[Chron] Alexander's drive charts Rockets' course

Alexander's drive charts Rockets' course

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, on the phone from Florida, apologized for pronouncing Omer Asik's name incorrectly.

"My girlfriend gets mad at me every time I do," he said.

He hadn't mispronounced it, his girlfriend apparently having done a good job training him to say "O-mair AH-shick."

It's doubtful the 7-foot Turkish center cares, as long as Alexander spells Asik's name correctly on his sizable paychecks.

Alexander did a double take last summer when Rockets general manager Daryl Morey asked to sign Asik, a free agent who averaged three points and four rebounds in two seasons with Chicago, to a three-year, $25.1 million contract.

"I did say to myself, 'I'm signing a guy who scores three points a game for more than $8.3 million a year?' " Alexander said.

After understandably asking a few questions along those lines, he told Morey to do it.

"It was a lot of trust," Alexander said. "It also was a lot of risk."

The fact the Rockets have an owner who is involved at least by phone on almost a daily basis with Morey, yet trusts him and his staff to make the ultimate, if risky, decisions has them back in the playoffs.

Alexander, who has experienced only three losing seasons since buying the Rockets 20 years ago this summer, admittedly has little patience, which was tested when the Rockets failed to earn a playoff berth for three consecutive seasons.

Tough losing streak

It was tested to the maximum when some prognosticators said the Rockets might be Charlotte Bobcats bad this season.

"I hate to lose," Alexander said. "To watch my team lose every night would be almost unbearable."

But he was right to let Morey pursue Asik, who has averaged a double-double - 10.2 points and 11.7 rebounds.

He has scored more than 20 points in five games this season and has had 18 or more rebounds in six, including 22 in the playoff-clinching victory Tuesday.

"That's what Daryl told me we would be getting," Alexander said.

Alexander also was right to want to bring back Jeremy Lin, who has proved to be a legitimate point guard.

He was especially right to encourage Morey to keep an eye on guard James Harden's contract situation at Oklahoma City.

Decisions pay off

As a result of those moves and others by Morey and coach Kevin McHale, and the owner's continuing trust in them, the Rockets could finish as high as sixth place in the Western Conference.

Considering Alexander's Rockets have won two championships, including 1995 as the sixth seed, and Forbes magazine named him the NBA's best owner as recently as 2008, this is not his most satisfying season.

But my impression from talking to him last week was that he is satisfied.

When that was mentioned to Morey, he said I should recheck my notes.

"Mr. Alexander has been very successful," Morey said. "I don't know if he's ever satisfied.

"So if he said he's satisfied, he let his guard down with you a little bit."

According to my notes, Alexander didn't say he was satisfied.

He did say he wasn't disappointed.

He expects to be less disappointed next season, although he revealed the Rockets won't dive into the free-agent market this summer if they're in the shallow end.

It has been widely presumed the Rockets would be active in negotiations with high-profile free agents such as the Lakers' Dwight Howard (again), the Clippers' Chris Paul, Atlanta's Josh Smith or Utah's Paul Millsap.

Always proactive

"We've never not been aggressive," Alexander said. "We like this player and that player.

"At the same time, we're going to be much better next year with the players we have because they'll be a year older and will have played together longer."

Morey said he believes the Rockets could stand pat and, barring injuries, improve by five games next season, which could give them 50 or more wins for the first time since 2009.

The Eastern Conference's second-best team had 52 wins through Friday night. Unfortunately for the Rockets, they play in the stronger Western Conference.

But it's progress. The Rockets would gladly trade places with 50-plus game winners in the West such as Denver, Memphis and the Clippers.

The Rockets intend to build around Harden, but they don't intend to do it like Cleveland did when it had LeBron James and added older, expensive free agents who didn't transform the Cavaliers into perennial contenders.

Moving forward

They would rather do it like Miami, with Harden as an even younger, healthier version of Dwyane Wade who starts winning titles when the Rockets have opportunities to add complementary stars. It isn't likely they will sign James, who becomes a free agent after next season.

Otherwise, it would be unwise to underestimate the Rockets until Alexander is satisfied.​