Diagnosing the Rockets’ problem
Kevin Martin (photo. Kelly Turso)
Two things that will make me angry enough to twist my face into a Kendrick Perkins scowl and start launching Mike Tyson threats: Any Houston sports-related headline that reads, “Houston, we have a problem,” and any Seattle-related story headlined, “Sleepless in Seattle.”
Stop it. The Apollo 13 launch was in 1970, a.k.a. FORTY years ago. The Tom Hanks movie (not Apollo 13, but the other one set in my hometown) came out in 1993, a.k.a. when Ken Griffey Jr. and Shawn Kemp were in their primes. This is old stuff we’re dealing with. Really old. Neither headline is cute, funny, timely or even semi-creative anymore. Just stop it. Seriously. You know who you are. STOP.
I bring this up because, as I sat down to write this column about the recent problems afflicting the Houston Rockets, I debated whether I should include a note to my editor that if he titled it, “Houston, we have a problem,” I was going to make him bleed his own blood.
So anyway … yeah … Something is wrong with the Rockets.
One of the NBA’s feel-good overachieving stories for a good chunk of this season, the Rockets have gone 8-14 since the beginning of January and have fallen into 10th place in the Western Conference. For a team that wasn’t expected to do much in the first place, it’s hard to say the wheels are falling off — but there’s definitely been some air leakage in the tires that’s making for a bumpy ride.
But again, the Rockets were never supposed to have very far to fall. Going into the season having lost Yao Ming for the duration with foot surgery, Ron Artest to the Lakers in free agency, and Tracy McGrady for some indefinite amount of time with his various injuries, Houston was supposed to be somewhere between rebuilding and running through the motions, waiting for Yao to get back and 2010 free agency.
And yet, they managed to stay in the playoff picture with a patchwork crew of career role players, sixth men, and second-round draft picks. Aaron Brooks was getting All-Star talk. Carl Landry was nearly a lock for Sixth Man of the Year. Luis Scola was going bucket-for-bucket and board-for-board with the best big men in the League. Trevor Ariza was holding his own in his first year as a featured scorer. Chase Budinger was going to make one of the All-Rookie teams. Rick Adelman was a Coach of the Year favorite. They had no real center, a couple of tiny point guards, wings who weren’t supposed to be able to shoot, and most importantly, no clearly defined go-to superstar.
For a while, it worked. The Rockets out-scrapped teams. They ran past them. They hit shots and locked up on D. Even when they lost, it was close. Then a little bit before All-Star break, Houston fell out of the playoff seeding. They were blown out by 33 points in Miami in the last game before the break, and in the four games after the break, dropped three of them (Utah, Indiana, New Orleans) thanks to late-game collapses typical of young teams with leadership issues.
Aaron Brooks
In each of those games, the Rockets were in position to win late in the fourth quarter before their offense suddenly went south and the defense had its mismatches exposed. Against the Pacers and Hornets, Brooks in particular got carved up by T.J. Ford and Darren Collison down the stretch, while nobody was able to put the Rockets on their back and finish a winnable game.
“We learned on the fly,” Ariza told the Houston Chronicle after last night’s loss in New Orleans. “You can say that. But we have to figure out ways to close out games. When we make runs, we have to figure out how to make the run that will put us over the top.”
All of a sudden, the problems we assumed would plague Houston at the beginning of the season are surfacing now. Landry was their only reliable “Give me the rock and I’ll produce a bucket” low-post scorers (he’s actually among the NBA’s top fourth-quarter scorers), and he’s gone. Their shooters are more streaky shooters than pure shooters, and now the streaks have run cold.
Perhaps Kevin Martin — picked up in a deadline trade essentially for T-Mac and Landry — will be able to turn it around. He’s averaging 13.5 points on 28 percent shooting (8-for-28) from the field in his two games with Houston, but his offense will come around. Martin’s fluid style easily blends into what the Rockets want to do, and with Brooks, he’s another scorer who can create his own shot, get to the line, or spot up and hit threes.
With Martin and Brooks in the backcourt, Ariza and Shane Battier on the wings, and (presumably) a healthy Yao in the middle, the Rockets will be strong next season — even stronger if they can afford to re-sign Scola and/or Kyle Lowry, and rookies Budinger, David Andersen and Jordan Hill become solid players.
But that’s next year. Even if you see the rest of this year as an experiment for the Rockets, the playoffs are not out of the picture. For whatever reason, they’ve lost whatever it was they had earlier in the season that kept them in the running with the League’s elite squads.
