Rockets ‘out of shape’ scrimmage is no cause for concern

Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni is optimistic about his team despite a sluggish first scrimmage.

The Houston Rockets have to face the truth. They came within one game of the 2018 NBA Finals and that’s an opportunity that got squandered.

Chris Paul’s injury during the Western Conference Finals may have cost them a chance to derail the Golden State Warriors from their third championship, but that’s not something the Rockets can worry about anymore.

Head coach Mike D’Antoni had some harsh words about his team after their first scrimmage.

“Ragged, out of shape, but normal. A lot of enthusiasm, so they got tired, which was in about 45 seconds,” he said to the Houston Chronicle. “It was good in the sense it was the first day. We expect every day to get better. We didn’t do anything in the morning. And they know it. All the mistakes were by being tired. But a good start.”

Although D’Antoni seemed a bit mad at first about his team’s conditioning, he seems confident that they’ll be fit by the time the season starts.

The Rockets should be much more worried about their defense than about any conditioning problems that can be resolved in the next couple of months. They lost Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute over the summer, and their defensive contributions will be missed sorely.

James Harden, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony all have a lot to prove this season. They’ve all claimed to be championship-caliber players, but Harden is the only one who has ever reached the NBA Finals.

That wasn’t even as a starter by the way and he faded in the moment that the Oklahoma City Thunder needed him the most. NBA history would be quite different if the Thunder had succeeded in that series.

The Rockets, on the other hand, have a chance to rewrite their story this season. If they can improve their defense and stamina over the course of the year, then they’ll have a shooter’s chance of toppling the Warriors’ stranglehold on the Western Conference.