2 years in the Making: Rockets identity Change

It's April 2016, the Rockets have just come off a woeful season full of problems, the biggest ones were the disconnect between Dwight and Harden, coaching and defense. Dwight-Harden took care of itself by Dwight walking, so now it's Harden's team again. The coaching search has begun with JB Bickerstaff not being brought back. Names are thrown out there, lots of guys interviewed and there's a belief Silas could become the HC with Hollins for defense. Maybe Hollins as the head coach.

Fans are screaming for a return of JVG. Nothing can deter them from clamouring for JVG to get a chance at redemption. It seems like the perfect time too, with the Rockets needing structure and defense after years of McHale's clap-clap fighter harder coaching philosphy in which Harden and Dwight's talents were not maximised and he never got the respect of Harden. With the rumblings of the Warriors maybe grabbing Silas as an assistant, fans are just hoping it will be Silas along with Hollins. As long as it's not a name that put fear in Rockets' fans hearts: that of Mike '7 seconds or less' Antoni. There is just no D there.

June comes around and signs are pointing to Morey and the owner liking what D'Antoni was telling them. Leslie Alexander was known at the time for liking run and gun style offense and was once quoted saying "we are going to run for the next ten years". Silas seems to be off the table. JVG says he's not returning to coaching and has no interest in it with his comfortable job with ESPN. Hollins might be the Rockets last hope of going with defense. Then the news comes out: the Rockets sign Mike D'antoni to a 3 year deal.

What? The media are laughing at the Rockets, going with a coach who is not known for defense and Morey is roasted for not addressing the issue of defense and actually going with the antithesis, even though he signs a man credited for the Grizzlies defensive mindset in Bzdelik. Fans are torn, some love the move, but a lot are worried. Soon though, they accept it and just have to put their faith in Moreyball. There's no turning back, it's threes and lay-ups from now on. Morey being Morey, goes to work and comes through on his word and goes all in: signs Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson in the same weekend. Harden is signed to an extension and manages to get Nene on board too.

Fast forward to the end of the 2016-17 regular season and you see a team committed to D'Antoni, 2nd in offensive efficiency, the season a success with two Sixth Man of the Year candidates and actually MDA front runner for Coach of the Year. Harden is right up there with Westbrook for MVP and having one of his best seasons in his career. Morey all of a sudden looks like a genius. The post-season seems to be going well, Rockets beat the Spurs by just outgunning them. Then game 6 comes around vs. Spurs. Long story short: Harden and the team choke away a game at home with just no signs of being able to turn it around, since Harden was still not defending and MDA is what he is, an offensive genius with little care for defense.

The Rockets ended 18th in defensive efficiency so the 2017 off-season there's a lot of questions again despite Harden as a runner-up in MVP voting, Gordon winning Sixth Man of the Year and D'Antoni winning Coach of the Year. Many names are thrown out there and one in particular catches everybody's interest: Chris Paul. Just a few days after rumours coming out, it seems that CP3 is set on joining Harden and then splash: CP3 is officially a Rocket. Some fans are saying the Rockest gave up too much, nobody wanted to see the heart and soul of the team in Beverley leave, but it was a price they had to pay. It allowed Morey to make another big move and sign a junkyard dog in PJ Tucker to a 4 year $32 million deal. Then brings in Mbah a Moute on a minimum deal and it's starting to become clear: the Rockets are shifting their focus and surrounding Harden with defensive minded players.

The first game of the season comes around and the Rockets look great, all the questions of CP3 and Harden unable to be together on the court and make it work are answered and the new guys make an immediate impact on both offense and defense as the Rockets run away with a 122-121 victory of the champions. Little did they know, it was a statement win and it would not be necessarily the type of win they would get later on in the year when it matters the most. See, that game was more about offense than defense. Scoring 120+ points does not scream a defensive minded game. And it wasn't. CP3 got hurt too so the questions rose again of can Harden lead and what type of team are they going to be?

The first month the Rockets look great, top 5 on defense and a team to be reckoned with. Even without CP3, they are just storming out of the gate and Harden is putting everyone on notice with his gaudy numbers including a 56 point game with 13 assists to boot. December comes around and the Rockets are streaking, though defense slipping a little bit and just putting up crazy scoring numbers. They are breaking records left and right and when healthy, they just look amazing. January and February come around and trade rumours are starting to pop up, a lot of them surrounding Ryan Anderson. Once heavily coveted, he seemed to be the hurdle in getting that 3rd star in Carmelo Anthony and with the chance of a banana boat formation, i.e. Lebron jumping on the one with Harden & CP3 already on it, Ryan's contract has to be moved. It's that simple.

Ryan has been replaced in the starting line-up by PJ Tucker in the meantime, but no trade is made. Soon after the deadline passes and the season resumes, Ryan gets injured and it's clear: D'Antoni is rolling with Tucker. And boy is it paying off, the Rockets are in the midst of a streak as the starting line-up change happened and they manage to get it to 17 before losing 1 and then go on another winning streak of 11. In the last 30 games the Rockets keep 15 teams under a 100, something they managed 20 times over the first 52. The defense efficiency is pretty much the same, between 5th and 15th for the whole year, they clearly amp it up late in the year and it's partly to do with that change.

