It is time once again for another episode of "Here We Go Again" where we will see the Houston Rockets once again be in the running for a playoff spot only to slip and fall at the end of the season. It has been the same story for the past three years--Houston would finish the season with an above .500 record only to miss the playoffs and have just a low lottery pick to look forward to. Fans in Houston should be one of the most apathetic in the NBA after seeing their home team continue to reach just so close but remain so far away. In fact, it has been as long as 1995 since the Houston Rockets looked like a true championship contender and since then, the Rockets have essentially floated between the lines of being average and mediocre. It's been close to twenty years since the Rockets gave their fans anything to really cheer about and it seems as if that trend looks to continue on once again.
The Rockets attempted to change their past misfortunes in the off-season by signing one of the NBA's sought after free agents and acquiring one of the rising stars in the league; however, as the season winds down to a close, it has been painfully apparent that Houston are no better now than they were last season or any other season for that matter. Although James Harden currently ranks among the top leaders in the league in scoring averaging close to 27.0 points per game, his field goal percentage is rather unimpressive at just a shade under .450. Such a mediocre field goal percentage just proves that his production comes primarily from dominating the ball more than actually finding enough quality shots thus giving him a reputation of being a "chucker." Jeremy Lin, who the Rockets had to pay an added a final season of 15$ million to scare the New York Knicks away from matching their offer has been far from impressive to say the least. Thus far, Lin's performance has been average at best and certainly has yet to prove that he is deserving of such a massive investment by the Rockets top brass.
Lin certainly has not shown that he is an upgrade from the Rockets' two previous starting point guards last season and that is pretty disheartening for Rockets fans considering what their team had given up in order to bring Jeremy Lin to Houston in the first place. Last season's starter
Kyle Lowry, was second on the team in scoring along with ranking among the top rebounding point guard in the NBA and he was given away for virtually nothing. The Rockets sent Lowry to the
Toronto Raptors for a lottery protected first round pick once over the next five years along with the essentially dead weight contract of swingman Gary Forbes, who the team ended up waiving once the season started.
Goran Dragic, the player who took over the starting point guard spot during mid season and averaged 15 points and 8 assists per game while starting, was simply allowed to leave in free agency to the
Phoenix Suns. Taking a glance at their number, it is blatantly apparent how both Lowry and Dragic have outperformed Lin by a wide margin making Houston fans grumble even more as they watch Lin's rather less than unspectacular play.
As a team, the Rockets have not had their opponents quaking in their boots with the team's rather porous defense which allows a league high 104 points per game and close to .460 shooting from the field. The Rockets also rank dead last in the league in turnovers per game, again giving Houston fans more reason to despise Jeremy Lin because he's usually the cause of those turnovers, along with having the third worst assist to turnover ratio in the league as well. With such a poor effort and performance on the defensive end along with the sheer inability to hold onto the ball on the offensive end, it is all but inevitable that the Rockets will once again return to the lottery only to be called for the lowest pick amongst the teams in the lottery. They might as just as well tank the season and increase their chances to acquire the number one overall pick in the NBA draft because as it stands now, the team will continue to go nowhere fast. Even if they do manage to somehow hold on to make the playoffs, the Rockets will eventually get swept by either the
San Antonio Spurs or
Oklahoma City Thunder--depending on who they might face--leading to yet another disappointing finish and nothing more than an overwhelmingly low first round draft pick to show for it.
Right now, it looks as if the Rockets have a comfortable lead for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but that can soon change with only a little over a month left in the regular season. With the
Los Angeles Lakers and
Dallas Mavericks closely nipping at their heels and given the Rockets' past history over the last three years, it does not look good for Houston. To even maintain their current standing, the Rockets will near perfect basketball to finish the season and that can be considered quite a stretch considering they have been a far from perfect team. Granted, they have been known to light up a scoreboard with their extremely efficient high octane offense; however, all of that effort goes for naught as they cannot prevent their opponent from doing the exact same thing. Many will find this piece rather nasty and cruel; however, looking back at Houston history not being able to pass the first round of the playoffs in more than a decade, such a negative perception is more than justifiable. It is almost comical to watch Houston play each and every season as they have been an ongoing tragic joke of trying so hard in regular season only to come up short each and every time--expect this season to be no different.
