The Return of The BZD

Johnathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle and Adrian Wojnarowsky of ESPN are both reporting that Jeff Bzdelik is the Houston Rockets “Once and Future Defensive Coach”.

According to the reports Bzdelik will rejoin the Rockets at the end of the month of November and resume his duties as the defensive mind behind the Rockets. According to the reports, his retirement was related to personal issues, rather than basketball ones. Evidently those issues will be resolved well enough for Bzdelik to return to coaching for the Rockets. It also seems Rockets owner Tillman Fertitta has been in frequent contact with Bzdelik, urging him to return to the team.

These reports make sense to me, in that giving reasons such as “He doesn’t want to coach Carmelo.” never rang true. Carmelo was a done deal, effectively, since early summer, so why the retirement on the eve of training camp? Now it makes sense; family priorities outweighed every other consideration.

It means that the architect of “Switch Everything”, a defense that ranked as high as #3 in the NBA will return. It appeared that the Rockets had found some defensive mojo anyhow, holding the Bulls to seven points in a quarter. Adding Jeff Bzdelik to the picture can only improve it.

Will the Rockets keep switching everything? I don’t know. But we do know that the minds behind one of the best defenses in the NBA last season will be aboard to make changes as necessary.

Roy Rogers may feel disappointed, and honestly I hoped to see him and the team turn the defense around. Most others will feel glad a man with so many consonants in his name will be at the helm of the defense once again.

Reports that Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute long to return to the Rockets remain unconfirmed.