The Rockets finish the season 65-27 and are not particularly happy with how they end the season. They felt they could've played better, offensively that is since pre-all star the Rockets were 9th in defensive efficiency and 3rd post-all star break. In April the Rockets were bottom 5 in offensive efficiency and while a panther doesn't change it's stripes so D'Antoni and the team must have been worried about that side of the court. Though there was something different about this team. It was not just winning 65 games, the best record in the league, beating the champs 2-1 and setting all kinds of records. It was what they kept talking about and preaching, which was not offense, it was defense.

All year long the guys talked about their mentality on defense, feeding off of it to get going offensively, the reason why they signed CP3, Tucker and Mbah a Moute. The defensive growth of Capela as a shot changer, rim protector, defensive rebounder and overall intimidation were praised more so than his ability to finish lobs, by his teammates that is. The national media was still stuck on the narrative of a Rockets team that doesn't play defense, the guys on Inside the NBA kept saying they didn't believe the Rockets despite their record and effectiveness of CP3 and Harden together, could beat a team like the Warriors in the play-offs because you cannot just outshoot them, outrun them, get into a track-meet as you would lose. And they were right, you can't, you have to get stops and be able to slow things down.

The regular is 82 games and analysts get paid to comment and give their 'hot' take on what's happening around the league and within games. The stats are all there, analytics is a big part of what teams do now, but it's still a narrative that analytics is for nerds who don't know basketball. It's just like the narrative of Harden , who despite a heck of a season, clearly the MVP - and recognised as such - was still seen as a defensive liability who gets lost on back cuts and crossed over, even though it was Harden doing the crossing over. What the national media and maybe even Rockets fans failed to realise is how the Rockets did not just become a team who finished 6th in defensive efficiency, they also had completely changed their ways.

This was not a MDA 2007 Suns team with a 7 seconds or less offense. The Rockets had actually, gradually, started to slow the game down and it was reflected in their pace: 13th in the league. That's not a run-and-gun team. The eye test, which the likes of Barkley and other former players love to rave about, actually confirmed this, but somehow narratives are hard to break. Truth is, Rockets had been winning with defense, slowing the game down and actually even Harden committing to defense - something some fans thought they'd never see.
The Rockets got credit for a lot of things, individual praise for the growth by Capela though more so offensively, PJ Tucker's defense, CP3 and Harden on making it work on offense, but hardly did they mention the change to a defensive first team. Come on, a Mike D'Antoni team playing slow and playing defense. Let's be real. To be fair, the Rockets were putting up historic offensive numbers and almost finished with the best offensive rating in NBA history.

 

The play-offs started and actually didn't look good from a defense standpoint, most games were just about offense as the Rockets put up over a 100 points and by the end of the 1st round around 120 to finish off the Wolves in 5. This was a young team too and most felt like the series was done before it started and not many were impressed. The Rockets could've lost the first two games at home and actually only shot a better FG% than the Wolves in 1 game, the last one. Then the Jazz series comes around, against a great defensive team and the Rockets manage to get up around 110 every single game. Defense still not great, but they are winning and getting better shooting percentages as the Jazz in the last 3 games and also finish them off in 5. So far, it looked like most analysts were right and while the Rockets played solid defense, it wasn't great or seemed to define them as team. Clint Capela was amazing though as he managed to shut down KAT and then Gobert in the first two series.

Then finally it was time for the Rockets to show who they really are, against the mighty Warriors. A series he everyone had been waiting for since day 1. The #1 of this year against the clear #1 over the last 3 years. The first two games ended in blow-outs, something that looked great aesthetically and was all about offense, but did not really seem like play-off basketball. It was however in line with the narrative of the Rockets, they can score and try to beat the Warriors by going nuts from three - which they kind of did in Game 2 - but it didn't come in a game where the Warriors played at their highest level. In Game 1 it was the Warriors playing at a high level and in Game 2 it was the Rockets. Then Game 3 rolled around. The Rockets got punched in the mouth, the gut and finished with an uppercut Fatality that the national media would deem 'outstanding' and for the hell of it "toasty" too. The Rockets lost by 41, an embarrassment as you would ever witness one and Rockets fans thought that the 2005 Mavs rout or last year's Game 6 was rock bottom. Now this was it. No defense, no grit, no toughness, none of that. Where was this defense they had been talking about?

