Houston Rockets: The NBA’s Biggest Mystery

The Houston Rockets revamped their roster this offseason and there are a lot of questions surrounding them this upcoming season.

The 2015-16 season was one of disarray for Houston Rockets. There were rumblings about their two best players, James Harden and Dwight Howard, asking management for the other one to get traded.

Head coach Kevin McHale was fired very early in the season and the Rockets were a mess off the court. It showed on the court as well. Houston somehow made the playoffs and was quickly pushed away by the Golden State Warriors in five games.

Some of those games in the series were over by halftime. Some of it goes to the greatness of the Warriors, but some of it had to do with the lack of chemistry with Houston. Players were confused on defense, screaming at each other and blaming each other on defensive lapses.

It was bad.

General manager Daryl Morey has turned over some parts of the roster this offseason, mainly letting Dwight Howard walk in free agency. With Howard leaving H-Town, the Rockets added some good players to fill the void Howard left.

More from Houston Rockets

Houston signed deals with

Ryan Anderson

and

Eric Gordon

, two players who can score when they are healthy. In his time with the New Orleans Pelicans, Gordon shot better than 40% in all five seasons he played there.

But he hasn’t played more than 65 games in a season since his rookie year. There is a risk signing Gordon considering his injury issues but he has shown that when he is on the court, he is a productive scorer (better than 50% in eFG% in the past two seasons).

Houston also added Anderson, a tremendous three-point shooter and a guy who stretch the floor for the Rockets. As a stretch 4, Anderson is certainly an upgrade over Houston’s shooting big men.

Just take a look at his shooting percentages of compared to those of Michael Beasley, Terrance Jones, and Josh Smith:

Anderson – 42% FG percentage, 37% 3PT percentage
Jones – 45% FG, 32% 3PT
Smith – 36% FG, 29% 3PT (He only played 23 games this season for the Rockets)
Beasley – 52% FG, 33% 3PT (He only played 20 games this season for the Rockets)

As you can see by the numbers, Anderson is an upgrade over Jones as well as being an upgrade over Smith and Beasley, who aren’t good enough three-point shooters.

Despite Beasley’s good shooting, he only played 20 games with Houston and it is a lot to ask of him to keep up that production. With Anderson in that role, it will add another dimension to the Houston offense and give them a good shooting who can spread out the defense.

But Anderson’s defense isn’t the greatest and he will struggle against stronger big men. To help combat this issue, Houston will have to rely on young Clint Capela to step up and take on a bigger role this year.

The 22-year-old from Switzerland played well in a limited role next year expect him to get more minutes this season. Capela offers great rim protection and some rebounding but likely have to step up in the latter to help the Rockets succeed.

As bad as Howard was on the offensive end, he was good on the glass defensively and still affected shots in the lane. Capela will have to try his best to replicate that.

But there is one big problem with Houston right now. Defense.

Last season the Houston Rockets were 25th in terms of opponents points per game and that number likely won’t go up this season.

Houston recently hired former New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns Mike D’Antoni, a move that showed the Houston Rockets will likely have to outscore their opponents instead of trying to stop them. Historically D’Antoni’s teams haven’t been the best defensively.

More from Hoops Habit

He has preferred an offense that likes to run in transition and tends to focus more on that side of the ball. This has its benefits with his teams being some of the more fun teams to watch and hard to stop but it can also have its downsides. Most of them being on defense.

Houston’s current roster doesn’t help the situation either.

Both of their new additions in Gordon and Anderson aren’t good defenders and we all know the story about Harden’s defense. The only two good defenders are Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza, but they can’t cover all the spots on the floor when playing.

If the same Houston team shows up on the defensive end like they did last year, teams are going to run right by them. They will likely have to outscore their opponents to beat them.

With the questions on the defensive end and the expected growth on offense, Houston is a hard team to judge. They have a lot of questions coming into this season and we will only get answers when the season starts.

must read: A Houston Rockets Love Story

This could be a very good season for the Houston Rockets … or a really bad one.