Just what do they do well right now?
They’ve gotta stop doing this.
What’s “this”?
In the case of the Rockets, it’s being neither/nor. Right now the Rockets are neither a great defense, nor a great offense. Earlier in the season, when they were winning, and in 2nd place in the West, the Rockets played the sort of defense that might have had them at #1 overall in defense, in a season without the Thunder doing what they’re doing right now.
Sure, the offense was ugly, but the offensive rebounding, fast breaks, and hounding defense forcing a huge number of turnovers, made up for it. They’d win close games not because of heads/tails luck, but because they could get stops, again and again.
When they did lose, it tended to be close, with the opponent not breaking the NBA scoring average.
Now the Rockets are scoring more, but defending far less. 124 points to the Utah Jazz and their collection of Young Randos, less.
The Rockets were on a back to back? So were the Jazz. Yes, it’s a road back to back, but a team with playoff ambitions needs to win those occasionally, especially against the likes of the Utah Jazz this season.
A team can’t let a player like Keyonte George, known mostly for being bad this season, score 30 points in 29 minutes. They can’t get outrebounded 58-41. They can’t just let a team hang around, and never even provide one quarter of the kind of basketball that got them to the top of the West in the first two thirds of the season. They’ve also gotta stop missing free throws. 10-18 isn’t going to cut it.
Some player’s games looked good, Green, Sengun, in terms of stats, but defensively were awful. Jabari Smith, starting, after returning from injury Friday, had a game to forget. He’s not really in NBA game shape, so it’s probably going to sort itself out soon.
Another question to ask is, just what exactly are Steven Adams and Tari Eason actually contributing if they cannot played scheduled games for schedules reasons? Is this actually medically necessary or wise, or useful? Can anyone prove that it is? What are we talking here, in terms of actual games? The Rockets have 15 total back to backs in the regular season.
You’ve therefore scheduled Adams and Eason out for 18% of the season, ignoring any other possible reasons for being out. Long term trends apply less to Adams, but for Eason, scheduled misses approaching 20% of a season are a real problem. There may be sound thinking behind this, but there may not. The results are mixed, at best, despite all the podcasts you might have heard when no one asks where the money for holding fewer NBA games comes from.
What sort of contract should you give a young player who just won’t play 20% of the season? I’ve always thought the recent Clipper deals for Kawhi Leonard were insane on this basis, but it’s Ballmer’s money, so fine. In Tari’s case, it’s a possible career wrecker. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect NBA players to play an NBA schedule. That’s what they signed up for, and as Don Draper said in Mad Men “That’s what the money’s for.”
If the main concern is health and well-being above all else, let’s have a National Pilates League, because basketball is just too dangerous.
Anyhow, if the Rockets can’t successfully maintain their high energy style under current conditions, what can they do? It’s a real issue at this point.