Houston Rockets' Improvement Is All About Key Philosophy Shift
A lot is made of Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. Alternately viewed as an NBA genius and an overzealous pioneer who sometimes thinks himself—and his team—into corners, there's no shortage of opinions about him.
But the 2014-15 Rockets aren't so hard to analyze. They're just a good, old-fashioned basketball squad, with a rededicated focus on defense and chemistry—at least until the recent acquisition of Josh Smith, they have been. That's a prickly move that's still playing out.
Letting Chandler Parsons walk in restricted free agency, though, spoke volumes of Morey and the Rockets' direction. Especially since they brought in Trevor Ariza to replace him—a player who didn't fit into the run-and-gun madness of last season so much as he signaled a step away from it.
"The philosophical transformation is exciting," writes Red94's Rahat Huq. "Defense is something that you can rely upon. There isn't variance because it's under your own control. That bodes well for playoff success when the shots are not always falling."
Behind Ariza, Patrick Beverley and Dwight Howard's rim protection, Houston has become the second-most efficient defense in the league, giving up just 98.0 points per 100 possessions. A team that looked clueless and confused in terms of half-court execution is now one of the best in basketball at guarding the hoop. Their rotations have tightened, and their communication on the floor has become more visible.
Pace was a problem for the Rockets last year. Defenders overzealously hawked passing lanes, looking for more and more turnovers and the chance to run the floor. Often, this led to half-court breakdowns, and eventually to a sort of malaise on that end that was more than noticed in James Harden's play. Made into a defensive dunce through viral videos last year, Harden's effort and engagement has stepped up in 2014-15, and his team has followed suit.
And while the full-court obsession in Houston has slowed some—as the Rockets' pace has dropped from 98.8 possessions per game to 97.6—their fixation with shooting three-pointers hasn't. The smartest part of Morey’s analytics-driven vision remains intact, as Houston leads the league with 33.7 attempts per game from beyond the arc.
Perhaps most important of all, though, is the Rockets' appreciation of personalities and pecking orders. James Harden is an MVP candidate who's emerged as the clear alpha in the Rockets offense, with even Howard happily deferring to him as Ariza, Beverley and the rest allow The Beard to do the playmaking as he averages a career-high 6.5 assists per game.
Parsons and Jeremy Lin appeared at odds with their roles last season—both players are at their best with the ball in their hands, and their presence took away from what the Rockets really wanted to do: Give the hyper-creative Harden as many possessions to work with as possible.
New trade acquisition Corey Brewer, a forward from the Minnesota Timberwolves, seems pretty clear on what's expected of him with his fresh team. "I know my role when I got here," he told Jenny Dial Creech of Houston Chronicle. "I knew what they wanted, what they expected, so it has all been really clear." Such words might not have been uttered in last year's Rockets locker room, with its more nascent forms of identity and ideology.
The giant caveat to all of this positive change, of course, is the question of how Smith's arrival will change the Rockets' system. Houston has slipped a bit as it tries to integrate Smith into things, dropping four games since he debuted on December 26 against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Smith isn't the crazy athlete he used to be, but he still has talent that could easily translate into an even better defense in Houston, and he's been a terrific playmaker in the past. If he can become a secondary ball-handler who occasionally relieves Harden and plays within his role, Houston will be all the better for getting him.
But if the Rockets' slippage with Smith continues, it'll be fair to wonder whether Morey made one too many moves and took the lightning out of Houston's bottle as it fumbles away the rare, fleeting qualities of chemistry and playing with heightened sense of purpose.
Advanced statistics courtesy of ESPN and current as of Jan. 5.
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