Rockets Rumors: Offense-Defense Debate Has Been 'A Point of Early Frustration'
The lack of attention devoted to the defensive end of the court "has been a point of early frustration" among Houston Rockets players, according to The Athletic's Sam Amick.
Houston has allowed 121.8 points per game through its first eight contests of 2019-20, the second-highest total in the NBA.
Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni has always been known to place more of an emphasis on offense and essentially ignore defense. His high-powered offensive scheme helped Steve Nash win a pair of NBA MVP awards, with James Harden also adding one to his resume.
D'Antoni's "six seconds or less" approach figures to generate a healthy number of possessions on offense. It does, however, also give opposing teams a chance to light up the scoreboard.
Houston has yet to hold a team below 100 points in any of its first eight games, and it has held a team to fewer than 112 points only once. To best exemplify D'Antoni's coaching style, the Rockets allowed the Washington Wizards to put up 158 points in regulation on Oct. 30...and won.
Houston has the third-worst defensive rating (113.1) in the league thus far.
Though he acknowledged the results haven't been great so far, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey recently told Kelly Iko of The Athletic that he believes his team can improve defensively:
"We're going to be a good defensive team. Obviously there's been, you know, some things that don't look good so far. But I have a lot of confidence that we're going to be one of the top-10 defensive teams by the end of the year. That's going to be us tightening things up. That's going to be the mix of players we play, and how we play them. That's going to be whatever we need to do to be a top-10 team. To be a championship-caliber team, you gotta be a top-10 defense."
Last season, Houston brought back Jeff Bzdelik—who initially joined the organization in 2016—to serve as the defensive coordinator following a rough start on that end of the court. Bzdelik, however, was let go in May and subsequently joined the New Orleans Pelicans' coaching staff.
D'Antoni's strategy has helped the Rockets go 178-76 since 2016-17, winning no fewer than 53 games in any of his first three seasons. Although an offensive-minded approach has helped him register a .558 winning percentage, it has not resulted in the same sort of success in the postseason. D'Antoni is .500 in the playoffs and has not led a team to the NBA Finals in any of his 15 previous seasons.
