Houston Rockets: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18

Weakness: Turnovers

Last season the Rockets tended to cough up the ball quite often — 15.1 times per game to be exact, which placed them toward the bottom of the league. Most of those came from Harden, who averaged a career-high 5.7 per game as he transitioned to point guard and ran Mike D’Antoni’s fast-paced offense.

While some of those turnovers were simply the result of running the offense, others were simply careless and lazy three-quarter length passes after the opposing team scored. Cutting down on such passes is one way Houston (and Harden specifically) can limit the amount of turnovers per game.

The other significant way to improve in this area is the addition of Chris Paul. Paul’s addition takes the ball of out Harden’s hands for stretches, and puts it in the hands of one of the league’s best (and most careful) passers.

Paul averaged just 2.4 turnovers per game last season, and he posted the second-highest assist-to-turnover ratio (3.83) in the league. Putting the ball in Paul’s hands will allow Harden to limit his turnovers, which will likely lower the team’s total turnovers.

By doing so, Houston’s offense can be even more lethal as it gives fewer possessions away each game. Although some turnovers come as a cost of running the designed offense, cutting them down effectively by taking the ball out of Harden’s hands more and giving it to Paul will allow the Rockets to be even more effective and efficient offensively.