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Houston Rockets: Eric Gordon’s slow start a big reason for early struggles

By Princegodwin Onyia

OAKLAND, CA - MAY 26: Eric Gordon #10 of the Houston Rockets goes up for a shot against Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors during Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals at ORACLE Arena on May 26, 2018 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by John G. Mabanglo-Pool/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA - MAY 26: Eric Gordon #10 of the Houston Rockets goes up for a shot against Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors during Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals at ORACLE Arena on May 26, 2018 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by John G. Mabanglo-Pool/Getty Images) /
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The Houston Rockets have begun their 2018-19 campaign at a snail’s pace. Eric Gordon’s rough start is partially to blame for the team’s 1-5 start, here’s why.

The Houston Rockets have struggled so far this season. The defense and Carmelo Anthony have received most of the blame for the horrid start. However, Eric Gordon has not produced to his standards and it has hurt the Rockets tremendously.

So far this season the Rockets have not played one game at 100%. The Rockets started the season without Nene Hilario, Marquese Chriss, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Zhou Qi so, all of their bigs besides Clint Capela.

Then just two games in they lost Chris Paul to a suspension when Paul got into a late game fight with Rajon Rondo and Brandon Ingram after Rondo spit in Paul’s face. Right when he was slated to come back, James Harden and James Ennis both got hurt and we haven’t seen either of them since.

Must Read. Adding Gordon to a Butler deal would be well worth it. light

Even though the Houston Rockets have not been healthy so far this season, they are still one of the deepest teams in the league and, like last year, they should be able to beat teams with their smaller lineups.

One of the advantages the Rockets have had was Gordon possessing the ability to jump into the starting lineup and provide a scoring spark and playmaking. However, so far he has started off tremendously slow shooting 30% from the field and 23% from three-point range.

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His slow start has contributed to the Rockets struggles both offensively and defensively. I say this because Gordon has shot a lot and missed a lot. This obviously hurts the offense but since Eric shoots so many threes, however, this has also hurt the defense because it has caused the team to play a lot of fast break and transition defense.

The Houston Rockets have to play better defense but they also have to be more efficient on offense. Just like last year when the Rockets had a top 10 defense, it was in correlation to their highly efficient offense, which allowed the team to get back and play half court defense.

Now I am not blaming all of the teams offensive struggles on Gordon but he is currently one of the few players that can get to the lane, shoot, and pass. Gordon will need to be less of a high volume shooter and more of an aggressive playmaker until this team gets back to full strength again.

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Gordon’s play as a whole has to improve or it may just make it easier for the Rockets to include him in a trade to a team like the Timberwolves. Which, who knows, may allow the team to jump back up the NBA hierarchy. But, if he continues like this, Minnesota may not want him.

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