Chris Paul thinks Rockets defense needs to go ‘back to drawing board’
By Dave Daniels
The Houston Rockets better get their house in order, because otherwise missing the playoffs might be a legitimate possibility.
The Houston Rockets are now 1-4, and if the season ended today they wouldn’t make the playoffs. That is shocking for a team that came one win away from the NBA Finals last year. Point guard Chris Paul thinks they have to change things drastically to turn the tide.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and figure out what’s going to be the best solution for this team,” he said after a 133-113 loss to the LA Clippers.
The Rockets, and GM Daryl Morey, in particular, tried to downplay the loss of Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute this offseason, but now we’re seeing what the new version of this team looks like. James Harden and Carmelo Anthony are both brilliant in their own ways offensively, but they are also turnstyles on defense.
That puts a lot of pressure on Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon to be perfect on that end every night, and the switching doesn’t work with this team. It doesn’t help that associate head coach Jeff Bzdelik, who designed last season’s defense, retired over the summer.
Harden and James Ennis are both out with hamstring issues, and we all saw why Paul had to miss time after his part in the brawl with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Houston has given up over 130 points twice this season, and they didn’t do that even once last year. They are allowing 114.7 points per 100 possessions, and it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Anthony becomes an elite defender. He is the main problem when it comes to switching on defense, because he’s too slow to guard swift plays and too apathetic to bang with bigs in the post.
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This will be a long season for the Rockets if they don’t get it together defensively, and CP3 will have to bring it after calling out his team in this way.