Houston Rockets: This bench is one of the worst in the NBA

While the Houston Rockets beat Utah on Monday night, the bench was horrendous and has proven to be a point of improvement for the team.

The Houston Rockets are playing with a lack of bench depth at the moment. James Harden is putting the team on his shoulders, as he poured in 47 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals against a Utah Jazz team that destroyed them the last time the two teams met.

This terrific performance comes after already putting up a 50-point and a 32-point triple-double on the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies, respectively. James Harden can only do so much to help this team win basketball games, and as of right now, he is toiling away to carry the load during this four-game win streak.

Even though the Houston Rockets are starting to pull themselves out of the hole they dug themselves into, in the West, they are still far from contending or being the team they were last year. Monday night, Mike D’Antoni only played nine different players — not even enough for a whole rotation change. That in itself is alarming.

However, the more glaring statistic is that the bench could only muster 11 points in 56 minutes of overall game time between the four players. These players included: Gerald Green, Danuel House Jr., Nene and Brandon Knight. It gets worse.

This year’s bench for the Rockets is dead last in scoring and field goal percentage, coming in at 27.6 points per game on 39.5 percent shooting. This means Houston is relying too much on the likes of James Harden, Eric Gordon and Chris Paul to do all the scoring, but the truth is, Eric Gordon is really streaky and Chris Paul is not really a volume scorer anymore.

When the scoring is needed from the bench, they simply cannot make shots, or are inefficient in doing so. This could once again point to the absences of Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute. Both of these talents were good on each side of the floor and held a sense of consistency within the team.

When Harden has an off night, this spells trouble for the Rockets and almost guarantees a loss. Just look at Monday night: Harden managed to score 47 points, which was 46.1 percent of the team’s total output, and they still almost lost the game.

To add onto the bench’s poor offensive performance, they are also poor on the other side of the court. This year’s bench has the worst defensive efficiency in the NBA at -16.9. So not only can they not score, but they also cannot play good defense.

These are very easy statistics to understand, which must make all Houston Rockets fans question why general manager Daryl Morey has not swung a trade yet for the struggling Texas team. Frustrations could also be building within the team as Chris Paul sent out this tweet shortly after Trevor Ariza was traded to the Washington Wizards instead of the Rockets.

The bottom line is that this team needs a bench shakeup and it needs to happen fast.

Anyone who knows or follows the NBA understands that every contender has a strong and reliable bench to lean on during hard times. Houston simply does not have that luxury right now.