5 New Year's Resolutions for the Houston Rockets

When the calendar flips, it gives us all a chance to make New Year’s resolutions—even basketball teams.

The 22-9 Houston Rockets are off to a better start than anticipated and have established themselves as legitimate contenders for the NBA championship. Yet, there is still room for improvement.

If they can resolve to progress in these five areas, the Rockets will increase their chances of bringing back the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time since the 1994-95 season.

The resolutions are listed here in order of importance based on my subjective evaluation of how essential each one factors in the Rockets’ remaining season.  

5. Be Neighborly

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The Rockets’ immediate concern is the addition of three new rotation players in the month of December. Josh Smith was signed as a free agent on Christmas Eve after being waived by the Detroit Pistons. Corey Brewer and Alexey Shved were acquired in a three-team trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 19.  

Joey Dorsey is also going to see an uptick in minutes after Tarik Black was waived and picked up by the Los Angeles Lakers.

With so many new kids on the block, everyone is going to have to be neighborly. It’s going to take a little time for players to adapt to the defense and pick up one another’s tendencies on offense. While the team is significantly improved by the additions, the short-term loss in chemistry could cost Houston games.

Rockets coach Kevin McHale told Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle about Smith’s introduction:

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It really hasn’t been fair to Josh. We just threw him out there, not a lot of practice. I feel bad for him. He is trying but he is not too comfortable and when you aren’t too comfortable, you think too much. He is a very instinctive player. He has to play with his eyes, not his brain. Your eyes just let you make plays and your brain slows you down.

"

A lot of that will depend on what happens in practice. According to Creech, just one practice helped:

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With a tight schedule that included a back-to-back on the road just after he joined the team, they hadn’t had much time to practice. On Tuesday, though, the team went for a solid two hours and it was an intense one.

Smith said it was like a crash course in the Rockets schemes and spacing. The practice made him feel better already about his current role with a new team.

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Practices will make the difference in how long it takes for chemistry to develop, and that’s where the older kids need to help the new kids feel welcome. It will be as important for the former to adjust to the latter as it will be for the fresh acquisitions to learn the system.

4. Be Patient and Wise

Brandon Dill/Associated Press

The Rockets can be a little too eager at times when throwing up shots from distance.

According to NBA.com/Stats, they have attempted 204 threes within the first six seconds of the shot clock so far this season, making 64 of those—a rate of 31.4 percent. By comparison, they made 209 of their 570 attempts (36.7 percent) when there were between seven and 18 seconds left on the shot clock.

That’s a sizable five percentage point difference on threes when the Rockets exercise a little patience and let the attempts come in the flow of the offense rather than gunning them off as soon as they get a chance.

If the middle is open in transition, the Rockets should be more than happy to take it inside. They make 58.2 percent of their two-point shots in the first six ticks of the shot clock as opposed to just 47.2 when there’s less time.

That’s the difference between 116.4 points per 100 possessions going inside early and just 91.8 when they kick out for the three. The Rockets need to resolve to be wise as well as patient and take the easy two over the greedy three.

3. Make the Most of 2nd Chances

Brandon Dill/Associated Press

Life is full of second chances, but if you don’t make the most of them, they might as well not exist. And the Rockets have been one of the worst in the league at doing that, even though they’ve been one of the best at getting more opportunities.

The Rockets lead the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage, snaring 28.5 percent of their own misses. Yet, they are only 15th in second-chance points.

Donatas Motiejunas, who leads the team in offensive rebounds with 59, has only five field goals as a result of putbacks or tip-ins.  Black, who is still second at 58, turned only eight of his retrievals into buckets.

Even Howard, who is a far more elite scorer inside, is not making the most of his second-chance opportunities. He’s grabbed 53 offensive rebounds but has converted just 17 of those.

If the Rockets want to maximize their second-chance opportunities, they’re going to have to be more aggressive in going back up with the ball instead of settling for tip-outs to reset the offense.

2. Be Generous

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There are two types of presents people give and receive: the kinds which are used and the kinds which are regifted. The etiquette of the latter is considered bad, but whose fault is it? If the original gifter had done a better job in knowing what the receiver wanted, perhaps the offense would never have taken place.

The Rockets are something of a regifting team, and that’s not a good thing.  

They pass the ball 315.3 times per game, but those passes lead to only 56.3 points. That means they’re scoring .164 points per pass. I looked at that compared to the rest of the league, and the Rockets are only 20th.

For the most part, the teams who are near the top in that category are elite offenses. Eleven of the league’s top-15 offenses—the Dallas Mavericks (.179), Toronto Raptors (.181), Los Angeles Clippers (.188), Golden State Warriors (.198), Phoenix Suns (.176), Cleveland Cavaliers (.176), Portland Trail Blazers (.186), New Orleans Pelicans (.183), Atlanta Hawks (.186) and Washington Wizards (.198)—are also in the top half of the league in points per pass.

Ergo, there is a strong correlation between an effective offense and turning your passes into points.

The Rockets are sharing the ball, but they’re doing too much regifting. Some of that is not getting passes to teammates in good position, and some of it is shooters not getting off good shots. And part is attributable to too much dependence on James Harden.

However, there’s reason to believe that this should improve with Dwight Howard now being healthy and the Rockets’ new acquisitions having more offensive talent. The early returns are positive, as Houston is averaging 21.6 assists over its last five games, which is 1.5 more than on the whole season.

1. Be Thrifty

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

While the Rockets want to be generous, they need to make sure they’re being generous to the right people. Chiefly, that means looking for guys who are wearing the same color uniforms, which isn’t something they’ve been good at.

The only team worse at taking care of the ball than the Rockets are the Philadelphia 76ers, and being better than the Sixers is hardly something to brag about. In fact, the Rockets are the only team in the bottom 10 in turnover ratio to own a winning record.

It should come as no surprise that donating possessions doesn’t correlate well with winning, and certainly Houston is going to have resolve to stop doing that if it wants to win in the playoffs.

To be fair, it’s an understandable problem. Per Basketball-Reference.com, they have put nine starting lineups on the court. That’s because of the plethora of injuries and midseason additions they’ve had to absorb. Turnovers, much like passing, can be influenced heavily by team chemistry, and chemistry only comes with playing together.

As the players adjust to their healthier and/or more talented teammates, things like this should be remedied. But it won’t just come magically. 

Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com.