It isn’t every day a seldom-used rookie comes off the bench to hit a critical shot that can turn the tide of an NBA playoff series. But that’s exactly what happened to the Rockets when Troy Daniels entered the game for Chandler Parsons, and sank a game-winning 3 point shot after a Jeremy Lin pass. He singlehandedly saved the Rockets season with that three in overtime of Game 3 of the Rockets-Blazers playoff series.
What was remarkable is that Daniels has shown a poise you don’t see from many NBA veterans, much less a rookie who has played sparingly in the NBA. So just who is this unlikely star and three point specialist that has emerged for the Rockets in the playoffs? How can one player be relatively anonymous to NBA fans one day, and all over the news the next?
For starters, he went to Virginia Commonwealth University and played for well-respected college coach Shaka Smart, who has quietly built one of the more successful NCCA basketball programs. Although he played relatively little when VCU made the amazing Final Four run in 2011, he was instrumental to their continued success in 2012 and 2013. In fact, he set a school record for three-pointers with 124 his senior season and also drained 11 three-pointers in a single game vs. East Tennessee State.
His shooting ability was there for everyone to see, but being that in-between size, a 6’4” shooting guard, from a non-major conference school can often be a liability on NBA draft day. In a Rodney Dangerfield no-respect kind of way, Daniels went undrafted by the NBA and signed before the preseason with the Charlotte Bobcats, only to get waived after the first game. That led him to the NBA Development League, where he signed with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, an affiliate of the Rockets.
The Rockets witnessed Daniels’ record setting season in the D League with 153 three pointers, backed up by his 21.5 points per game average and 40.1% three-point percent percentage. Daryl Morey has been a master of the “off the radar” acquisition, relentless in combing the D League and overseas leagues for players who can be contributors to the Rockets. For instance, Patrick Beverley signed with the Rockets after playing professionally overseas, and is now a rotation regular and regarded as one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, not just a fill a roster spot player at the end of the bench.
Daniels was up and down between Rio Grande and the Rockets this year, finally sticking on the roster at the end of the season. He gave a glimpse of what he could do on the court with 22 points in the final regular season game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Yet, playing in the D-League and a meaningless last regular season game are not the equivalent of the NBA playoffs. It’s like going from small town theater to the big lights of Broadway in a matter of days.
So how did Daniels have “nerves of steel” when called upon to hit the biggest shot of the Rockets season in the playoffs? He told USA Today the “D-League has prepared me for this moment” and “I wouldn’t have hit that shot if wasn’t in the D-League a couple of weeks ago … It’s a dream come true – plain and simple.”
For anyone who has followed his career, he is doing what he did at VCU and for the Vipers in the D League – shooting the ball in the hoop. There will always be a place in the NBA for great shooters, and let’s hope for the Rockets and Troy Daniels, this playoff run is the beginning of a long and beautiful association together.
