#CrystalBasketball: Ranking the Houston Rockets for 2018-19

How does every NBA player stack up heading into 2018-19, based solely on the level at which we expect them to play during the upcoming season?

That’s the question NBA Math staff members and a select group of site friends are seeking to address, ranking each and every player in the sport’s premier league on a 1-to-12 scale and then seeing who emerged with the highest averages. The distant past was irrelevant. Long-term potential doesn’t matter. Only what could come to pass in 2018-19 is factored in, assuming health for those currently healthy and full recoveries from those presently injured. For example, DeMarcus Cousins will still be included in this analysis; we just assumed he’d already completed his rehab for the ruptured Achilles and now has that as a prior portion of his overall injury history.

All players were graded on the following scale by each evaluator, and ties between players with identical averages were broken by sorting the scores from best to worst and propping up the men who had the highest mark at any point in the top-down progression:

  1. Shouldn’t Get Minutes
  2. End-of-Bench Pieces
  3. Depth Pieces
  4. High-End Backups
  5. Low-End Starters
  6. Solid Starters
  7. High-End Starters, Non-All-Stars
  8. All-Star Candidates
  9. All-NBA Candidates, Non-MVP Candidates
  10. Lesser MVP Candidates
  11. MVP Frontrunners
  12. Best Player in the League (only one player could earn this grade on each ballot)

Journey with us team by team as we unveil the entirety of these rankings, culminating in a look at every player set to suit up for the 2018-19 campaign.

Today’s featured squad? The Houston Rockets.

Shouldn’t Get Minutes: 1.00 to 1.49

18. Rob Gray, 1.05 (Not graded after 2017-18)

16(tie). Isaiah Hartenstein, 1.33 (Not graded after 2017-18)

16(tie). Vincent Edwards, 1.33 (Not graded after 2017-18)

15. Gary Clark, 1.41 (Not graded after 2017-18)

End-of-Bench Pieces: 1.50 to 2.49

14. Zhou Qi, 1.59 (0.04 up)

13. Bruno Caboclo, 1.67 (0.31 up)

12. Michael Carter-Williams, 2.26 (0.17 up)

Depth Pieces: 2.50 to 3.49

11. Nene Hilario, 2.89 (0.47 down)

10. Marquese Chriss, 3.11 (0.16 down)

9. Gerald Green, 3.11 (0.02 up)

8. Brandon Knight, 3.37 (Not graded after 2017-18)

7. James Ennis, 3.37 (0.18 down)

High-End Backups: 3.50 to 4.49

6. Carmelo Anthony, 4.29 (0.26 down)

Low-End Starters: 4.50 to 5.49

5. P.J. Tucker, 5.26 (0.81 up)

Solid Starters: 5.50 to 6.49

4. Eric Gordon, 5.67 (0.12 up)

High-End Starters: 6.50 to 7.49

None

All-Star Candidates: 7.50 to 8.49

3. Clint Capela, 7.79 (0.34 up)

All-NBA Candidates: 8.50 to 9.49

2. Chris Paul, 9.25 (0.2 down)

Lesser MVP Candidates: 9.50 to 10.49

None

MVP Frontrunners: 10.50 to 12.00

  1. James Harden, 10.86 (0.23 down)

Many thanks to Adam Fromal, Adam Spinella, Alec Nathan, Andy Bailey, Arjun Baradwaj, Ben Leibowitz, Ben Taylor, Bryant Knox, Dan Favale, Dave DuFour, Eric Spyropolous, Frank Urbina, Jacob Bourne, Jacob Goldstein, Joel Cordes, Jordan McGillis, Josh Eberley, Justin Carter, Matt Way, Nate Wolf, Nicholas Sciria, Rory Breasail, Ryan Blackburn, Sean Highkin, Simon Cherin-Gordon, Tim Stubbs and Tony East for their grading contributions.