Adelman succinctly put it best after the Hornets game: “I’m trying to figure this out. I really am.”
Do you think the Rockets can bounce back and make the playoffs this year?
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February 22nd, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Kermit The Washington says:
Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. NOBODY
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
boomshakalaka says:
maybe, maybe not
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:17 pm
DonJuan says:
Where can I find the 4th qtr scoring stats? I keep reading about it, but can never find that information…
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:18 pm
nola says:
ah also any scandal that people dub as scandal-gate. so i completely hear ya
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Gnasche says:
But if you would have titled it “Road to Perdition”, everyone would have praised your eloquence.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:22 pm
rangerjohn says:
they lost even more of what they had when they gave up landry. while morey gets a lot of credit, he is an idiot to send landry. landry WAS the rockets bench, lowry is part of it, and he has missed some time but landry will surely be missed. martin needs to start and ariza needs to sit but neither of those guys give what landry gave every night.
i would not be surprised to see scola sign elsewhere as he is gonna demand more money then the rockets think he is worth. for all the talk of jordan hill, i wonder when he is going to see some minutes, the rockets refused to make the deal unless he was included and yet nobody knows when he will even play. david andersen is garbage IMO. chase on the other hand is right up there with blair as the 2 steals of the draft.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:29 pm
thewizard says:
@boomshakalaka…yoo for real thats my fantasy team name hahahahaha
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Name (required) says:
Wasn’t this bound to happen to them. Their early success was because they out-hustled, out-ran, and generally outworked their opponents, as the season goes on, fatigue sets in and they don’t have the energy to compensate for having less talent. It was nice while it lasted, but the reality is that they were overachieving.
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:52 pm
loons says:
I would like to add how every headline has “Super” in football. Can Indy be Super this year? The Pats no longer have that Super feeling. Does Brett Favre make the 49ers Super??????
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Gabriel Brogden says:
Shane Battier’s lack of O is coming to the forefront.
Their primary scorer is thie mainball handler.
They don’t play a full 48.
Maybe they are fatigued.
It says here that Kevin Martin will change that.
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:58 pm
SaggyWheels says:
@10 Pretty sure its not saying that here, for sure.
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:23 pm
the cynic says:
this team is just worn down nothing more, just a bunch a guys who aren’t conditioned to carry such heavy loads over the course of a full season. This team is going to be a lot better next season, with a full off-season they will be better prepared
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:45 pm
QQ says:
First of all, gotta give tprops for doing what they did. Look at the teams like the Wiz at the start of the season, and if only they have the Rocket’s heart, we’re talking top 5 in the East.
Bout the problems:
Kevin Martin should play within the offense. ‘Martin’s fluid style easily blends into what the Rockets want to do’? Really? Cause when I saw him at Indy, he shot like he’s still in Sac where he’s the Man. He wasn’t playing within the system. If you’re a midrange shooter and essentially nothing else(sorry KMart fans, but yall know that’s true), you PLAY within the offense. Just ask Rip Hamilton.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 am
POPPI GEE says:
smh as good as you can try to spin it right now the Rockets are a mid grade team that will not likely make the playoffs this year and if current trends keep going as they are , they will be left out the loop next year as well.
to many if’s in this package. Until they get a clear cut go to guy and someone who can stay injury free and give 25 to 35 points a night then they might be scrappy but that ain’t gonna win it all. And winning it all is the main purpose right?
Hopefully they can get Bosh and then you really working with an official squad. Again that is an if.
You might not want to read it or say it and I hate to see it, but the problem for Houston is there.
At least T-Mac is free.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:56 am
bakedbeing says:
Christ, Austin. You want to rant about weak writing (cliches) and then post an article entitled “Diagnosing the Rockets’ problem” with no real diagnosis.
You could have replaced this entire go-nowhere article (tho the anti-cliche rant was entertaining) with one sentence:
Over the space of half a season the suprising Rockets were inevitably scouted and countered by teams with superior talent.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:59 am
Austin Burton says:
DIAGNOSIS: The art or act of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms.
* “…the Rockets were in position to win late in the fourth quarter before their offense suddenly went south and the defense had its mismatches exposed. Against the Pacers and Hornets, Brooks in particular got carved up by T.J. Ford and Darren Collison down the stretch, while nobody was able to put the Rockets on their back and finish a winnable game.”
