This is something that the guys over at The Crawfish Boxes do every morning, and it always struck me as a good way to fake writing anything of content generate discussion. So without further ado, here's some Rockets links.
-- The Rockets have made Chuck Hayes and Shane Battier co-captains, which is apparently news to both of them.
"Every now and then, if the team has to lodge a complaint, the captain has to do it," Battier said. "So if guys are complaining about something, they'd make me go talk to the coach or Daryl (Morey, the general manager) about it. Every now and then, a team meeting. But if I wasn't quote-unquote team captain, I'd speak up."
...
Now, when he speaks up, he can do it from the front of the room. He and Battier can ask how they became so honored, though Battier has a theory.
"I think everyone assumed," he said. "The referees just came and said ‘Shane, the meeting.' So I said, ‘Oh, all right. I'm a captain.'"
-- Aaron Brooks' option for next season will be picked up by the Rockets. That's not really surprising. Despite the opinions of more "traditional" analysts, as well as a lot of people in the stats community, Morey is in love with Brooks' game, and at $2 million he's a bargain.
-- Bethlehem Shoals (of Free Darko fame) over at TSN gives us all a reason to appreciate the Warriors.
I know many of us wanted the Rockets to be some sort of Daryl Morey Gone Wild phantasmagoria, coached by that master of intricate ball movement Rick Adelman. It was supposed to be the Dorkiest Show on Earth. Yet games like this, however distorted, do get at what's truly solid on the Rockets, what they can look to going ahead no matter what the fancy calculations and coaching smarts conjure up.
There are talents here, the kind that any NBA team would be glad to have as their nucleus. That it took a trip to the haunted house of Oracle to reveal that is in line with all great Western myths—we return to ordinary life more enlightened when, faced with the extraordinary, we realize that the good and true is all we have to fall back on.
-- This one's a little older, but I think it's still relevant: Kevin Pelton at Basketball Prospectus gives his reactions to the game against Portland.
-- Lastly, courtesy of the fine people over at Clutch Fans, here's Budinger's impressive dunk against the Blazers: