Rockets failing to launch
Houston won 65 games a year ago, but this year they are simply awful
PHOENIX— It seems so long ago now, that time this spring, when the Houston Rockets seemed legitimate threats to the dynastic Golden State Warriors. The Rockets won 65 games a year ago, best in the NBA, and with Chris Paul at top health, and James Harden on his way to a most valuable player season, Clint Capela a dominant young big man and threepointers being hoisted at an unprecedented rate, the Rockets were seemingly a force to be reckoned with for years to come.
They might still be — there is an awful lot of time left in this season — but today they’re abysmal and not what people thought they would be, or should be.
“Last year, we played well,” coach Mike D’Antoni said this week in the understatement of the young season.
“Right now, we’re playing like crap,” he added, succinctly and correctly.
Houston is 1-5 and coming off a drubbing at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday. For reference, they didn’t lose their fifth game last season until Dec. 20, when they were 25-5; this is the franchise’s worst start since 2010-11.
There are logical reasons for Houston’s demise, even if it is temporary. They lost a key defender and floor-stretcher in Trevor Ariza to free agency, Harden has been on the shelf with a hamstring injury, although he could return this week, and their vaunted threepointer-based offence is in the toilet.
They still shoot at a breakneck pace, averaging a leaguebest 41.5 attempts per game but are making just 13.8 (33.3 per cent) of them; they got up 42.3 three-pointers per game last season but made 15.3 of them, those six or seven points on average a night are proving to be an awful lot.
“We’ve lost our swagger,” D’Antoni told reporters in the wake of the loss to Portland.
It would be foolish to completely discount the Rockets because they’ve stumbled out of the gate. Harden is still exceptional, Paul — if he can ever maintain his health for an entire season and playoff run — remains an elite point guard. Capela’s rim protection isn’t going to disappear and you just know general manager Daryl Morey is working feverishly to do something big to alter the current trend.
Whether it’s finding a deal for disgruntled Jimmy Butler in Minnesota or plucking some other veteran piece out of thin air, Morey isn’t going to sit back and twiddle his thumbs while the season gets away from his team.
There is, however, a sense of urgency enveloping the Rockets as they try to overcome a shoddy start.