(PHOTO CREDIT: Troy Taormina/USA Today.)
Want a scary story for Halloween? How about the Houston Rockets?
When the Rockets lost Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute and gained Carmelo Anthony and Michael Carter-Williams, I thought they would lose something defensively but still ultimately thought they would be okay. The core mostly stayed intact; James Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon are still there. And P.J. Tucker is still a workhorse defensively. They went 65-17 last year. Surely, they can stay afloat in the Top 3 in the West this season.
The team that we knew last year certainly didn’t show the first six games. They are 1-5 and are in the bottom 5 in defensive rating (giving up 115.6 points per 100 possessions). Not only that but they’re also 25th in offensive rating (only scoring 105.2 points per 100 possessions). They were the best offensive team last season and if they can’t even score the baskets to cover for their bad defense then what?
Their switch-heavy defense hasn’t done them any favors and they no longer have the personnel to do it. While they’re excellent at not giving up the three-pointer (they are second in three-point field goal attempts allowed at 25.7), it’s the points in the paint that are destroying them. They are last in that aspect; the Rockets are allowing a whopping 59.3 points per game in the painted area. It seems like teams are making an effort to get Clint Capela outside and it has worked thus far.
I tend to watch a lot of games on League Pass so I can’t say I’m the expert when it comes to the Houston Rockets. But from what I’ve seen, though, the energy just doesn’t seem to be there compared to last season. The switching gets stuck and the Rockets end up watching the ball instead of making the right switches.
Yeah, their offense feels broken, too (29th in field goal percentage at .412 and 26th in points at 105.8 per game). It doesn’t help that James Harden and Chris Paul have both missed a couple of games (for different reasons) but nearly the entire team is struggling to make shots. CP3 is shooting below .400. Gordon is barely hovering above .300. Carmelo is shooting just over 37 percent overall. Gerald Green is at 38 percent. Something has to be done here.
They have a five-game road trip coming up. They do have Brooklyn on the first game and that feels like a winnable game for them. If they do badly on this road trip, this might be a deep hole that the Rockets might not get out of even if it is this early in the season.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
His podcast is at Rey-Rey Is Fundamental.