* “…the problems we assumed would plague Houston at the beginning of the season are surfacing now. Landry was their only reliable “Give me the rock and I’ll produce a bucket” low-post scorers (he’s actually among the NBA’s top fourth-quarter scorers), and he’s gone. Their shooters are more streaky shooters than pure shooters, and now the streaks have run cold.”
There’s your diagnosis. If you were looking for a SOLUTION or a REMEDY, then no, I didn’t provide one.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:58 am
Coop says:
Haha burn!
T othe dude who asked for 4th Q stats and the like, try 82games.com or hoopsstats.
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:15 am
bakedbeing says:
Yah except the problem you set up to address in the article is the Rockets’ dropoff right? As you say going 8-14 since January. What you diagnose is their team weakness, without offering a diagnosis for their dropoff, for the end of their over-achieving, for the change in results.
Landry’s departure isn’t an answer, because he was there for most of the dropoff. Their defensive and offensive problems were also there before the dropoff.
Get as pompous and high school as you want with dictionary definitions, but it looks to me like you just asked an expanded question without ever getting to the final answer of why their problems are emerging only now, beyond “whatever”.
“For whatever reason, they’ve lost whatever it was they had earlier in the season that kept them in the running with the League’s elite squads.”
Give the scouts and opposing coaches their credit, teams just did their homework.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:57 am
SWAT says:
@ baked-the coach of the squad cant even give a clear answer as to whts going on. fatigue, opposing coaches doing their work or just missing shots-there is not just one answer. dont you think tht if austin could see exactly wht the problem is with the squad so could adelman. there is not just one thing wrong rt now-bottom line
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:12 am
showydisplay says:
I agree with rangerjohn. David Anderson by far is the sorriest player in the league this year. When he is on the court he looks totally discombobulated and lost in the system. He shoots ok SOMETIMES and gets beasted in the post and has no POST GAME what so ever! I cant believe he gets burn!?!?!?!
I would like to see them play JHill and H Armstrong more and I think either one of them should start at center (maybe Jared Jeffries too) over C Hayes and D Anderson needs to be sent to the D League or abolished from the league.
Overall this is all Rick Adelman’s fault. There is no patience in this league and when you make the moves that they have made you should be able to produce fairly quickly. He’s not even trying to incorporate the new players…maybe that will change….WE WILL SEE..
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 am
Mike says:
They’re missing Landry already
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:39 pm
hero says:
showydisplay says
I agree with rangerjohn. David Anderson by far is the sorriest player in the league this year. When he is on the court he looks totally discombobulated and lost in the system. He shoots ok SOMETIMES and gets beasted in the post and has no POST GAME what so ever! I cant believe he gets burn!?!?!?!
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If you watch games, Andersen is actually quite impressive. A 43% FG is good for any team and his ability to open the floor with his long range shots allows the guards to drive in without a defending bigman clogging up the paint. And if you knew anything about European hoops, the finesse of the post game is their bread and butter. Andersen has pretty effective post moves and knows how to change it up well using his left hand hook shot. You don’t see this as often because of the afformentioned ability to open the floor by vacating the paint for the guards to attack. You also have no clue about basketball if you believe the Chuck-wagon has no right to be a center. Sure he gives up alot, but there isn’t a center out there that works as hard and smart as Chuck. He may not get blocks but he knocks the ball loose before a player can bring it up. He is also quick enough to keep up with guards and SF, just ask Durant and Granger how Chuck can steal their lunch money. In the NBA I can’t see Hill being a 1-up defender, he would better suited being a blind-side blocker like Tyrus Thomas but I don’t see Hill starting over Scola anytime soon.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:39 am
showydisplay says:
@ u HERO…
Uhh no! You obviously know nothing about basketball or watch any Rockets games. Tell me when David Anderson is hitting these shots you speak of or when he is using this finesse to his advantage in games? You obviously are just a fan of him and Chuck because you obviously are blind to there lack of skill sets. “Sure he gives up alot” Duhhhh! You said it right there! Yeah he can be a center all day if he wants to but will that equate to a successful season for the Rockets this year…NO! We need the size and athleticism to finish at the rim and to defend taller players which either are doing a good job of so far. Listen to yourself, “He may not get blocks but he knocks the ball loose”…??? He is a center shouldnt he be getting blocks? Did he stop Granger or Durant from beating the Rockets….NO! Who said anything about ANY Rocket starting over Scola at the PF? Not me bro, please think before you type homie. It should be ZERO instead of hero.
February 24th, 2010 at 11:01 am
showydisplay says:
@ hero –
Oh by the way, if anything Chuck Hayes should be a career backup not a starter in this league.