Houston Rockets: 2019 will be 2018 part II

Time to face facts Rockets fans. Despite what almost every one of the Local media columnists are writing, Jenny Dial Creech, Jerome Solomon, and Brian T Smith as three examples, The chances of Lebron James wearing a Rockets jersey for the 2018-2019 season are slim to none, and slim just left town with today's news that James is opting out of his player option with Cleveland to become and unrestricted free agent.

His most likely landing spot is the Lakers, which makes sense because he's already got a second home in LA, and visions himself a movie mogul and mover and shaker in the NBA when his playing career is done. Few teams have been more willing to let former players take the reigns than have the Lakers.

Sure, some dominoes have to fall. Kawhi Leonard being traded from the Spurs to the Lakers would help, as would Paul George signing a free agent deal with them.  Once that happens it's a fair bet that Lonzo Ball gets dealt away, no way Mr. James wants to be attached to the Lavar clown show. But the odds on money is LA.

What this likely means for the Rockets is that next year is going to be a mirror image of last year. A team that wins a ton of games but whose playoff hopes rely on the health of an aging player (Chris Paul) with a troubling history of soft-tissue injuries. That's assuming Paul doesn't take a discount himself to play with the Lakers and join up with his friend LeBron. Stranger things have happened in the NBA.  At least Daryl Morey didn't show up at LeBron's front door begging this time around.

It's hard to fault Morey though, he's working with limited resources in a city that's generally unattractive to many of the league's best players. Houston is hot, humid, has little in the way of actual attractions and is a great place to work, but an increasingly crime-riddled and expensive place to LIVE. It doesn't have the best schools for LeBron's kids, and his wife would most probably be bored out of her mind.

But Morey, for all of his brilliance, has not been able to push this Rockets team over the top. They get close, achingly close, before falling just short.  There was the Dwight Howard mess, then the San Antonio dud, then last year the 0-27 historical run of 3-point shooting futility.  James Harden has proven himself one of the better, regular season players in the NBA, when it comes to the playoffs however he's returning Houston to Choke City more than reviving the Clutch City vibes. He's the Dan Marino of the NBA. Not that Marino is a bad person to be compared to but he never won any championships, which appears to be the fate of Harden unless he changes the results.

He'll have to do so in 2018-2019 with, presumably, almost the same supporting cast.

Whatever voodoo Tillman Fertitta can bring over from Lake Charles to bless Chris Paul's muscles, tendons and ligaments had better be shipped in now. Otherwise we'll be writing the same eulogy for next year's team that we did for this year's:

So close, yet so far away.

Houston Rockets: This team is REALLY good. (How good remains to be seen)

First all of the caveats:

 - It's regular season NBA, which means next to nothing except for actually making the playoffs.
 - Many in Houston aren't paying attention, at all, to the team in the NBA that currently has the best record.
 - Even IF they win they'll still be 3rd fiddle to the Astros and a mediocre Texans franchise.


Given all of that, the Rockets just won their 17th straight game which left them with the best record in the NBA and a narrow 1/2 game lead over the Golden State Warriors for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Chris Paul has been amazing, James Harden has been even better.  Unanimous MVP better.  In fact, if Harden doesn't win the MVP this year the award is a farce.  And I say that as someone who's not traditionally been a fan of "the Beard" in the past.

For all of the concern surrounding his hiring head coach Mike D'Antoni has done a masterful job crafting this deep roster, built by GM Daryl Morey, into a currently unstoppable force.

The only question remaining now is whether or not they can continue this charge when the games really matter, in the playoffs against quality teams when something is actually on the line.

James Harden doesn't have that bullet point on his resume yet, none of these players do.

It has to be frustrating though to realize that, no matter how good you're doing, the bulk of sports interest in Houston is going to be focused on the worst team in the city.  A brief listen to Houston sports talk radio this morning revealed the bozos at 610 talking about JJ Watt's trade value, and 790 (The Rockets flagship station) airing Josh Innes who only talks about himself while making borderline racist comments to try and drive controversy, and listeners.

As good of a time as it is to be an Astros or Rockets fan it's equally as frustrating because of the 800 lb gorilla in the room.

In even a mediocre sports town coverage of the Astros in Spring Training and the Rockets beating all comers would dominate the sports news landscape. In Houston we get talk about whether or not the Texans will pursue free agents who might have knelt during the National Anthem or not.

Blech.

