the time. Twitter user @currypistonn brought it back to the forefront recently. It’s clear from the image, that P. J. Tucker was at a huge height disadvantage. These Rockets were certainly a fun team, and many fans reminisced on watching P. J. Tucker play the center position.
Still can’t believe the Rockets did this to PJ Tucker pic.twitter.com/kAkPZozct4
— Mink Flow (@currypistonn) October 2, 2021
The small-ball experiment wasn’t a success for the Rockets, and they ended up losing to the eventual champions in the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the Rockets were partly hampered due to Russell Westbrook sustaining a quad injury. Daryl Morey believed that those Rockets had a greater championship ceiling without a center, and who knows what would have happened if the team was fully healthy. What’s certain though, is that P. J. Tucker’s defensive abilities as an undersized center made it all work for the team.
There is no question that those Rockets were a good team, and it would have certainly been interesting to see another year of full-time small ball with Russell Westbrook and James Harden leading the charge. Alas, things did not turn out that way, but we can certainly reminisce on the joy and fun that team brought to their fans via their unorthodox style.
