JD Davison has been an intriguing name dating back to October, when the Houston Rockets’ preseason kicked off.
Well, he’s been an intriguing name dating back to 2021, when he was a five-star point guard in high school. In fact, Davison was the top point guard in his prep class.
After a highly successful foray in the G-League, which saw him nab top honors as MVP of the league, he found his way on the Rockets in the summer.
On a two-way deal, which seemingly always get overlooked. He dazzled in the preseason.
I questioned whether he could (or should) garner a considerable role before the season even started.
Davison’s ability to shoot from deep was impossible to overlook.
As was his ability to possibly take meaningful point guard reps.
Which was all the more important, as starting point guard Fred VanVleet had just suffered a season-altering ACL injury (if not season ending).
Davison has been kept on the shelf by Rockets coach Ime Udoka essentially the entire season.
Which has been a rather interesting decision, as the Rockets have found themselves in dire need of a table-setting point guard to run the offense and help the team get into their actions and sets.
The Rockets have forcefully played Amen Thompson out of position at point guard for most of the way and have tasked facilitating and playmaking responsibilities to Kevin Durant when moving Thompson back to his natural off-ball, wing position.
On Tuesday, they gave Davison some burn.
And he showed Udoka why he should play more.
Davison played very well on both ends of the floor. Offensively, he simply makes the right plays.
And Davison is easily the best (and only) true pick-and-roll guard on the roster.
And he’s able to attack the basket, despite being fairly diminutive in nature (at least for anyone NBA-level point guard).
He has a natural feel for the game and plays under control.
He’s able to bring the ball up the court and initiate offense, which has been lacking for the Rockets. He plays up tempo and pushes the pace.
And he communicates, on both offense and defense.
Which has also been lacking (and what especially stands out about VanVleet’s absence).
In 24 minutes of action, he was a +14, posting a statline of nine points, seven rebounds, four assists (and zero turnovers) and one block.
Davison went 3-of-6 from the field and 1-of-2 from deep.
To the tune of 62 true shooting (well, 61.5 percent, to be exact).
And he found himself in Houston’s closing lineup, in a tight game that came down to the wire.
The Rockets will have to make a long-term decision rather quickly on Davison, as he’s played 35 games (including Tuesday night’s victory over the Chicago Bulls).
Two-way players are only able to be active for 50 games.
At that point, Davison would have to be signed to a standard deal in order to keep suiting up for the Rockets. Such a deal would cost the Rockets a hair over $900,000 (prorated, based on his minimum scale of $2.46 million, calculated at $30,000 per game).
Which would be well worth it. No need to speculate (unreasonably) about which player around the league will make their way onto the roster.
Let’s run it with JD Davison. He’s the only realistic option, at this point.