To the credit of the Houston Chronicle and the TV stations, at least they're covering Houston's two best teams. Although there's precious little coverage of the Houston Cougars men's basketball team, who is a shoo-in to make the NCAA dance and my dark horse team to win the AAC tournament.

But, I digress.....

As the regular season winds down the playoffs in Houston have the potential to be really, really fun. IF the Rockets and Warriors take care of business (and they should) their match-up in the Western Conference Finals might be looked back on as the REAL NBA Finals. The Raptors and Celtics might have something to say about that bur, for right now, it appears that the Rockets and Warriors are the class of the league.

It's just too bad that few in Houston realize this.

Houston Rockets: The new Kings of poor-timing.

Consider this:  The Houston Rockets current slump is like missing a game-winning 3-point shot as time expires. Just as the Rockets had gotten the Texans out of the way (via a blowout loss to the  Tom-Brady led New England Patriots) the Rockets had a Nationally televised game against the Golden State Warriors, and they stunk up the joint hitting only 7 of 35 3-point shots (on which their offense is reliant) and getting blown out by the Warriors 125-108 at home.

Were the Rockets the Texans this would be no problem. Despite getting boat-raced by the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots (QB: Jacoby Brisset with an injured throwing hand) 27-0 Houston still tuned in, and inexplicably showed up to support the team week after week. And while the Texans did manage to make the playoffs there was never any serious doubt what the result in New England would be.

So, football season over, Houston Rockets front and center playing an entertaining brand of basketball and winning for the most part to boot. In fact, the team is currently sitting in 3rd place in the Western Conference with a .723 winning percentage (34-13) and, at this point, looks to be likely to get a home series in the playoffs.

And then they laid an egg.  Talk about having horrendous timing.

Yes, they bounced back against Memphis but the damage had already been done. Because unlike in football Houston sports fans only seem to give other Houston teams one chance per season to become invested.  Sure, there will be some bandwagon jumping if the eventual playoff run comes but I'm talking about truly invested, in a similar manner the city is inexplicably invested in the chronically mediocre Texans.

It's too bad, because this Rockets team is FUN to watch play basketball.  James Harden (of whom I've been a critic) has let his actions back up his rhetoric this year and is playing, and acting, like a legitimate star/leader type of player, not just the instant offense guy from the past who I thought found his best role as 6th man with the Thunder. Harden is distributing the ball, taking control of the team and, on several occasions, playing defense.  The rest of the team is really a bunch of role-players who play those roles well.  They are a deep team that plays fasts, rotates in frequently, and is more concerned with out-scoring you than they are stopping you.  For long-time Mark Dantonio Mike D'Antoni* followers this will not come as too much of a surprise.

The problem with this approach is when the other team does stop you, as happened against the Warriors. Then the Rockets are basically bringing their knife of a defense to a gunfight, and the results are messy.

What Houston sports fans tuned into Friday night was ugly, and unfortunate, because until the Astros start playing the Rockets are the best game in town.

It's just too bad that the Texans dominate Houston's sports room.





*Thanks to Mike Morrison Twitter user: @mike_morrison66 for pointing out my brain fart confusing Mark Dantonio with Mike D'Antoni.

Houston Rockets: Time to Blow the team up.

You might want to start with James Harden....

'Broken' Rockets limp into All-Star break. Jonathan Feigen, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)

When asked how the Rockets could regroup, he left it at "Good question.
"Just not willing to help each other out; that's all it is," Harden said of the issues. "Everything, both ends of the floor. That's what team is."

Except that, Harden does not, never has, play anything resembling defense.  So when you talk about needing to play as a "team" it's pretty funny hearing that come from a guy whose the primary culprit.

Last year the team got lucky as they took advantage of a league that was in transition. The Spurs didn't have a great year, LeBron and the Cavs had injuries, Miami was rebuilding, Kobe was injured and the Warriors didn't yet realize just how good they were.

This year, things are different. The Warriors and Spurs are heads and shoulders better than everyone else, Portland, the Clippers, The Grizzlies have all gotten better than Houston, and Oklahoma City is playing healthy. Add to that mix a Jazz team that's young, and possessing of some talent, and you have more than the hapless, 'broken', Houston Rockets are able to overcome.

In the history of "Moneyball" there have always been questions as to whether or not you can truly build a championship team turning a blind eye toward team chemistry.  The Rockets and making it appear that you cannot.

It's past time to blow this team up and start over.

Make no mistake about it though, this should be GM Daryl Morey's last chance.

