With the NBA season well underway, teams are still figuring out their identities, integrating new players into their offensive and defensive sets, and the chemistry with the new players, and continuing to grow the chemistry with the players that have been there. The Nuggets which are playing exceptionally well which most people didn’t expect, are 3rd in the conference at 18-9. The Warriors as you expected are 2nd in their conference at 19-9. When you look to the bottom of the conference, you see a team that you wouldn’t expect to see considering they were one game away from being in the finals last year. This team would be the Rockets, they are 12-14, are under .500, and 14th in the conference. People please listen when I say this. THEY ARE 14th IN THE CONFERENCE AFTER ALMOST MAKING THE FINALS.
Most would just chalk it up to “every team is going to struggle,” and yes, that’s true, but let’s go over what they did to try to plug this hole. They let go of Carmelo Anthony which is his name now, he’s not Melo anymore sorry to say it. I still have major respect for the guy, but really? Let go of Carmelo and you expect to just go on a win streak when Carmelo wasn’t even the problem in the first place. I’m happy that Chris Paul is back because when he goes down we know this team struggles. James Harden had 54 and 13 and they lost. One of the biggest mistakes they made was when the let go Trevor Ariza. He was a 3 and D guy and maybe one of their best perimeter defenders.
This team also needs to start running plays for Clint Capela. If they want to dominate in the paint especially when the game slows down, you have someone in Chris Paul who is excellent at controlling the pace then Clint Capela can not be just a putback guy. I know he can be exceptional with his back to the basket if the work with him on that aspect of his game. Also, I know this team is big on fastbreak baskets and they all love to get out and run, and they aren’t doing that bad on the boards but I think they should have at least two or three guys crashing the boards at all times just to help them a little better.
Bench Minutes
Brandon Knight is a guy I want to focus on for a little bit. Now we all know the bad moments in his career, but other than that he is still an above average guard. He’s one of the taller guards in the league and he has length so he can jump passing lanes. Also, he can shoot the long ball well too. Even though he may not have proved to coach D’antoni that he deserves to play extended minutes in the backup role at the PG position, they don’t really have a choice because we know over the past few years the Rockets bench has never been that deep. I know they have MCW as the backup but for the long run I personally think that Knight would be a better fit with the second team especially with Eric Gordon out there because now you have two guards on the floor that can get you 20 a night if you let them. With all that I’ve said, the Rockets still have a long road ahead of them.
While I think they can turn the season around, they still need to figure out the problems instead of trying to let them work itself out. In conclusion, my prediction by the end of the season, the Rockets will be 3rd or 4th in the conference. If you have a problem with that, I’ll be glad to send my location.
