Why Houston Rockets fans should be more optimistic
The start of the 2014-15 season has been tough for Houston Rockets fans, and even their current four game-winning streak has not helped assuage fears.
Houston started off the season losing three games by 20 points, each in embarrassing fashion. Even their last four victories have not been all that impressive, with none of them by more than six points. On Friday, Houston needed 43 points from James Harden to beat a Sacramento Kings without Demarcus Cousins. And on Saturday, they needed 46 from Harden to beat a Los Angeles Clippers team without Chris Paul.
Harden is not going to score 40 points every single night. And Houston’s acquisitions this season were supposed to make their offense less dependent on Harden’s genius. But it has not happened at all as Ty Lawson has been not as effective as hoped, and this team continues to live and die with Harden.
But despite these issues, the Rockets do have reasons to believe that they can turn things around.
The first thing is that their big man problem will recover get better. According to Basketball Reference, Houston’s offensive rating is 14th, which is not great, but passable. Their defensive rating, however, is a lowly 24th.
That number may not necessarily be a bad thing, though. Due to the injuries to Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas, the Rockets have been playing just one big man for the majority of the season. While they have Dwight Howard, Clint Capela, and Montrezl Harrell, coach Kevin McHale does not want to play any two of them on the floor at the same time due to spacing concerns.
This has meant that Harden, Trevor Ariza, and Corey Brewer have been logging minutes at the power forward slot. But while this helps spacing, the lack of big men has hurt Houston’s ability to protect the paint.
The return of Terrence Jones on Wednesday will help a great deal. The Rockets are so confident in Jones’s ability to shore up their big man weakness that they waived fan favorite Chuck Hayes on Sunday. Hayes was known for his stalwart post defense, but the Rockets believe that they can survive just fine without him.
Another factor is an easy upcoming schedule. Between now and December 19th, the Rockets have only two games against a team which currently has a record better than .500. Those two games are against Portland, who could fall back to the level expected of them at the beginning of this season, and the Detroit Pistons.
The easy schedule does mean that Houston’s schedule will be harder later making them a poor prospect for live betting. But having it now means that the Rockets have more times to work out the visible kinks in their offense and defense. It also means that they can get their players healthy, including the vital Donatas Motiejunas.
We should remember that at this point last season, the Miami Heat and Sacramento Kings looked like some of the best teams in the league. There is plenty of time for the Rockets to adjust, get healthy, and look like the team everyone expected them to be at the beginning of the season.