Houston Rockets: Lack of production without Harden extremely concerning

The Houston Rockets have gotten off to an extremely slow start to the season. James Harden has been hurt for a lot of it but the lack of production without him is extremely concerning.

**Editor’s note — This piece was written prior to the Houston Rockets victory over the Brooklyn Nets Friday night. While some of the players looked a lot better carrying the load (Paul and Anthony), the questions remain the same. One game does not solve the issues and aside from Paul and Anthony the team was still wildly inefficient. So, please, read on.

The Houston Rockets took the Golden State Warriors to the seventh game of the Western Conference Finals. It was an extremely tight series that was a least partially dictated by injuries on both sides.

The Rockets let some of that team go in free agency either to do cost or just not wanting them back. They also retooled and brought in new guys to affect the defense and guys to come in and ensure the offense wouldn’t stall out.

Well, so far this season, the defense hasn’t been good at all allowing seemingly lesser teams to have their will on offense. But the offense, oh man the offense, the offense has been absolutely horrid. So much so that Mike D’Antoni has now gone on record saying that he simply “has no answers” to these issues.

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That is not a good place to be for a team that was in the top three for offense last year and was supposed to be even better on that end of the court this year. Only four teams are averaging fewer points per game than the Houston Rockets this year who sit at 105.8 per game. Of those four teams, only one, the Suns, allows more points per game than the Rockets’ 116.3.

I don’t care who you are, that is the exact opposite of a recipe for success. Now, before we get further I know the Rockets have only played six games. However, slow starts are tough to overcome, especially if they get drawn out.

The team obviously has to get things figured out on defense in order for this season to turn around. One of the ways this team has had a decent to good defense in recent years is because the offense has been so good. This team used to score efficiently and force the other teams to play to the Rockets strength which not many teams have been able to in the past.

One of the reasons this offense has been so inept this year is the fact that they haven’t been at full strength all year long for various reasons. Chris Paul was suspended for two games for his role in a fight with Lakers players. James Harden has been out for about a week now with a hamstring. He might return this weekend but the whole situation is still shrouded in doubt.

Harden is missed his third game last night, which is shocking because it’s seemed a lot longer. There is potential for him to play this weekend, which would be great, but the thing about hamstring injuries is they seem to linger for the rest of the year.

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That’s the most troublesome part as the Houston Rockets offense has been simply atrocious without Harden leading the way night in and night out. In the game when Harden went out and one of the games he missed the Rockets were held to 89 and 85 points, respectively. That just isn’t good.

These offensive woes without, and somewhat even with, Harden are extremely troublesome. This team added Carmelo Anthony and James Ennis, who has a nice three-point stroke, while still retaining Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon. It’s mind boggling how terrible this offense has been with all of these guys rotating on and off of the court.

Melo is currently shooting 37% from the field and 34% from three. Gordon is shooting 30% from the field and a staggeringly low 23% from three. Gerald Green and Michael Carter-Williams have also provided next to nothing on offense with 38% from the field and 29% from three and 37% from the field and 20% from three, respectively for those guys.

Harden his been up to his usual antics on offense when healthy but he can’t win games by himself. These numbers from the rest of the team are appalling for a team that should have contended for the best offense this season.

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The Rockets need to get things figured out quickly because if they don’t, this season may get out of hand quickly. Here’s to hoping the prospective return of Harden this weekend will be all the team needs to get back on track but the rest of these guys need to get it figured out.

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