Does the Rockets legend even have a place on the 22-23 roster? He signed a 4 year, 8+ million dollar contract last season after his Lin-sanity period. The most fantastic news is that his contract is non-guaranteed from here on out. He played a LOT of minutes as the 3 and if anyone is being remotely honest his defense is butt grade crap. Even his hottest of shooting nights barely outweigh the absolute free pass he gives on defense. The 30 foot fadeaways bricking and going 1/8 are absolute murder to the team. For much of the 2022 part of the season he was objectively terrible. It's only a 2mil/year contract but my goodness. Unclog the guard rotation. Stop playing a guard at the 3/forward. Death to smolbol. Death to 3 guard lineups with a shorter forward and a 205 lb center. Y'all wanna keep him as a 3rd string/bench microwave guy? Sounds fine. Starter at 3/30 minutes a night? That's a no for me dawg. Cut Gary Wood. Spoiler: Butt Grade Crap https://the-high-low.com/?ids=224mn...awn22Y2rS22n4wD22hGMc221oTR22fVa822NO6g22XJla
His days of starting are likely over for good but he's cheap depth that can knock down a 3 and draw some charges, that'll keep him on the roster.
Garry Bird, for what it’s worth, was by far our most valuable player via RAPTOR. He’s obviously worth keeping.
The ignorance (no offense OP) around Garrison amongst Rockets fans is nutty. Mathews finished the season on a shooting slump (and his average efficiency for the year was still elite) and that has dictated the narrative on him, but he's legitimately a bargain contract who is an excellent bench shooter. The Rockets will need players like Gary to provide the young guys' with space in order to expand their games. The personal attacks on Garrison here are out of line. Long live Gary's tenure as a Rocket.
Yes, it's an unusual stat. But here's another: Of all Rockets' players who played 1000+ minutes last season, Garry Bird and Eric Gordon had, far and away, the best +/- stats. The point is that, especially given his contract, Garry Bird is very much worth keeping around.
Looking at the season as a whole, there weren't many players who were actually valuable on the entire team.
Besides fishing for charges, his 1 on 1 defense was absolutely terrible. Most of the time he was trailing his man causing defensive breakdowns.
That's the stat you want to go with huh? One that includes player tracking lol... he runs around. Wow. 14th in the NBA in turnover % https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_advanced.html#advanced_stats::tov_pct Only 2 5 man lineups, 2 4 man combos including Garrison had a + points differential per 100 possessions https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mathega01/lineups/2022 Despite "raptor" stats his +/- was crap for a lot of 2022 half of the season. His 3% was sub 30 for 17 games in March. His defensive rating is in the 120s that's not a guy you play 25-30 minutes a game. That's a burned up piece of toast. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mathega01/splits/2022
