The Houston Rockets had an extremely successful season in 2014-15, making it all the way to the Western Conference Finals before losing to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors. Because of the success they had last year, Houston is understandably trying to keep as much of the team together as they possibly can. Josh Smith and Jason Terry are still free agents at the moment, but they have been in talks with the Rockets to return. It seems like Terry will be signed first, according to Shams Charania of RealGM.com.
Terry was reportedly in talks to return to go back to the Dallas Mavericks, but that ended up not happening and now it appears he will be back with Houston. The Rockets signed Marcus Thornton on Monday but said after the signing that Thornton's addition would have no effect on whether they re-sign Terry.
Thornton and Terry are similar players in that they both are offensive guys off the bench, but Terry is a little more consistent while Thornton is capable of taking over a game. Terry actually took over as the starting point guard for the Rockets last season after Patrick Beverley went down with a season-ending injury. Although James Harden did most of the ball-handling, Terry is valuable in that sense because he can play both point and shooting guard.
Terry will turn 38 before this season begins and will be playing in his 17th NBA season. The best part of his game has always been three-point shooting, as he is a 38 percent career shooter from beyond the arc. Terry is also a great leader and has a lot of bravado, which helps give teammates confidence. As a former champion with the Dallas Mavericks, Terry is a good guy to have on your favorite team.
It will be interesting to see if Terry and Thornton eat into each other's minutes this season as they are both back up guards, but it is possible that if Smith doesn't re-sign, Thornton can take his minutes and allow the Rockets to go very small. Either way, Terry can't play too many minutes at his advanced age and will likely average around 20 a game, which is why Thornton was brought in.