Houston Rockets: Firing McHale is putting a band-aid on the cancer (But it might help)

Yahoo! News' excellent NBA reporter, Adrian Wojnarowski, broke the news today:

Rockets part ways with coach Kevin McHale. Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

After struggling to a 4-7 start to the season, the Houston Rockets parted ways with coach Kevin McHale on Wednesday morning, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Leaving the Houston Chronicle Rockets beat reporters to try and provide "additional details" in order to appear as if they're providing something:

Rockets fire Kevin McHale. Reid Laymance. Chron.com

The Rockets decided that McHale, who coached the team to the Western Conference finals last season, had lost the locker room and the team didn’t want to fall farther behind in the West, a person familiar with the team’s thinking said.

As is often the case in Chron "breaking" sports stories, the comments of the story are more revealing than the article itself.

BosVas Guest

@eldorado1952
Yeah, what Curiostom2 said. Ty Lawson said that McHale would call in a defensive play and the players would ignore it and do something else. That means that McHale lost his player's respect.

While the Rocket's issues go far deeper than McHale, it appears that his firing was the only direction the team could go after starting the season 4-7, which included four straight, blowout, losses where the team looked horrible.

While this feels like a Band-Aid on the cancer, it might have some, short-term, benefit.  The overriding problem is that the Rockets' current roster is underperforming, lacks focus, and might not be everything that it was last year.

James Harden - My biggest complaint about Harden is that he is a one side of the court player. He frequently gets mocked for his lack of defense and he's known more, this year, for being a bit-player in the Kardashian drama than he is for playing good basketball. Last year Harden was a legitimate MVP contender, this year he's not even playing well enough to garner consideration for sixth-man of the year. Even those players are expected to bring offense.

Ty Lawson - Lawson was heralded as the point guard the Rockets were missing. Instead he's been a low effort guy with poor shooting who appears to have been a driving force in the locker room against McHale. Prior to his time with the Rockets, Lawson was the best player on bad teams. It's very rare that players like that add much to good teams since they are accustomed to losing often.

Trevor Ariza - To date, his most significant contribution to the team is to repeatedly say that the team needs to try harder while showing no evidence that he is doing so himself. Last year he was a key cog in a team that made a deep playoff run. This year he's a below average 3-point shooter who is also a low-effort guy.

Corey Brewer - Brewer got paid in the off-season and he's playing like a player who has lost his drive.  Again, I think he has talent but the effort isn't there.

And finally, the area of biggest concern....

Dwight Howard - There are signs that Howard is not playing bad because of poor effort, but because his injuries are catching up to him. Of all the players on this list Howard is the most concerning. Because it doesn't appear what's ailing his game can be fixed with just more effort. Howard looks slow, lumbering, and out-of-sorts on the court and observers are worried that it's due to his many injuries. Howard has never been a high-motor guy, but as a low-motor center who's already limited offensively and who's body is starting to show severe signs that the tires are balding there's real cause for concern here.

New interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been handed a job with a flawed roster whose stars are either distracted (Harden) or possibly at the end of their career (Howard). All in all it's a team that doesn't seem to have any focus, or drive to play a complete game.

Still, the Rockets are only 11 games in to a 82 game season so there's a possibility that things can turn around. Getting the players to run the plays the coach calls would be a marked improvement, and signs that firing McHale was the right thing to do.

Still, with this roster of low-motor players there needs to be some questions resurfacing as to the personnel decisions being made by GM Darryl Morey.  Last year it appeared that his plan was sound and that all of the naysayers (raises hand) were making accusations not based on reality.  Even I turned around and stated that he had done a great job building last year's roster, that the team was playing great ball, had gelled, and that good things were in the future.

This year, unlike prior years, I still think Morey has the right plan. I think the Rockets have the talent in place to make a playoff run but the one thing that neither Morey, or Bickerstaff, is going to be able to give them is drive. Last year they seemed to find it, but that team is a distant memory.

If the Rockets can find their drive, and if Howard's body is not as deteriorated as I fear, if Harden can remember that he's a basketball player first (and can survive the Kardashian athlete curse) then I think the Rockets can turn it around.

If not?  Well then we're back to "In Morey we Trust" as the GM will have to start the rebuilding process all over again because the window slammed shut on the current group faster than expected. What Houston is hoping to avoid is deja vu all over again, as we've recently seen how fast things can fall apart with the 2012/2013 Houston Texans.

