Predicting the final records of each NBA team
By Brad Rowland
Houston Rockets
It was not a tremendous off-season for Daryl Morey and the Houston Rockets. The organization was left at the altar by Chris Bosh, who signed a massive contract with the Miami Heat, and the team also lost the services of the number three option, as Chandler Parsons left in favor of a $45 million deal in Dallas. Morey and company did respond by inking free agent small forward Trevor Ariza to a sizable contract, but it would be quite difficult to state that the Rockets did anything but regress between the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons from a roster perspective.
On the bright side for the Rockets, they have one of the better superstar tandems in the league with Dwight Howard and James Harden. For all of the knocks on Howard from a personality standpoint, his play was exceptional last season, averaging 18.3 points, 12.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 59.1% from the floor. It would be inaccurate to say that Howard fully regained his pre-injury form from his days in Orlando, but at the same time, he is arguably the best center in the NBA and that shouldn’t change in his age-28 season.
Harden has also been roundly criticized, but for different reasons, as his defensive “issues” have become an internet sensation over the past 12 months. There is no question that Harden is a soundly below-average defensive player, but he does possess the physical ability to become passable on that end (as he displayed at times during the FIBA World Cup), and even if he is simply bad on that end, the left-hander is the best offensive shooting guard in the league after averaging more than 25 points and 6 assists per game last season.
Unfortunately, the roster is painfully thin after the “big two”. The Rockets do employ above-average starters in both Terrence Jones and the aforementioned Ariza, but the point guard position is very much up in the air with only Patrick Beverley and Isaiah Canaan, and the bench unit could be a disaster if things go wrong. Kevin McHale and company will be relying heavily on some combination of Jason Terry, Jordan Hamilton, Francisco Garcia and Kostas Papanikolaou on the wing this season, and that is before we get into the disaster scenario should Dwight Howard be forced to the sideline for any length of time.
Given full health, the Rockets should be in the mix for home-court in the West once again, but that is the top-end scenario for this team, and it seems like a lifetime ago when NBA pundits were discussing them as a darkhorse candidate for the 2015 title.
Projected Record: 50-32, 6th in West