The Rockets seemed cool, D'Antoni said the pressure was on the Warriors and everyone kind of laughed at him and the national media thought they were done. They won't win another game, they are soft as MDA himself called them - which Harden agreed with - and it was on to Game 4. The first few minutes, all the analysts again were proven right as the Rockets just couldn't buy a basket nor stop the Warriors from scoring as they ran out to a 12-0 lead. Everyone thought this was it, the Rockets have given up and will get steamrolled, but that didn't happen. The Rockets kept fighting, Harden leading in the 2nd quarter to even get the Rockets to a half-time lead. Nobody on the Warriors side was worried though, because here comes the 3rd quarter that Curry in particular loves. . And just like expected, Curry comes out red hot, splashing 3 threes in about a minute or so and the Warriors win the quarter by 17. The Rockets did not seem too worried though. Mike'd up D'Antoni was "cool" and calmly said the Warriors made their little run and now it was time the Rockets would have of their own. Surely most people must have laughed at that even harder than the comments after game 3.

The 4th quarter started and something was different about this game. See, the Warriors had made their run but the score didn't resemble that. The Rockets were in striking distance, they just had to get some stops. What, this Rockets team, a D'Antoni team stopping the mighty Warriors from scoring after Curry did his little shimmy to let them know it was his bleeping house. Well, that house soon came tumbling down as Curry couldn't buy a basket. KD couldn't hit a darn thing. Klay was nowhere to be seen. Green was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Harden dunked on him earlier in the game as they couldn't get a single thing going. The Rockets scored, chipped away at that lead, down 9, down 6, down 5, down 7, down 4, down 2 and then all of a sudden CP3 finds himself in the corner. Shot clock down to about 5 seconds, only a few minutes left in the game. Looks like he's trapped. Somehow he managed to put his bowling shoes on and switched up on the Warriors and got the ball to Ariza who hit the 3 at the buzzer to have the Rockets up by 1.

They never looked back as they put on a performance nobody thought they were capable of. They held the Warriors to 12 points, just 3 field goals in the quarter, capped off by straight up shut down defense on the last possession - 0.5 seconds was meaningless. Ariza shut down Klay and put the clamps on him. So how did they do it. How was this possible? The nation was shocked. The narrative was all about what the Warriors did and didn't do, blaming injuries, complacency and shooting themselves in the foot. KD was the easy target as he is 7 foot, but almost everyone somehow overlooked what the Rockets did. They played amazing defense. Really, a Mike D'Antoni team won with defense, at the Oracle where the Warriors are 16-0? Stop lying! For those who watched the game, not just once, but twice it was obvious. So was it Ariza, Tucker, Luc Richard Mbaaaaaammoooottt...no it was a total team effort. So Harden played defense? Yes, he even shut down Curry and was draped all over him and even KD at times like a cheap suit.

So the predictions come and everyone is saying it's a fluke game, one in a million, they will never repeat this performance again since the Warriors will not shoot this poorly again and yada yada. Again refusing to acknowledge the obvious here: the Rockets won with defense, had been a great defensive team all year, as a team and invidually with Harden looking the best he's ever looked on defense. Game 5 rolls around and despite all the talk, the Warriors looked shook. Literally shook. Iso play after iso play, out of their comfort zone and just not looking like the Warriors of old. The Rockets are not particularly playing great offense either, but they are in the lead, why? Defense, toughness, grit, hustle. The Rockets are putting it on the Warriors and they seemed to have no answer. Harden and CP3 are struggling in the 1st half, tied 45 and not looking like themselves or are they. They haven't shot great in nearly 3 games now, but still look like they are in control. The 3rd quarter is coming, but this time it fails to deliver. Better yet, Curry and the Warriors fail to deliver. It's supposed to be their quarter, and they only win the quarter by a point.

As the rest of the game unfolds, you can see the Warriors are just not comfortable playing the way they are playing. KD is doing his thing, much like in Games 1 & 2, but not making his shots. He has not created for others all series long. It's not just him, Curry has not been great in the clutch, Klay is having a solid game but somehow they cannot get him a shot so it comes down to the wire. It's the Warriors worst nightmare as they come up with a chance to tie or put themselves up by 1. Cook gets a wide open three and it clanks. The Rockets have a chance to put the game away, but Ariza misses a FT. The Warriors are still in it. Curry gets the ball out of bounds and quickly passes to Green who wants to drive for the tie. He's been dunked on twice and it seems like it's affected him since he forgets to catch the ball cleanly before he goes and fumbles, stumbles and like always not ready to rumble as the Rockets win another close one by toughening it out.

Two straight games both teams failed to score a 100 points with the Rockets playing like they always have and the Warriors out of sorts as they pass less, are relying on iso way more and turning the ball over. Still believe after all of this that it's just the Warriors messing up or do the Rockets have something to do with it? As the Rockets go back to the Oracle up 3-2, with the Champions on the brink of elimination, maybe it is time to face up to reality: the Rockets have changed their identity, have won these last 2 with defense and are living up to their own words that it all starts on that end of the floor and the rest will take care of itself, eventually the narrative will too.

 

Basically a story version - though longer than intended - of the 2016 off-season until this very moment, how our team changed and who we are. Hope you guys will take your time and think it’s a nice and accurate tale of how it all came about.