With Steven Adams aging and the front office seeking vertical spacing, the Rockets may eye defensive anchor Ugonna Onyenso to restore size and shot-blocking to Houston’s rotation.
Many of the Houston Rockets’ projected draft picks are guards, and understandably so. There’s room for improvement, despite all of the guards on the team. Fred VanVleet is recovering from injury and aging. Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard are still developing. Aaron Holiday entering free agency.
That’s not the only place this team needs help though. They had some of their best moments with two big men on the court last season. That skyrocketed their offensive rebounding rate, but everything fell apart with Steven Adams’ injury in January.
Besides his recovery from ankle surgery, Adams is also getting up there in age. Clint Capela is approaching his mid thirties as well. They won’t be around forever.
As covered on Roundtable, the young core doesn’t have any of this size if this team wants to move forward with the same kind of lineups. Due to that fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rafael Stone and the front office are focusing on some big men in this upcoming draft too.
Ugonna Onyenso from Virginia is one of the names I’ve seen popping up quite frequently. At 7’0” tall with a 7’5” wingspan, his measurables are a sight to behold. What he did with that immense size is even more impressive.
His 9’5” standing reach makes him a classic vertical spacing threat. Something the Rockets arguably haven’t had since Clint Capela in his first stint with the team. A very underrated element to basketball, opening up the court in a similar way to shooters.
Just think of how many times Harden drove and gave his big men easy dunks after drawing in the help defense. Then think of how many times we saw Capela and Adams get the ball inside and blow easy layups that they would’ve dunked in the past.
While Onyenso has little to no offensive game to speak of, that’s not much different than the veteran centers currently on the roster. Most of the excitement around his game comes from the other end of the court anyways.
Being named to the ACC All-Defensive Team last season is probably his biggest accomplishment thus far, earning that spot after blocking 2.9 shots per game. For reference, Wembanyama averaged 3.1 last season. No other NBA player tallied more than 1.9 nightly, per NBA Stats.
With comparisons to Hassan Whiteside, Onyenso seems much more disciplined. I remember Whiteside being a foul machine, and the stats back that up, getting 2.6 fouls on average. Compare that to 1.4 fouls for the 21 year old draft prospect, and I’m impressed.
I personally like Daniel Gafford or even his fellow Nigerian, Onyeka Okongwu, as more optimistic player comparisons. He’ll need to focus some of that energy into rebounding if he wants to emulate Capela and Adams’ roles with Houston, but I’d be interested in this pick at 53rd.
