Terrific article by Richard Justice in the Houston Chronicle this week about Rockets forward Chuck Hayes, who is a favorite in the Houston locker room:Chuck Hayes is the most remarkable player on the NBA's most remarkable team. How's that for an opening sentence? Good one, huh?
Don't believe me? Let's check in at Toyota Center and run it past some people who should know.
“Luis Scola and I were talking in the weight room this morning,” Shane Battier said, “and we both agreed Chuck Hayes is our favorite player in the NBA.”
How so?
“It's pretty amazing what he does,” Battier said. “He's a huge reason we've been one of the best defensive teams in the league the last few years.”
How about you, Carl Landry? Do you love Hayes as much as the rest of us?
“He's the perfect player,” Landry said. “He rebounds, plays defense, takes charges, gets steals. He does the dirty work.”
Is that right, Scola?
“It's a pleasure to play with him,” Scola said. “He plays hard. He does everything a basketball player should do. He's a great teammate.”
Surely someone disagrees. Coach Rick Adelman, are you ready to get rid of the Chuck Wagon?
“He's incredible,” Adelman said. “You watch him play that game (against the Lakers on Wednesday) against a 7-1 guy (Andrew Bynum). That guy is a really good young player. He gets 17 points and 17 rebounds. Chuck ends up with 14 and 14.
“When he's on the court, we're so different. Right now, he's confident and making some plays for himself. He's playing with a lot of freedom. I marvel at what he gets done against certain people in this league.”
Once upon a time, Hayes was one of the NBA's best-kept secrets. Only the Rockets seemed to know how good he was. Jeff Van Gundy fell in love with him midway through about one practice, and then Adelman arrived and did the same thing.
Size doesn't matter
Hayes' teammates love him, too. He's likable, decent and funny. The Rockets love Hayes because of who he is and what he is.
He's an NBA center. He's also 6-6, 238 pounds.
“And that's being generous,” Battier said.
Almost every night, he's assigned to guard a guy at least 6 inches taller and 30 to 40 pounds heavier. He does it because of his heart, drive and smarts. He's maybe the NBA's strongest player, with strong hands and a strong base, and when he positions himself in the low block, no one moves him.
Opposing centers can shoot over Hayes or pull him away from the basket and get a shot off. But if they're hoping to make a living against him in the low post, they're going to have the fight of their lives.
These first few games of a new season have amounted to a coming-out party for Hayes. The Rockets no longer have Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo, and so Hayes is averaging 29 minutes a game.
That's around 10 more a game than he has gotten in the other four years of his career. No Rocket is doing more with his minutes. No Rocket is more indispensable.
Hayes is averaging 8.8 points and 7.8 rebounds. He's out there because of what he gives the Rockets defensively, but when teams ignore him on offense, his teammates have begun to look for him. His 64.7-percent shooting percentage is the NBA's fifth-best. He's seventh in the league with 2.4 steals a game.
He does not fly like Kobe Bryant. He does not have Dwight Howard's size. He doesn't have Tim Duncan's slick moves.
All Hayes proves is that guys who care and work hard can still do special things.
“He's a competitor,” Rockets assistant coach Elston Turner said. “It's the way he competes every night. It's the way he's coachable and knowledgeable. Those are things we love. When you can compete, sometimes it doesn't matter if you're undersized. Sometimes winning and losing is just a matter of who plays the hardest.”
Bingo. If someone had told you last summer the Rockets would open this shorthanded season by splitting a pair of games with Portland, by winning at Salt Lake City and Golden State and by taking the Lakers to overtime before losing, you probably wouldn't have believed it.
Becoming a believer
The Rockets might be the NBA's smallest team. They have zero All-Stars. They're just a bunch of guys who exemplify how much can be accomplished with teamwork and unselfishness.
General manager Daryl Morey has said that playing hard is a skill, too. He meant that plenty can be accomplished by teams that outwork the other guys.
Around the NBA, they've taken notice. Jerry Sloan and Phil Jackson both singled out Hayes and the Rockets for praise. Inside the home locker room at Toyota Center, there has been zero surprise factor.
“In our locker room, we believed,” Hayes said. “It's going to be a collective achievement throughout the whole team. Everybody has to do their part.”
