The Whiteboard: The Houston Rockets are getting worse
By Ti Windisch
Every NBA teams wants to use the summer to get better, but things are not going well for the Houston Rockets right now.
The Houston Rockets’ most recognizable players are James Harden and Chris Paul, but Houston’s tremendous 2017-18 NBA season was made possible because of the Rockets’ renovated defense. Being able to switch in turn made that renovated defense possible.
Two cogs in that scheme, Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute, are no longer Houston Rockets. Both players signed elsewhere this summer, with Ariza heading to Phoenix and Mbah a Moute signing a very reasonable deal with the Clippers. This does not bode well for Houston’s defense.
Paul is a great defender coming off of a hamstring injury who isn’t getting any younger. Harden is solid enough in the post, but he cannot do what Ariza and Mbah a Moute did. Even if he could, his offensive workload makes it tough for him to do too much defensively.
P.J. Tucker played a big role in the Rockets’ defense, and luckily he’s still around. He’ll be asked to do a lot next season. Clint Capela was crucial down low, and he’s currently reportedly unhappy with how his contract negotiations are going.
Capela will probably be back for the 2018-19 season, but he could be gone after that if he takes the qualifying offer and his relationship with Houston doesn’t improve.
Clearly, Houston needs to infuse some new talent into this core to keep its run of sustained success going. The Rockets big targets thus far this summer are Michael Carter-Williams and Carmelo Anthony.
Some have tried to sell Carter-Williams as some sort of versatile defensive stopper. He isn’t, and even if he was he has trouble staying on the floor and is a 25 percent career three-point shooter. If the answer is MCW, you don’t want to hear what the question was.
Carmelo, on the other hand, has never been known as a great defender and is coming off of his least efficient NBA season ever on the offensive end. MCW and Carmelo Anthony are more famous than Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute, but they aren’t more helpful than those two were.
The Rockets will still be competitive, but don’t be surprised to see Houston win as many as 10 less games next year without the tools to build an elite defense.
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