 

  

 

Houston Rockets: About that heart transplant.

I've never been more happy to be proven wrong, but right at the same time.

Yup, I said it.

Houston Rockets: The Thing that needs to be said. Me, SLAM

They're done, barring something changing in the mental make-up of this team. They can talk as much as they want about "backs against the wall" and "being back in our house" all they want. Lest we forget the win that they had at home required some of the most curious officiating of the series. Game 1?  Well, it was a blowout as well. I don't see any way this Rockets team beat the Clippers 3 games in a row. Barring a heart transplant that is.

Apparently, they had that transplant completed and it appears that they swapped with the Clippers in games 5, 6 and 7.  It was eerily similar to the Phoenix series in which a totally different Rockets team went and did the same thing.

I'm a firm believer in never saying never. You always leave yourself an out. After game 5 I was still unimpressed, thinking that the Clippers would rise up at home and put us all out of our misery.  Then the unthinkable happened. It was the Clippers who just quit.  And then, in game 7, they quit again.

Meanwhile the Rockets played with heart and drive and did everything they needed to in order to win the series and face the daunting puzzle that is Golden State and Curry.

The opening line on that series is Golden State -850 with the Rockets coming back at +575.

Despite everything that happened in the previous series I think that line is about right. During the regular season the Rockets were not competitive against the Warriors and I'm unsure if they match-up with the 1st seed well enough to ask the questions they need to ask.

All that said, at that value, I like the Rockets pick here.  If they do win however they're going to have to steal one in Sacramento and hold-serve at home. That's a hard task against a team that's looking all the world like the next champions.

Still, the Rockets have a strong beating heart now, that means a lot.

Houston Rockets: Dreams of Hope and Glory come crashing down.

As the Rockets emerge from their horrible, no-good, disaster of a start to the free agent season it's tempting to say while the team has regressed there are still some options for the team to improve but doing so requires taking the secretarial path and ignoring the fact that Morey has taken the team down this road before.

In fact, it's probable that what we're seeing now are the inevitable results of having a General Manager who cannot quit tinkering with the team despite himself. There was a school of thought that suggested the Rockets could move Lin and Asik, wait on the Parsons decision and spend the off-season shoring up the point and the bench. This would have been the prudent pathway, and would have improved the team, but it wouldn't go very far in the way of scratching Morey's seemingly unreachable itch for big FA signings.

So, for now, the Rockets are re-visiting a previous mistake (Ariza), admitting they made a mistake on two previous "big splash" FA signings (Lin, Asik) and are left scratching their heads as Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks pulled a Daryl Morey on Daryl Morey.  Hardly something befitting Morey's media-generated reputation as the "smartest guy in the room".

In their current iteration, the Rockets appear to have regressed. Where last year they finished the season as a four-seed (who flamed out in the first round of the playoffs) this season, with this roster, they appear to be headed toward a sixth-or-seventh (or even eighth) seed and another first round playoff dismissal. At least, for now, the East seems to have benefitted the most from the movement of off-season talent while the West figures to have stayed mostly pat.

One thing that has not received a lot of run among the so-called "smart-set" in the Houston media is whether or not Houston is setting itself up for return of the Dwight-mare.  Given that Lin, Parsons and Dwight were tight and that Morey has destroyed that core by first dissing Lin and then letting Parsons walk raises the real potential that Howard could once again decide that he's not happy in his current situation and move to get out.

It doesn't seem, a this point, that Howard is all that thrilled to be sharing the court with James "Sixth Man" Harden and I can't see him being happy with an off-season that's currently the equivalent of trading Asik, Lin, Parsons and a 2nd round pick for Ariza.  Even if the Rockets can trade for Rondo, is he really all that much of an upgrade over Patrick Beverley given this team, and this line-up? As an individual talent yes, but in McHale's scheme I don't think Rondo move the needle all that much, possibly lifting the Rockets to a potential fifth or sixth seed at best.

More concerning is the fact that the laundry list of Morey failures is getting long. From Lin to Asik to Bosh (twice) to Anthony to (amazingly) LeBron to Parsons to Ariza (again?) to Royce White to a host of draft picks and free agents that seem overvalued by Morey and undervalued by everyone else the Rockets appear to be a ship that's listing along minus the engine of discipline.

There's no doubt that Morey is a smart man and that he can, at times, come out the best in a deal against another General Manager. However, there is significant doubt as to whether or not this same man has the discipline and long-term planning that's required to build a championship team.