Milwaukee Bucks Game Preview: Jan. 23 vs Houston Rockets

Major Key For Houston: Play Nene

Nene Hilario can’t be the Rocket to watch for obvious reasons, but I’m going to detail a section to him here because he’s been awesome this season. Nene may have been a power forward in Washington with the Wizards, but here he’s been a dominant defensive center in the Rockets scheme.

Maybe dominant is a bit much for a guy playing less than 17 minutes per game, but Nene has made the Rockets noticeably better. When he’s on the floor, Houston outscores teams by 9.2 points per 100 possessions–that’s the best mark for any Rocket, Harden included!

Much of the reason for the good net rating the Rockets have with Nene is because of defense. Somehow, Houston allows just 99.7 points per 100 possessions while Nene is on the floor. That’s better than the first-ranked Golden State Warriors defense, which allows 101.0 points per 100 possessions.

The really remarkable thing is that the Rockets don’t play slower with Nene on the floor. In fact, they actually get faster! While Nene is out there the Rockets have a pace of 102.96, which is the fastest they get with any one player on the floor.

To make a long story short, despite not shooting any threes Nene has been perfect for the Houston Rockets this season. Maybe he should play slightly more than 16.9 minutes per game.