The difference makers Tracy McGrady. Yao Ming. The core is strong. With the addition of Derek Anderson, Stromile Swift and Rafer Alston, the Rockets believe they have the supporting cast to carry them to a title By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle They come with hopes that the lost seasons and varied struggles that brought them to this point could not diminish. The years could not take that away. Derek Anderson waded through the mess in Portland without getting stained, as if those trials were needed to bring him to his best chance at something greater. Stromile Swift teased with talent enough to jump through the league's roofs but never to break through the ceiling that seemed to block him for five unsatisfying NBA seasons. Rafer Alston fell from coveted free agent to the Raptors' petulant pariah, then escaped as if it was all to give him a new, mature perspective on this chance. They come to the Rockets from vastly different beginnings, from Anderson's NCAA-championship pedigree to Swift's two LSU seasons to Alston's tumultuous Fresno State and street-ball years. They play different positions, bring different talents in careers at different stages. But they join a solid, proven, veteran team anchored by reliable stars to together become the Rockets' X factors, as if the struggles that made them available brought them to Houston not just with hope still alive, but renewed. "I think us three can make the difference," Anderson said. "We still need Jon (Barry). We still need Dikembe (Mutombo). We need everybody else here. But us three have to do more than whoever was here last year. We have to go above what they did to go beyond where they did last year. It's up to us as a team, but it's also up to us three. We have to be better. "I think everybody has a destiny, whether it's in your career or life. Right now, I just think I'm trying to follow my destiny. I think this is our destiny." Anderson got what he wanted. Playing for the Spurs in the 2000 playoffs, he had been hurt badly enough with a dislocated shoulder to become a free agent searching for security. The Trail Blazers gave him a long contract and a place on a richly talented team. Then the Blazers collapsed under the weight of their crimes and misdeeds. When they began rebuilding around a new crop of prodigies, the security Anderson sought became a trap. But the NBA's new collective-bargaining agreement offered teams a one-time chance to cut players to avoid paying luxury taxes on their salaries. Anderson happily became a tax-amnesty free agent. The chance to win Though the Rockets could offer only their smaller salary-cap exception, starting at $1.6 million, Anderson signed a two-year deal, the second at his option, because he believed this team could offer a chance to win and a role that fit his style. "I don't put a lot of things on one year," Anderson said. "I only have one year here, maybe two if I get to stay. I don't want to put too much on it, but I do believe this is probably going to be a special year for me. "Everywhere I've gone, I've been unselfish. I think my unselfishness will probably pay off here more than it has in my past. "I've won championships at every level except (the NBA). Every team I've been on had a chance to win except the Clippers. Cleveland, we went to the playoffs. San Antonio, we went to the Western Conference Finals. Portland, we had more talent than I could imagine until the last two years. So I don't think this is a turning point. I think it's a special year." While circumstances seemed to conspire against Anderson, they did Swift no favors. He was drafted by a Grizzlies team that already had Shareef Abdur-Rahim to play his position and that would soon draft All-Star Pau Gasol. But Swift, the second player taken in the 2000 draft, seemed too blessed with athletic gifts for a crowded roster to limit him so. He averaged 10 points and five rebounds in his five seasons, but he is convinced he was, and is, capable of much more. "I think I can be one of the best players," Swift said. "With the help of the other guys, the only thing that can stop me is myself." Time to move on Swift turned down a contract beginning at $9 million a year before last season. The Grizzlies did not make an offer after the season. He did not play badly and was clearly a part of the depth of talent that was Memphis' strength. But there was a sense that Swift had gone as far as he could with the Grizzlies and that it was time to move on. This season's Rockets have a decidedly more youthful flavor. Players from 2004-05 no longer on the team are on the left; newcomers to the roster for 2005-06 are on the right: They're out Player Age Charlie Ward 35 Scott Padgett 35 Vin Baker 34 Mike James 30 Torraye Braggs 29 Clarence Weatherspoon 29 Average age: 32 They're in Player Age Derek Anderson 31 Rafer Alston 29 Dion Glover 27 Stromile Swift 26 Lonnie Baxter 26 Luther Head 23 Average age: 27 "I think it would be a mistake to label his first five years in the league as not successful," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "They just were not as successful as he would have liked them to be. When you want change in your level of success, anybody in any job has to do more to get more. I think that's where he made his decision that he wanted to get more out of his career. It's up to him now to be consistent in doing more and giving more. We certainly are counting on that. "All those things, that will be over a long-term period of a year, two years, three years. Everybody works hard in ... training camp, every team. The teams start separating themselves based on who's willing to do that with the grind." Swift said he speaks often to Van Gundy about this. The potential to reach his potential was what sold him on the move to Houston. "He's been telling me, 'If you want something different out of your career, you can't do the same things you've been doing the last four or five years. You have to change something. You have to change the way you approach things,' " Swift said. "That's what I've been focusing on the most. A change is always good. It's going to help me improve my game and get me over that hump." No breakthrough needed Unlike Swift, Alston is not looking for a breakthrough season. That happened in 2003-04, when he played and behaved so well for the Heat that the Rockets were willing to ignore Alston's problems in Toronto and bring him in based on what they saw on tape and heard from Van Gundy's brother, Stan, the Miami coach. But in many ways, Alston knows he still must prove last season to be the aberration. "I've had my turning-point year as far as playing, as far as showing I can run a team and I can contribute, be a good rotation guy who can distribute and be a low turnover guy," Alston said. "But as far as staying on an even keel, just playing the game and not letting things get to me to where I become a distraction with my reaction to certain things, I think that will be a turning point. This is the season to show I'm not a wild kid, a guy who is going to blow up or anything like that. "I don't think about my reputation around the league. I think about my reputation around here and the organizations I played for. But my reputation, except for Toronto, is that I'm a work-hard guy. I may voice my displeasure, but I'm a good guy, upbeat, going to come in and be excited to be in the league." Reputation on the line Alston also knew, however, that his reputation, like Anderson's and Swift's, will largely be determined this season as he moves to a more high-profile team. "People are going to say what they want," Anderson said. "Who haven't they judged? "People are not going to say anything good, anyway, until you prove them wrong by winning championships. Some of the greatest players have never won championships. Regardless of all the numbers Karl Malone put up, regardless of what Charles (Barkley) has done, they're not going to say anything without saying they haven't won a championship. The championship is the standard for all of us." It would make all the years and struggles seem necessary. For the Rockets, if the foundation proves as solid as they believe, the players from this offseason of building could be the difference in reaching that standard. For all that has led them here, all the cities and changes, that hope never changed. "I think everybody who hasn't won a title has something to prove," Alston said. You have to show you can be a piece of the puzzle to do so. Stro (Swift) has so many years left in this league. Derek and I — I'm 29, Derek is 31 — we're at that point where the next couple of years, we better do something. "This is our chance." jonathan.feigen@chron.com http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3425463
Unfortunately I had to drive up here to Dallas last night. Today's Dallas Morning News has the NBA preview stuck in the regular sports section. The write-up is worse than the Chronicle's. So maybe the Chron isn't so bad after all.
