Houston Rockets: Should They Worry About Dwight Howard?
Even though it is, in fact, the media’s job to try and turn every single story in the NBA into a major storyline, it is also wise to avoid jumping into conclusions 12 games into an 82-game regular-season.
Drawing conclusions from the ongoing NBA regular-season would be the same as jumping into them: (1) 2.83 games into the NFL season; (2) 12 games into the NHL season; and (3) 25.48 games into the MLB season.
The Rockets’ point differential, which kind of matters in the NBA, took a huge drop because of the past two losses from plus-11.7 (through the first nine games of the season), all the way down to plus-5.2 (through 12 games).
The Rockets, after dropping consecutive games to the Memphis Grizzlies and Nick Young‘s Los Angeles Lakers, are seventh in the NBA in point differential.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
Even if the Rockets have showed some areas of opportunity — like we all knew they would — they still are, statistically, on the league’s upper echelon. Of course, in the Western Conference, a slight slip or a bad stretch could leave a team out of the title race, or even the playoffs.
However, just when Howard seemed to be back into his Orlando Magic form, he goes out with a knee injury that has kept him out of two games and has no timetable to return. He will likely miss Saturday’s matchup against Dirk Nowitzki‘s Dallas Mavericks.
Kevin McHale had no updates on the severity of Dwight Howard's injury or how long he might be out.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) November 20, 2014
Howard would not put a timetable on how long he'd be out. Said "we'll see how it feels tomorrow." Still, Rockets talking as if he's out Sat.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) November 21, 2014
Should they panic?
Not exactly.
Should they be worried about Howard?
Yes.
As reliable as he can be for his career, Howard has missed games throughout it at a 5.2 games-per-season rate. It is not exactly great news for him to be missing games this early in the season. Also, he’s missing games due to a knee injury which is a whole new kind of monster for Howard.*
Having Dwight Howard on the bench is terrible news for the Rockets:
- Points per game drop from 100 to 93.7
- Field-goal percentage drops from 45.3% to 38.6%
- Total rebounds drop from 30.6 per game to 17.8
- Plus/minus drops from plus-9.7 to minus-2.7
The silver lining is, even through their recent struggles, the Rockets’ defense have kept a pretty decent defense on the floor as they hold their opponents to a third-in-the-league 92.2 points per game.
Keeping this up with Howard on the bench will be tough for them, nevertheless, even if they fall anywhere within the league’s top-10 in per opponent points per game, it will be quite easy for them to get back on track once the big man is back.
Next week, the Rockets will face the Mavericks, New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Clippers, which means that by next Friday, if Howard were to miss all those games, the Rockets could be looking at a 10-6 record for the season, nuking their early “hot start” to the season.
* Howard had previously missed time due to injuries related to his back and shoulder.